African Traditional Education: A Viable Alternative for Peace Building Process in Modern Africa

Violent conflicts and war have taken its toll in the world withAfrica being the worst hit. This has created in the modern minds amentality construct to accepting that war/conflict is an indispensable social phenomenon. Therefore, peace is considered as inseparably intertwined with war. Hence peace is delineated into two realms-negative and positive peaces. Interestingly, positive peace which emphasizes ‘peace building’ has attracted the attention of modern scholarship as being a viable option for peace initiative in modern Africa. However, this paper underscores the fact that human greed and structural ineptitude in addressing human needs have contributed immensely in the exacerbation of conflict in modern Africa. The argument is that conflict is built into aparticular society through the way it is organized. Thus this paper notes that social conflict is tied to the socio-political and economic arrangements within a particular society. Hence traditional African society was susceptible to violent conflict. However it has an inbuilt mechanism to controlling it. This instrument was education. Notably, African education aimed at developing the total man and making him or her responsible member of the community. The curricular includes physical, mental, spiritual and moral development of the citizens. The thrust of the moral education was solidarity. This concept is defined in many African societies by different terms. Some of these terms are Ibuanyi danda,’ Ubuntu’’ Ujamaa, our survey of most African society reveals thefact that socio-political philosophy of traditional African society hinge on the concept of ‘social solidarity and belongingness’, and such was ingrained in every citizen from cradle. Regrettably, this social philosophy has been neglected in the modern Africa. Therefore this paper submits that if peace must return to Africa, she must re-introduce or incorporate her moral values into her educational system, with certain modifications to meet the contemporary demands.