NOTE:
Please note:
The bulk of this article is taken from the chapter 2 and the conclusion of my doctoral dissertation, with just a few amendments.
This work is sent out for peer review after which it is expected to be submitted for publication as a journal article.

Introduction

Peace studies developed through the activities of scholars and peace practitioners from the 1900s and became an academic study around the late 1950s (Alkana, 1984; Dungen & Wittner, 2003.; Harris et al., 1998). During its early stage, professional bodies emerged like the Committee on Psychology of War and Peace, and Peace Research Movement (between the First and Second World Wars) (Kelman, 1981). This is followed by many theories ranging from conflict resolution, non-violence and protests, civil disobedience, conflict transformation and the realist approach, mostly from the West (Barash & Webel, 2009; Barsky, 2014; Galtung, 2000, 2007; Sriram et al., 2010). More works are still ongoing to bring a lasting peace to human society. As peace research continues to advance, it keeps seeking innovative approaches for in-depth studies to ameliorate any identified deficiencies. While Harris et al. (1998) and Montiel (2006) argue for a multidisciplinary approach to research peace, Galtung suggests a trans-disciplinary approach for the study Galtung (2010). The contributions from different fields further enhanced the relevance of peace studies, both locally and internationally and have expanded to oil and gas industry, mining, arms struggle and peacemaking to mention but a few.
To this end, lately, Mulimbi and Dryden-Peterson suggest a need for a multi-culturalist approach across about 20 ethnic groups in Botswana (southern part of Africa), where an assimilation approach (around the dominant ethnic group, culture, and language) has been used in the education policies and curriculum to foster unity and avoid armed conflicts. While assimilation approach helped somewhat, the minority ethnic groups experienced low education benefits, meaning ‘negative peace’, to secure unity with dreadful structural problems in their minority group. A multi-culturalist approach could help better sustain the ‘condition of positive peace’ in the region, both scholars argued, (2018, pp. 142, 146).11The methodology they used involves examining the curriculum, the contents of teaching, cultural heritage, language, and social studies textbooks. Groves and others write on the United Nations peacekeepers’ failure to address the gender violence prevalent in the Timor-Leste new state (2009). Marriage (2006) discusses the multinational aid providers and NGOs22NGOs stands for Non-Governmental Organisations contributions to the economic hardship of the deprived people they were meant to help and a lukewarm attitude to investigating the agencies’ failures to reach out to the Sierra Leone interior, and poor support to Congo and South Sudan. Thus, providing solutions to conflict situations is yet an unfinished task.
According to Rodríguez-Martínez and Calvo, ‘All types of violence have their origins in inequalities that have become embedded in the customs and traditions of our culture and society […]’ (2014, p. 108). Thus, what must be considered as an acceptable peace culture should promote opportunity for the wholeness of being; that is: ‘development which ensures the maximum well-being of societies and which are fully consistent with the proposals of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Human Rights’ (ibid , p. 108). The idea of a peace culture in relation to sustainable peace, not necessarily as an aftermath of a war should be considered to further peace initiatives.
Religions are being made part of the debate. Peace studies in association with religion have become inevitable and a religious approach to peace research has begun to expand. Scholars in religion have made contributions with the rise in terrorism, violent propaganda, and heavy losses to human life and property, (Abu-Nimer, 2001, 2008; Paden, 2006). Abu-Nimer focuses on peace in Islam and interreligious conflict resolution, dialogue and peacebuilding. Azumah (2012) and Huff (2004) write on Christian-Muslim relations and dialogue while Griggs (2013) writes on Christian-Muslim relations with a focus on religious polemics and dialogue. Montiel and Macapagal (2006) researched Christian-Muslim relations in Marawi in the Philippines. Research on religions such as these has the potential to serve a purpose in peace and conflict studies. These are part of the areas of multidisciplinary study the earlier researchers have suggested.

The Problematic of the paper/Focus!

The goal of the peace and conflict research pioneers, according to Galtung was ‘to draft a research program[me] in the field of peace studies’ (1985, p. 141), suggesting a need to achieve peace, which involves the wholeness of life otherwise called positive peace. The peace must ensure a violence free life, be it physical, psychological, economical, and structural. Many communities have been identified as peaceful societies (PS) across the globe but with no examples from West Africa. However, the Yorùbá of southwest Nigeria have been identified by a group of scholars (AKINADE, 1996; Akinjogbin, 1966; Lateju, 2012) as being peaceful, although not yet included among the PS in a wider peace and conflict studies.
This study wants to find out to what extent could the Yorùbá’s peacefulness be generalized, over-simplified or be recognized by scholars in peace and anthropological studies as an example of PS? In this paper, the author examines the Yorùbá of two different religions (Islam and Christianity), and how they manage their inter-religious crises and able to retain their peace within their Yorùbá religion and host culture. What contributions could the Yorùbá studies, therefore, bring to the idea of peacefulness in human societies?

Relevant Studies among the Yorùbá

The author is aware of a recent study among the Yorùbá called, ‘Knowing Each Other’ (KEO) with several surveys in Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo States (Nolte et al., 2016). KEO’s survey discovered the slow growth of Christianity in southwest Nigeria Yorùbáland (ibid , p. 542), yet there is much work to be done in this region to examine and understand how the Yorùbá handle or manage conflicts and retain their peace.
KEO had surveyed Osun (Irewole, Ede North and Ede South), Ọ̀yọ́ (Ibadan North) and the Kwara States (Offa), while the author used different locations within Ọ̀yọ́, Osun and Kwara States, namely Ògbóm̀ọṣọ́, Ibadan (a radio station); Sẹ̀pẹ̀tẹ̀rí in Ọ̀yọ́; Ilorin in Kwara; and Ejigbo, Iwo and Ila-Orangun in Osun (states). While the author recognizes KEO’s landmark and extensive survey, this study dwells on the qualitative method and use of thick description to obtain its findings with a focus on peacefulness.

