Abstract

The paper is a critical review of Lawrence O. Bamikole’s paper, “Agba (elder) as Arbitrator: A Yoruba Socio-political Model for Conflict Resolution”. It challenges the fundamental assumptions of Bamikole’s paper as well as its central arguments as false interpretations, incongruent with the Yoruba worldview. Contra Bamikole, the paper argues that the capacity of the agba (elder) to manage conflict shrewdly in traditional Yoruba society was a combined function of the elder’s personality, proverbial communicative prowess, as well as an understanding of the social principles of conflict management in Yoruba culture.   Beyond Bamikole’s narrow conception of agba (elder) as arbitrative agents, the paper holistically explores the concept of agba (elder) as a vital complementary institution for conflict management in contemporary Africa.

Key words: Conflict, arbitration, conflict management, agba (elder), peace