Paper short abstract:

Using the Asantehemaa's court as a case study, and space where disputes such as land access and ritual related matters such as imprecations are resolved in accordance with Akan customary law, the paper explores the roles of Queenmothers in dispute resolution in Ghana.

Paper long abstract:

The discourse on chieftaincy in Ghana has over the years been examined from the male perspective therefore silencing female voice and the place of female traditional leaders. Likewise, the conflict studies literature is saddled with triggers of violent conflict and resolution strategies on post-conflict states. Subsequently, the United Nations is noted for peace architecture and a top-down approach to resolving disputes in conflict redden nations. This means that local peacebuilding efforts are likely to go unrecognised because of the 'perceived' minute contributions that they may seem to have within the larger peace architecture.

In this paper, I interrogate the indigenous ways of dealing with conflicts from a gendered perspective. The paper highlights the role of Akan Queenmothers in dispute resolution among the Asante of Ghana. By exploring the functionality of the Asantehemaa's court in Kumasi, using prolonged observation and interviews, I argue that Queenmothers provide a bottom-up approach to resolving disputes, contribute to community peace and shape the security and governance structure of their communities, and the country at large. Among the Akan, the Queenmother's court is a space where interpersonal, resource related disputes such as land access and ritual related matters such as imprecations are resolved in accordance with Akan customary law. This paper concludes that as legal pluralistic state, the position of queenmothers and the relevance of their customary court in providing justice to a populace that prefer customary dispute resolution mechanisms should not be overlooked but seen as complementing the state judicial system in Ghana.