Methodology

This study involves 27 participants in electronic qualitative surveys, 72 in three FG discussions sites and 27 interviews. This inquiry was conducted among the Yorùbá people of southwest Nigeria. It focuses peacefulness among the people that is how the Yorùbá manage their disputes and conflicts whilst sustaining the peace using an in-depth study of the data to build a theory in peace and conflict studies.
Having provided a brief origin of peace and conflict studies in the West, and the emerging research interests in a few other places, the following section contains a brief history of conflicts in Nigeria context to situate the Yorùbá in peace discourse.

1. Conflicts in Nigeria

There have been repeated occurrences of violent conflicts in Nigeria since its independence in 1960. These are often attributed to politics, economic/poverty, ethnicity, religion, or a combination of these factors (Adamolekun, 2013; Adele & Oloruntele, 2001; Alabi, 2002; Alemika & Chukwuma, 2000; Lyons & Reinermann, 2003). Osaghae and Suberu suggest some ethnoreligious conflicts where many lives lost and properties destroyed in northern Nigeria from 1987 to 2000, (2005, p. 19). Adegoke (2012), Ibrahim (1991), and Mu’azzam and Ibrahim (2000) describe various episodes of ethnoreligious violence in Nigeria; mainly in northern Nigeria, while the latter mention the Kafanchan crisis as an example. Sodipo (2013) considers Boko Haram exploiting the situation for their insurgency, also in the north.
The intra-religious conflicts, according to Osaghae and Suberu, are the Maitatsine and the Quadriyya and Tijanniyya conflicts among Muslims in the north (2005). The author is aware of intra-religious disputes in southwestern Nigeria among Christians that did not result in physical violence but ended in division and the establishment of another worship centre as in the case of Ọjà Ọba Baptist Church emerging from Ìjẹ́rù Baptist Church Ògbóm̀ọṣọ́. Meaning that conflict as used in this study focuses the one with potential to result in physical injuries, threat to life, and destruction of life and properties.
Furthermore, the inter-group conflicts were predominant among the Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in the middle-belt, southwest, and southern Nigeria, while the Niger Delta militancy against the government is found in the southern oil fields (ibid 2005, p. 20). The Ogoniland and the rest southern oil rich minority’s conflicts are examples of ethno-economic conflict tantamount to economic violence, (Nbete, 2012; Osaghae, 1995), in connection with the Nigeria State. Ethnic-related violence in Nigeria as described by Osaghae and Suberu is found in both northern and southern Nigeria and among the major ethnic and minority groups. However, to Sklar, the complexity of some of the conflicts in Nigeria is difficult to figure out as they ‘masked a more complex struggle between interests that were non-ethnic in nature’ (2004, p. xiii). Equally, most conflicts generated communally often had impacts on national politics, leading the way to ethno-political crises and conflicts, (Ibrahim, 1991).
Osaghae and Suberu cited the Ifẹ̀-Modákẹ́kẹ́ conflict among the Yorùbá, and an intra-ethnic (non-religious) conflict among the Aguleri and Umuleri in Anambra Igbo-land southern Nigeria (2005, p. 20). The Ifẹ̀-Modákẹ́kẹ́ conflict among the Yorùbá implies the Yorùbá were not immune to conflicts. Nonetheless, they settled this eventually without the national or international military intervention. A well identified conflict among the Yorùbá is land related disputes, which they do settle by their local chiefs from time to time. On the other hand, there are police and media reports of cases of occultic violent practices among the Yorùbá like the ritual killing of people (Agency-Report, 2020; BBC-News, 2014). Such violence is not accepted by the larger community but considered a deviant from the acceptable ọmọlúàbí societal norm.
On religious grounds, Shari’ah implementation in Nigeria is an area of focus in peace talks. Shari’ah is the Islamic law followed by Muslims, comprising of the Quran, the Hadith or sunna(the saying – sunna quoliyyah and deed – sunnah filiyyahof the Prophet of Islam), while the secondary sources of Shari’ahare Ijma’ (the consensus of Muslim scholars of Ijtihad rank), Qiyas (analogy) and Istishab (legal presumption) (Oba, 2002). Adegoke (2012) and Oba among others strongly advocate for the implementation of Shari’ah in Nigeria. While Adegoke argues for the implementation of Shariah , Akinade (2012) and Lateju (2012) consider the possibility of the Shariah becoming an infringement on non-Muslims’ rights. Ibrahim (1991) suggests the Shari’adebate was hijacked by national politicians against the wishes of the Muslims who advocated for it while Akinade describes the Shari’ahdebates in Nigeria as politically motivated, (Akinade, 2002). Whatever the purpose of the Shari’ah debate was, it has ended in conflicts in northern Nigeria through which many lives were lost but not so violent among the Yorùbá.

