APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 60 Rediscovering Indigenous Peacebuilding Techniques: The Way to Lasting Peace? Karolina Werner Africa hosts the largest number of peacekeeping missions in the world, with each affected country having a unique culture and its own perspectives on conflict resolution. These different experiences and perspectives make it important to tailor peacebuilding efforts in response to specific contexts and types of conflict. Indigenous peacebuilding mechanisms in post-conflict reconstruction offer the potential for hybrid approaches in which traditional mechanisms are adapted to include certain western principles and to respond to large-scale conflict for which they were never originally envisioned. Examples from Rwanda, Uganda, and Mozambique provide an assortment of documented cases in which indigenous methods of conflict resolution have played significant roles in furthering peace. They emphasize the role of culture, dialogue, understanding, and partnership and illustrate the complexities of peacebuilding after widespread and long-lasting conflict. AS PEACEBUILDING ACTIVITIES HAVE BECOME MORE COMMON, unsuccessful attempts at implementing western models of justice and peace are increasing in post-conflict countries.1 The primarily state-driven judicial mechanisms so common in developed countries often do not fulfill the needs of places where government institutions are weak and have lost the trust of their citizens. Too often, western humanitarian and development aid policies are not tailored to the unique circumstances of specific states, and local values and traditions are considered secondary to the priorities of donor governments and organizations. In fragile states, however, trust and cooperation of the population are fundamental to the success of any sustainable state-building exercise, as are support for local design and ownership of new structures and policies. In 1. This is not to say that all such attempts have been ineffective, but many would argue that the empowerment of local people and trust in their capacity and traditional methods may not only allow for culturally appropriate reactions to conflict, but might also serve as preventative mechanisms. Karolina Werner is a project manager at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Waterloo, Canada. She worked previously in Austria for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Her research interests include international conflict and post-conflict reconstruction as well as grass-root and indigenous approaches to conflict transformation. She would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of her draft manuscript for their helpful comments and suggestions. The views in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CIGI’s Board of Directors or International Board of Governors. Africa Peace and Conflict Journal, 3:2 (2010), 60–73. © 2010 University for Peace Africa Programme. All rights reserved. ISSN 1659–3944.