Striking a balance between local capacities for peace and external intervention : the case of the Manjo in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

This thesis explores why culture should be considered a complementary tool to conflict transformation in the Kaffa society of Southern Ethiopia. The hypotheses upon which the thesis is based are that both local resources and external intervention alone have limited capacities to produce change in the highly polarized society of Kaffa, where the Manjo and the Kafecho groups have developed negative stereotypes of each other over the course of centuries. The collaboration between the locals' capacities to disengage from violence and external actors in conflict is suggested to be a promising, and so far unexplored, path to achieving the end of direct violence and changing the cultural elements that give reason to violence. Enemy images based on destructive narratives distort individuals' and groups' thinking by influencing negatively cognitive processes such as attention, memory and attribution. At the same time, the collaboration between local and external actors could help promote and sustain a counter culture of peace and peaceful coexistence.