A case for southwest Nigeria Yorùbá peacefulness

So, how the Yorùbá community interact across religions to maintain harmony could be explored since the author’s focus is to seek how a peaceful community works to retain its serenity. Fabbro lists some criteria for assessing a community for its peacefulness as shown below:
‘1) The society has no wars fought on its territory;
2) The society is not involved in any external wars;
3) There are no civil wars or internal collective violence;
4) There is no standing military-police organization;
5) There is little or no inter-personal physical violence;
6) There is little or no structural violence;
7) The society has the capacity to undergo change peacefully; and,
8) There is opportunity for idiosyncratic development.’ (Fabbro, 1978, p. 67).
The Peaceful Societies – PS (Peaceful-Societies, 2019) do not necessarily meet all the criteria but must have displayed many on the list. While Fabbro critiqued Melko for using only the first criteria for his study of the Semai, Fabbro used only the first five in his work. This implies the study of PS is in continuation and scholars keep looking forward to more analysis and verifications in their research. Which of these criterial do the Yorùbá meet?
The author considers if the Yorùbá met the criterial 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 to be considered as a peaceful society, evaluating the Yorùbá’s peacefulness when placed by the PS criteria. The Yorùbá have not fought a collective war since the end of their civil war around the 1800s, signing their treaty in 1886 (Balogun, 1985; Law, 1991). A hundred years after a major war is recommended for a community to be reconsidered as peaceful if they retain their harmony (Melko et al., 1983). The Nigeria federal government control both the police and army, whist, recently, the southwest governors constituted a local Àmọ̀tẹ́kùn security unit to complement the efforts of the police in protecting their people (Agboluaje, 2020). In response to criterion 3, although the Yorùbá have not had internal collective wars on its territory since the 1800s, two towns, Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and Modákẹ́kẹ́ fought for some years in the 1990s which was resolved later without the involvement of the national or international military as mentioned earlier. Some communities had disputes over land and the leadership tussles, like chieftaincy selection but often settled their grievances locally.
Criteria 5 and 6 are areas that affect the Yorùbá most. It is a common knowledge that there are cases of physical conflicts like occasional fighting within homes, quarrel between spouses, violence of occultic practices reported to the police. Recently, a protest about the police brutality tagged ENDSARS movement turned violent at Lekki and other parts of Lagos, (Ramon, 2020). The speed of the protest and maturity with which the protesters delivered their messages was praised by many including the president of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), before some thugs, the State along with the military became involved to turn it violent (Afejuku, 2020; Editor, 2020). Another kind of physical violence observed among the Yorùbá is associated with national politics during their elections. These occur periodically during the political campaigns and at election time. Similarly, structural violence is common but when its cause is beyond the control of the individual, the community often meet to socialize and help one another to ameliorate the negative effects of such violence. Examples are the use of co-operative societies to cater for one another’s needs like giving loans for part payment of their children’s education cost, trading support and provision of social amenities in their communities.
Positive peace is difficult to attain globally, even in the current Nigeria situation, bearing in mind the contributions of the political actors and leaders to the structural violence among the people. However, where do we place a [West African] community that met some of the PS criteria, a people that seem to cope under structural violence and retain some level of harmony despite all odds?
Looking at the complex nature of Nigeria, it is not free of conflicts, however, religious-related conflicts with fully blown violence are less common among the Yorùbá as some scholars have testified in their literature (Goddard, 2001; Ibrahim, 1991; Laitin, 1986). This is not to exaggerate the Yorùbá’s peacefulness but to identify a reasonably harmonious sample to explore how they manage their concerns and often able to retain their peace. In the following section, I want to provide a survey of Yorùbá history covering from the last half of the 1800s onwards before peace studies emerged in the West, and prior to the Nigeria independence.

