When several African states “failed” in the 1990s, a resurgence of traditional political institutions in Africa coincided (Englebert 2002, Ubink 2008). This triggered two adverse effects: First, confronted with failing national-level institutions, localised governance had a positive impact on building stable polities (Zartman 1993, Wig 2013). Rooted in society, traditional institutions can be related to responsive, sustainable forms of peace- and statebuilding, the primary example being Somaliland (Walls/Kibble 2010, Hagmann 2007). Second, however, traditional institutions were involved in conflicts, and play a potential role to further politicise ethnic tensions. Traditional authorities in Burkina Faso, for instance, participated in political violence by exploiting their legitimacy (Hagberg 2007). This research design intends to present a theoretical framework of the obstacles and possibilities of traditional institutions and to achieve a corroborated empirical analysis of their effect on peace and conflict. This effect will be analysed by conducting a most-similar comparative case study design.
