Storytelling and electoral conflicts : a community approach to peacebuilding – Chongwe, Zambia

Abstract

Using an action research approach, this study explores storytelling as a communitybased peacebuilding approach for use by the Conflict Management Committee (CMC) in Chongwe constituency in Chongwe District of Lusaka Province focusing specifically on electoral conflicts. Although there are currently electoral conflict management and peacebuilding mechanisms that exist, previous work has not specifically addressed the role that storytelling can play in the management of electoral conflicts. Part of the study was to implement a storytelling community intervention and illuminate the potential that storytelling holds for application by the electoral CMCs as an Indigenous method of conflict management. This is in view of the fact that insufficient attention has been paid to the role that Indigenous peace infrastructures such as storytelling can contribute to peace during elections. Through qualitative methodology and purposive sampling of 38 subject participants, the research uncovers the lived experiences of conflict parties during and after elections. The study used the 2021 Zambian general elections to establish a baseline for examining cases of electoral mediation. The study revealed themes on the nature and prevalence of community electoral conflicts, practice, role and effects of storytelling at the CMC, Hybridisation of CMC electoral mediation and oral storytelling models to Improve the process of electoral conflict mediation, and understanding context and conceptualisation of storytelling as community peacebuilding for electoral conflicts in Chongwe constituency. The results show that although storytelling was underutilised in the electoral mediation process at CMC, as a strategy and relational approach, it is an effective local tool for both CMC electoral conflict management and community peacebuilding. This is despite the vagaries of the digital age and the predominance of the liberal peace paradigm. The study demonstrates that storytelling can contribute to improvements in individual, relational and organisational functioning to resolve electoral conflicts. The study argues that a complementary arrangement by the modern and traditional mediation approaches to form a hybrid model promises a comprehensive and inclusive approach to electoral conflict management by the CMC.