A Brief History of Yorùbá in the Nigerian Context

The Yorùbá are a large ethnic group with a distinctive language and culture that are found in southwest Nigeria, some other parts of West Africa, Cuba, and South America. While Falola & Heaton suggest Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and Benin33Edo people from Benin are known to originate from the Oba of Benin, one of the sons of Odùduwà, the Yorùbá’s progenitor. as central to the Yorùbá history before 1500 CE (2008), Eltis and Roberts add that the Yorùbá are also found in the Americas because of the movement to the New World during the slave trade (2004; 2004). Historically, the Yorùbáland included the Tsekiri people (Law, 1991, p. 5) and extended to the west in Dahomey (Law, 1991, p. 130) and to the east in Benin44Edo people of Nigeria are different from Dahomey which is in the Republic of Benin. (Law, 1991, pp. 4, 130). Other scholars support the idea of the extension westward to the Republic of Togo, Benin, Ghana, and some parts of Sierra Leone (Atanda, 1996, p. 4; Eltis, 2004, p. 232; Falola, 2006; Parrinder, 1947, p. 122).
Olupọna further suggests that the Yorùbá inhabiting southwest Nigeria, Togo and Benin are more than 30 million (Olupọna, 1993, p. 241), while Abiodun puts the figure at twenty-five million (Abiodun, 2001, p. 16). This figure probably represents the Yorùbá in Nigeria. By comparison with the figures of the World Population Review, the population of Nigeria in 2015 was an estimated 183.5 million. With a Yorùbá population 21% (2012), the 2015 southwest Nigerian Yorùbá population would be close to 37 million. However, the total figure for all people with a common historical and linguistic connection to Yorùbá ancestry is far higher and difficult to ascertain.
Parrinder (1959) earlier discussed the difficulties in obtaining accurate figures of religious population among the Yorùbá in southwest Nigeria. He argued that the researchers obtained their inaccurate figures from the interviews of the family heads, while churches that keep more correct records only focus the baptized members and those under religious instruction to be baptized. Likewise, Parrinder suggests the indigenous religious practitioners did not want to be counted as animists or pagan, which the researchers and government often put on their list for the census (1959, p. 133). The difficulty in getting accurate figures has not abated. Ogen lately noted the Akoko-Ikale people are grouped among the Edo-Benin but has maintained the Akoko-Ikale are among the Yorùbá mainstream (2007). This implies the figure the earlier researchers and/or commentators have provided were smaller than the population of the Yorùbá. In general, however, the southwest Nigeria region is home to the Yorùbá people and are one of the three widely spoken languages in Nigeria along with the Hausa and Igbo.
The idea of peacefulness began to come to limelight by late 19th and early 20th century to raise human dignity. The British abolished the slave trade and established other forms of trade around 1861 from their base in Lagos, the area later named Nigeria (Sklar, 2004, p. 16).55See Sklar 2004, p. 16 on the role of the King of Benin and the West in the slave trade. Slavery was brutal, a complete absence of positive peace. Peace studies began to take root in America and Europe during the twentieth century (Boulding, 1978; Kelman, 1981), and some states in West Africa began to struggle for self-determination and independence from colonialism. Around the same time in the 1900s, Nigeria was born as a nation (Coleman, 1958, 1960, p. 4), described as the amalgamation of the northern and southern areas of the Niger in 1914, headed by Lord Lugard (Adamolekun, 2013; Sklar, 2004, p. 18). By the mid-1900s, some eminent Nigerians began to form nationalist movements, calling for the independence of Nigeria and forming political parties, which ended in ethnic segregation. Sklar suggests that this started in 1946 (2004), Coleman claims it began in 1952 (1958, 1960), while Peel puts the events between 1945 and 1951 (2000, p. 966).66See Coleman 1958, 1960, p. 1 on the struggle for national identity and independence around 1920s in Asia and the Arab world, calling for independence from their ‘colonial status’. The identity of Nigeria as a nation, could have evolved over a period of time and was defined by ethnicity, culture, and language before independence (Falola, 1998; Falola & Heaton, 2008). Otite put the number of ethnic linguistic groups in Nigeria at a range of 200 to 250, while the dialects will even be more than this figure, (Otite, 1991, p. 16).
The Yorùbá identified here are located where human archaeological remains have been traced to around 900 BCE (Falola & Heaton, 2008). Yet, some hold that the Yorùbá journeyed from Egypt (Olupọna, 1993, p. 243) to the present location. Recent linguistic studies reveal that somewhere around the confluence of the River Niger and Benue is the original home of the Yorùbá before they migrated southwest to Ilé-Ifẹ̀ (Atanda, 1996). Thus, there are multiple sources of historical traditions of origin, archaeological and mythological discourses of the Yorùbá nation. Yet, Falola and Heaton suggest Ilé-Ifẹ̀ as the cultural, political, and religious locus, (Falola & Heaton, 2008, p. 24) while the Yorùbá often maintain their cultural practices and good interpersonal relationships as well outside Nigeria (Cole, 2004; Peel, 2003; Roberts, 2004).
Looking at Nigeria as a whole, Falola and Heaton (2008) describe the pre-colonial Nigeria as being significant, including ‘hundreds of ethnic groups’ living as neighbours ‘without boundaries’ (Falola & Heaton, 2008, p. 19) while religion was ‘integral to the state’ (Falola, 1998, pp. 1, 2). While I agree that religion is important to the Nigerian way of life, I must define ‘without boundaries’ in Falola and Heaton’s work as meaning without long-term boundaries. There were boundaries known as odi ìlú (town or city gate) and boundary disputes often resulted in inter- and intra-tribal wars. However, there were no cultural boundaries as the Yorùbá socialise together and give their youth out in marriage as a way of uniting themselves across their various dialectal settlements, villages, and towns. To ascertain dispute over land, Osaghae and Suberu’s work came to mind about the Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and Modákẹ́kẹ́ towns’ dispute which ended in a war last decade, (2005, p. 20).
In as much as works on PS have focused mostly agrarian societies, the author wants more variant communities be studied for peacefulness. According to Falola, the Yorùbá are among the best-educated Africans and include those whom Falola described as ‘prominent Yorùbá intelligentsia outside of the academy’ (1991, p. i). Olupọna (1993) and Abiodun, (2001) mention the Yorùbá as the most studied ethnic group in Africa as Olupọna reteirates the Yoruba’s developed ‘arts, music, religion and oral literature’, (1993, p. 241).
The Yorùbá were enthusiastic about literacy, translation, mathematics, and publications in their language, even in resistance to British colonial authority by winning the support of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) for their publications (Adetunji, 1999; Akinjogbin, 1996; Atanda, 1996). Ajiboye suggests that, although many languages including the Yorùbá have the additive and multiplicative methods, Yorùbá’s subtractive mechanism is a unique contribution to the numeral system (2016). What Abioye means is this: while eleven is calledmọ́kànlá , it literally means (10 and 1), méjìlá means (10 and 2). However, sixteen is called mẹ́rìndínlógún meaning 20 minus 4, and seventeen is mẹ́tàdínlógún (20 minus 3). This counting goes on to multiple of tens and multiple of hundreds.
With their wealth of history, enthusiasm, and exposure to the outside world, how have the Yorùbá kept their harmony or handled disputes over the years? The claim of good interpersonal relationships and tolerance mentioned by some scholars is taken further in this study as it sounds distinct from the religious violence often reported in northern Nigeria and other parts of the world. A study about the Yorùbá could offer a viewpoint about conflict management strategies among non-offensive valued cherished communities.

Yorùbáland compared with other Regions of Nigeria

There are published data on the global peace index, Nigerian mineral resources, population, and Nigerian policing that the author wants to engage with in this discourse. The sources speak on the Nigerian situation regarding peacefulness, violence, and their natural resources.

