Threat Narratives, Group Identity and Violence

What is the relationship between value systems and ethnic identity formation? How does the difference in value systems influence the salience of identity and conflict? Through narratives from in-depth interviews, this document analyzes group identity formation and their impact on conflict. Understanding the role of competing value systems in the formation of salient identity and relations between identity salience and violence, in my opinion, may help us explain why some ethnic groups are prone to violence in northern Ghana. There is the need to shift our research focus from the use of ethnicity, chieftaincy and land as causal factors of conflict to their interpretation, perception and employment in the process of social identity formation, interests and perceptions of the other. Very often through narratives an enemy is created out of the "other" and violence towards then justified.Download Clement Aapengnuo Thesis