4.5.1 Nigerian Peace Index and Violence Levels

The Global Peace Index (GPI) ‘measures peacefulness across the domains of safety and security, ongoing conflict, and militarisation’ (Editorial, 2019). Nigeria ranks 148th out of the 163 countries in the GPI indicators in 2019. In the GPI where 5 is the worst score, Nigeria is rated worst – 5 in the perception of criminality, 5 in political terror, 4.4 in terrorism impact, 4.5 in death from internal conflict, 5 in internal conflicts fought, 4.6 in United Nations peacekeeping funding, 3.1 in external conflicts fought, 2 in militarization, 3.3 in Safety & Security, and 3.1 in domestic and international conflict, (Global-Peace-Index, n.d.). At least two points came up clearly here:
1. The militarization that has a score of two can rise higher in the coming years if the security situation continues as it is, and the citizens are presented with no options other than to defend themselves if they have the means.
2. Nigeria is not a peaceful nation when compared with many other countries globally. From the same source above (GPI), by comparison with another West African country, Senegal, although smaller in size and population was 58th while Nigeria ranks 148th out of the 163 countries on the list. Iceland in another continent has been the most peaceful country in the entire universe since 2008 followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark.
It has been observed, ‘[o]ver the last ten years, the average level of global peacefulness has deteriorated by 3.78%.’(Statistic-Times). A Newspaper editorial argues that many farmers stopped farming due to the fear of armed bandit attackers, (Editorial, 2019). The general situation of Nigeria security is alarming as it has begun to affect the local agricultural productivity when people fear going to farm in southwest and the north is affected by terrorism. Of recent, over forty fishermen were literally slaughtered in Borno State by Boko Haram terrorist group (Marama, 2020). The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reports, ‘7.1 million people in Nigeria need urgent, life-saving humanitarian assistance in 2019 and 6.2 million are targeted to receive aid […]’ (OCHA). Going by the intensity of the violence and instability in Nigeria, the situation does not seem to be abating as 1.8 million are internally displaced, (OCHA). The three Nigeria regions are subjected to kidnappers, while the south in addition has armed agitators for resources control.
The peace associated with the Yoruba by some academics is not absolute. The region also has experienced harrowing situations as kidnapping has been on the increase while some parts of the Ìbàdàn, Ifẹ̀, Oǹdó, and Èkìtì roads have become abductors’ hideout. The editorial suggests that Nigeria is being ranked amongst the failed states, (2019). Nigeria as a country, therefore, is far from being grouped among the global PS. However, can a local community that is working hard to keep the peace be enlisted as a PS? The author further examines the claim of a lack of resources the Yorùbá could fight to protect, hence have been relatively peaceful.

4.5.2 Southwest Nigeria Mineral Resources

The scholarly debate on violence and insecurity in Nigeria has a soft spot for the Yorùbá. They found some level of peacefulness and suggest a lack of mineral resources that the Nigeria Federal government can exploit as a reason for the absence of serious agitation and community generated violence among the Yorùbá. Such arguments do not go far as Yorùbáland has many natural resources. Going by the major mineral resources in Nigeria southwest, Ọ̀yọ́ State is listed as having ‘Aquamarine, cassiterite, clay, dolomite, gemstone, gold, kaolin, marble, silimonite, talc and tantalite’ (Government-Agency). The state also has tantalum, quartz, iron ore and laterite, (Oyo-State).
Some States including Èkìtì has extra in addition to the above list. Ògùn has Bitumen, Oǹdó – [bitumen, limestone & oil/gas etc.], and Ọ̀sun [Columbite, Gold, and etc] (Government-Agency). All the southwestern states have families raising livestock and growing both food and cash crops like yam, beans, soya-bean, kolanut, cocoa etc. (Osun-State). Arguments for a lack of mineral resources the Yorùbá can fight to protect cannot, therefore, be sustained. Yet, the reason why the federal government seems not to show interest in such minerals at present is unclear.

4.5.3 Structural Infrastructure and Related Violence

The infrastructural development that has slowed down for many decades in Nigeria is attributed to uncoordinated military and political leadership of the country, which has led to serious structural violence on its citizens. The world population review puts the percentage of people having access to clean water at 68.5% (Nigeria-Population, 2019) while the Federal Ministry of Water Resource put access to basic water at 67.9% in 2018 (Federal-Ministry, 2018). The first put the figure of those struggling to get clean drinking water at 31.5%, while the latter put it at 26.7% (which I think is more than that). However, the author agrees with the data that as much as 71% are struggling to have ‘improved sanitation’ (Nigeria-Population, 2019). Only about 42% have personal household sanitation not shared with non-residents or outsiders, 19.2% used safely managed sanitation services and 24.4% do not have toilet facilities but practise open defecation, and it is estimated that half of the Northern Central Nigeria zone practice open defecation, (Federal-Ministry, 2018, 2019; Obiezu, 2019).
There have been continuous agitations in the country on the need to increase the minimum wage from 18,000 naira (about £36) to 30,000 naira (about £60) a month (if the exchange rate is 500 naira per British pound). One can imagine the level of structural violence being imposed on the ordinary citizens as they struggle for basic life necessities like food, social amenities and good health for themselves and their families in such conditions. Thus, structural violence in Nigeria does not exclude the Yorùbá, but they often manage the situation to reduce its effects on their lives through social interaction, family connections and cooperative ventures.

4.5.4 Policing

Police records obtained from the Nigeria Crime Statistics on reported offences in 2017 shows a little lower level of crimes among the Yorùbá when compared with those in the north, but significantly lower when compared with the south/east. The author examines here, the level of violence recoded by the police in six states from southwest Nigeria [excluding Lagos],77I left out Lagos, because it has mixed cultural influence of both other Nigerians and non-nationals and may not truly represent the pristine Yorùbá culture just as Abuja capital city cannot truly represent the Gbagyi (Gwari), Hausa, and Fulani people. and six states from each of the other two regions, north and south/east Nigeria. The crime in Lagos state alone amounts to 37.85% of the national record, so, for a better examination of the crime distribution as reported within the regions, I dwelt on the selected eighteen (6 x 3) states below excluding Lagos, with reference to the National-Bureau-of-Statistics (2018):
Some states which are projected by the media as experiencing violence, arson, murder, retaliatory attacks, and displacement of people in the north such as Kaduna, Borno and Zamfara invariably have lower police crime reports documented, which poses the question of what reportable conflicts to the police are in Nigeria.
Regardless, the cumulative records for each six selected states among the Yorùbá (8.45%) show a lower crime rate than the Hausa/Fulani north (10.53%), while the south/east has the highest reported crimes (29.39%) in the nation. The weakness of this figure, however, is based on the States not the population of the residents, and the Federal government’s stance against some Southeast region’ militant groups, which might increase both the violence rate and the reportable offences in the region. That weakness notwithstanding, the crime record in each state provide material to make a representation for an informed verdict on the spread of violence within the selected states or Nigeria as a whole.
Going by serious violence leading to death, Campbell, through the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), presents research suggesting a higher death record in the northeast, while the least occurrences are in southwestern Nigeria:
The Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) tracks violence that is both causal and symptomatic of Nigeria’s political instability and citizen alienation. The data are based on weekly surveys of Nigerian and international media. (Campbell, 2020)
The cumulative death records from 2011 to 2020 are classified as originating from Boko Haram (17,115), Boko Haram and the State Actor (19, 096), Sectarian Actor (10, 591), State Actor (9,173) and other Armed Actor (5,489) (Campbell, 2020). The author decided to add up the number of recorded deaths in Campbell’s research from the six states per region already used above. The cumulative number of deaths in the north (while excluding Borno known for terrorists’ violence, which is exceptionally high 30, 269) is 10, 410. The number of recorded deaths in the southeast within the same period is 2, 849, while the death record in the southwest is 1,152. If Lagos that has the highest police recorded of violence is added to the death record in the southwest, the total will be 1,816 that is still the lowest of all the three regions mapped out here. The southwest Yorùbá still appear more peaceful than the rest of the country. However, could evidence from the published literature on disputes and conflicts provide further clues for this investigation?

5 Some Local Religious Disputes

There are reports of occasional religious conflicts among the Yorùbá that have been resolved amicably. Mu’azzam and Ibrahim (2000) noted a conflict among Yorùbá Christians and Muslims in Ọ̀yọ́ State when the Christians held a religious event on government-funded school property and objections were raised by some Yorùbá Muslims. A Muslim organization, the National Council of Muslim Youths Organization, disrupted the event and its leader was arrested by the police. Another Muslim group intervened to stop the conflict from escalating and pleaded with the Christians for Sanni’s release from police custody (Mu’azzam & Ibrahim, 2000, pp. 76, 77). The crisis did not escalate further and the Christians and Muslims in the town are still able to manage their concerns to keep the existing harmony. This is evidence of dispute resolution on display among the Yorùbá (alternative dispute resolution ADR).
In 2013, the Ọ̀sun State Government mandated the use of the hijabby Muslim female students in the State, which some schools pioneered by Christians raised an objection to. In 2014, both Makinde and Olarinoye reported how this led to some Muslims protesting at the Baptist High School in Èjìgbò for banning Muslim girls from wearing the hijabto the Christian led school. They said this resulted in attacks on some of the teachers and the school principal in November 2013. During that same period, a similar conflict occurred among Ọ̀sun State students in Ìwó and the Christian students protested by putting on their church choir robes, while some indigenous worshipers put on their masquerades to their schools (Makinde, 2014; Olarinoye, 2014). The community leaders had to come in to manage the situation (Niyi, 2014) and the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinumbu also visited the Ọ̀sun State Government House to meet Christian leaders to mediate in the crisis, (Makinde, 2014; Olarinoye, 2014).
The Ọ̀sun State government’s meddling in the religious matter led to the crises in the state while religious leaders and the party leadership managed the crises. The Yorùbá intra-ethnic religious conflicts and the way they are handled provide a contribution to conflict management and the conflict de-escalation process within their community. In that light, how peace is sustained in the Yorùbá community is worth studying further as well as any other seemingly peaceful communities as a contribution to peace and conflict studies.
In this kind of interaction, the Yorùbá manage their crises from escalation especially in the religious sphere, which provides a template for sustaining peace among a religious or cultural community in general. In a study of this nature, current empirical data are essential to update the available literature.

Amiable Peacefulness.

There is an amiable commitment found among the Yorùbá Christians and Muslims with theological correlations for peacefulness. An appraisal of such within a community becomes a potential contribution to peacefulness. This study has referred to the trends and assessment of the Yorùbá culture over the years and how it has positively accommodated Christianity and Islam and the extent to which it has enhanced peaceful relationships. I refer to Wiberg’s concepts of detribalization and retribalization (1981), and whether they offer clues to the question on how the Yorùbá Christians and Muslims sustain the peace in their communities. Some values within the Yorùbá culture as presented in this study enhance the peacefulness between Christians and Muslims. While Christians seek to be tolerant and kind, the Muslims apply the concept of social interaction promoted in Islam, which the author describes asal-qai’dah-muamalat-darar [Q-M-D] to interact with their neighbours. There are situations in which Christian families care for their Muslim cousins through the idea of fúnmi lọ́mọ wò (children looked after by an extended family member). There are examples of Yorùbá Muslims showing kindness to their Yorùbá Christian cousins and neighbours. Significant to note is that while the source of peacefulness in Christianity is traced to their approach to the Bible with a focus on love, the Muslims reciprocate this with Kọ̀ídà-Doruuri a local transliteration for al-qai’dah-muamalat-darar (Q-M-D), the act of practising Islamic rights as much as the situation permits without making life difficult for neighbours, the qualities not strange to the Yorùbá culture. The Yorùbá are known for being accommodating on religious grounds, as their kings generously offered land to build places of worship, schools, and hospitals for new religions since around 1800.
Cultural bases for peacefulness are also highlighted among the Yorùbá. Some non-Yorùbá cultures like foreign languages and dressing, have influenced the Yorùbá over the years. Yorùbá remains in competition with other Nigerian languages. While English is used as the official language, it has not been seen to threaten the peace enjoyed by the people. The use of Yorùbá is strong in markets, social functions, music, on the radio and television, and this is known to promote the Yorùbá virtues as media of dissemination of information. As a result, the Yorùbá have not been ‘detribalised’ in the sense of completely losing the values of their language, sayings, drumming and music, as they are still supported and promoted by the local media, albeit in competition with other Nigerian languages and English. The virtues expressed in the Yorùbá language translate into harmonizing the Yorùbá’s interpretation of their religions by stressing the contexts of love, harmony, and care for one another. This supports Laitin’s description of the Yorùbá’s ‘unnatural toleration’ (1986, p. 9), which is ideally known to the Yorùbá Christians and Muslims as ‘natural’, although currently under the threat of structural violence experienced across the country. Wiberg, considering ‘peaceful cultures’, asks:
What characteristics do they have in common that seem to make for their peaceful qualities? On what dimensions do they differ, hence demonstrating that a given variable value is not a necessary condition for peace? To what extent do they contain what forms of structural violence? (1981, p. 113).
As the author considers a religiously tolerant community like the Yorùbá, Wiberg (1981, p. 113) comes to mind calling for a multi-layered inquiry on peaceful cultures.
This study provides an answer to Wiberg’s questions. One, the Yorùbá culture, as expressed in their tolerance and use of language, the way the culture is communicated through music, sayings and interpersonal relationships and their understanding and respect, all work together to harmonize the Yorùbá. Regarding Wiberg’s second question, the Yorùbá are a mono-ethnic language group considered to live in harmony. Even though the common language has made contributions to community harmony, the way the Yorùbá use their language, sayings, stories, and music have all been found helpful in educating and promoting harmony and virtues among the people, irrespective of religion. It is the richness of the Yorùbá language that is profound – that is, its dynamics, usage, and structure – rather than just being unique. The Senegalese in a separate study (Senegal-n.a., 2009; UguccioniI, 2018), have many languages and live harmoniously. The harmony is produced by the way the Senegalese languages utilize the common values of hospitality (teranga ) prevalent in the Senegalese communities. It is the use of the language(s) and contents that matter to peacefulness.
On Wiberg’s question of structural violence, my data reveals both physical and structural violence among the Yorùbá. This is not strange as one form of violence or the other are found among the acclaimed PS (Kemp, 2004), although often being able to manage it. This, study, as well dwells more on the Yorùbá’s coping strategies and maintenance of peace, especially between Christians and Muslims within the Yorùbá host culture. The way the Yorùbá manage their occasional religious conflicts is seen in their consciousness and references to eternal judgment and other aspects of their valued culture. This research, therefore, like PS, presents the need for appraisals of the positive values in relatively peaceful communities to enhance positive peace and de-escalate conflicts. Empirical inquiries among peaceful communities have the potential to provide further findings that can move conflict transformation and peace studies forward into the ideals of positive peace.

6.1 Beyond Ẹbí/Family

The Yorùbá have been studied in many academic works and found to be a people who consider themselves a family. Akinjogbin’s (1966) Ẹbítheory is a significant work in this area. Ẹbí has become the Yorùbá linguistic tool for harmony and the maintenance of peace. This study, however, shows that the concept of family has been revolutionized among the Yorùbá to embrace people outside of their close relations to include neighbours across culture and religious line, Christians, and Muslims alike. This takes the Ẹbí theory forward into a new realm, a comprehensive Ẹbí theory.88The author discusses more on his findings about the Ẹbí theory in an article submitted for peer review titled: Culture (Yorùbá) as a Means of De-Escalating Conflict and Maintaining Peace, Journal of Peace Research , 30/12/2020.
Similarly, the most recurring of the 80 generated nodes in the study data shows how peace is sustained through the culture, religion, family, social interactions, communal lifestyle, and leadership. Furthermore, regular community and leaders’ meetings strengthen harmony and help in identifying stress points to nip conflict in the bud and unite the Yorùbá to positively engage and use their common values to resolve their conflicts and maintain their peace. The elders’ roles, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and complaints procedures are found to be helpful. Equally, the harmony among the Yorùbá that has endured for a long time was initially ascribed to their perceived family ties (Ẹbí, or Ọmọ ìyá kannȃ ) but now is seen as ingrained in their broader culture, values, social interactions, and religious hermeneutics.
While cross examining this study, some scholars like Lateju and Akinade had identified culture and religions as paramount to the Yorùbá’s peacefulness but the components of the culture and the practices of the religions are added values relevant to the Yorùbá’s peacefulness from this study. Religion in general as a cause of peace is undermined as religion has played some roles in violence in other parts of Nigeria and globally. So, the way religion is interpreted (hermeneutics), practised and projected are the keys to the Yorùbá’s peacefulness. This theory can be extended to other cultures and communities, where the interpretations presented and promoted in each community define how peaceful such a community is or will become.
A further cross-referencing of relevant literature and the Nigeria police reports with the author’s findings affirm that the Yorùbá are relatively more peaceful as they possess, display, and often utilize certain features like social interaction already mentioned above within their community to enhance their peacefulness. They often broadcast or display these features through their media like radio, and oral tradition in their community. The author needs to quickly mention here that the Yorùbá are not the only one using media like radio to propagate their peaceful values; the Inuit, one of the PS, is another example.
Features like social interactions found among the PS are prominent among the Yorùbá. The PS maintain their peacefulness through a closed community interaction and returning to their local areas to maintain their harmony even when they had a reason to contact the outside world. Conversely, the Yorùbá have travelled far and wide, and often interact with people of other religions and cultures. Many Yorùbá communities have been identified making efforts to retain their cherished peaceful values despite their exposure to modern civilization while the PS often retain their closed community interactions. While the currently recognised PS comprise mainly of the agrarian communities that socialize through their culture utilizing their limited access to the modern world, the Yorùbá mingle with other cultures and civilizations, even in their homeland. So, by comparison, the Yorùbá are more educated and more exposed to modern civilization with their first university established in Ibadan about 72 years old (1948) and television 60 years (1959). The Yorùbá’s example of peaceful features is an indication that the idea of peacefulness in human community should not be restricted to the agrarian community (as in the case of most of the identified PS) but can be further explored among modern societies like the Yorùbá.
With the similar peaceful features identified among the PS and the Yorùbá like social interactions and leadership roles in sustaining peace at the community level, the idea of humans, being helplessly violent, as often presented in the West requires a reassessment. In support of human potential for peacefulness, Sponsel’s extensive reviews became useful, probing the works on conflict and war with little attention to peace or nonviolence, which Sponsel describes as reducing peace to the avoidance of war or violence (1996). From the study, Sponsel suggests humans are not just historically predisposed to violence contrary to ideas often projected by the West. This provides a clue to the query of the sustainability of peace in human community. Peace is sustainable in human society, although requires a hard work.
The harmony in human society has to do with many features promoted by the community, mostly championed by their local leadership (cultural and religious). Education, both formal as in literature being used, and informal as promoted in the community thus play a major role in the societal peacefulness. Continuity in the form of education plays a significant role in the sustainability of any cherished value.

6.2 Informal Peace Education informing the Peaceful Society

A long-term peace advocacy or education, not necessarily as an aftermath of war or conflict, but embedded within the social, religious, and cultural milieu, often delivered informally via a daily engagement using music, idioms, stories, literature, and legends have helped to sustain the peace among the Yorùbá. The make-up of the culture [the language, dressing, stories, music], leadership, social interaction, religious understanding, family unity, and the media, all communicate values and virtues to the wider community and comprise features that support the Yorùbá to sustain their peace. These are a form of informal peace education embedded in Yorùbá practices, an embodiment of rewarding and peace education themes not necessarily as an aftermath of war. On peace education, Harris and Morrison suggest: ‘[E]ducators […] influence the important values and beliefs of their students [who are] taught about peaceful responses to complex conflicts in the post-modern world’ (2013, p. 3). The important words in that definition are ‘influence’, ‘values’, ‘beliefs’ and ‘taught’. Other ideas of peace education both authors mention include the goal that future conflicts ‘are resolved non-violently and build a sustainable environment’, followed by attributes of ‘love, compassion and reverence for all life’ (2013, p. 11). In this study, values and beliefs are found in various contexts, seeking to resolve disputes before it escalates through communal efforts with the goal of sustaining the existing harmony. This type of intervention is an informal education that enhances peacefulness also found among the PS like the Paliyans, Semai, Ifaluk, Chewong. This idea of maintenance of harmony re-affirms Bond’s suggestion describing peace, not as an end, but rather as a continuing process, (2014). Similarly, the PS are described, not as utopian in themselves but displaying abilities to defuse tension. The Yorùbá practise an informal kind of peace education in an informal setting, with known but often unwritten curricula embedded in their daily activities. This education does not have to be in the aftermath of a serious conflict or civil war but a continuous learning process capable of sustaining harmony in a community.
While many scholars affirm the harmony of the Yorùbá as being based on their shared idea of family (Ẹbí ), this research provides evidence of the Yorùbá’s proactive support for peace through other features in their culture, social setting, and religious milieu. Even though both formal and informal peace education can have written curricula, the method of delivery could differ: the formal in a structured setting following a war or conflict situation, whilst the informal is provided within the structures of the society such as homes, communities and through the media to maintain peace not necessarily as an aftermath of a conflict.
Harris and Morrison have suggested the benefit of peace education as its ‘potential for inner transformation’ and ‘social change’, which is taught in different settings (Harris & Morrison, 2013, p. 11). They add a pertinent feature, its ‘commitment to the way of peace’ (ibid, p. 12). The maintenance of peace among the Yorùbá also involves constant learning in different settings, including the home, areas, and townships through the radio, immediate family, friends, in-laws, elders, and responsible older people in the vicinity. This takes place informally and is potent for educating their community. This is a venture in which everyone learns, and all learners subsequently trains others. This provides an insight into a harmonious society sustaining its peace through features they know to have the credibility to resolve disputes, de-escalate conflicts and retain their harmony towards positive peacefulness. This resembles the communal life among the PS (Peaceful-Societies, 2019). The author suggests a proactive support for this venture as informal peace education, a lifestyle of learning during peacetime. So, how do the Yorùbá manage their conflicts and retain their peace? It is through a lifelong informal education utilizing various features of their culture, religions, and social values as they reject aberrant intrusions.

Conclusion

This review on peacefulness and the correlation with the Yorùbá community focus the dissemination of values to the society. The Yorùbá emphasize certain aspects of their values and religions to strengthen their harmony. Just as scholars have identified the essence of peacefulness among the Senegalese as teranga meaning hospitality, so, complimentary values are found to harmonise the Yorùbá communities.
Most peaceful societies (PS) are not exposed to modern education and civilization and where they do, often seek to return to their communities to keep their culture. However, the author presents the southwest Nigerian Yorùbá that are more exposed to modern education and civilization along with their peace conservation features. Could the Yorùbá’s peacefulness be studied further towards achieving positive peace and development; and could modern or Western societies be studied for elements of peacefulness for more contributions to peace discourse?

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