Women Activists and Conflict Resolution in Precolonial Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the specific roles of women activists in conflict resolution and peace negotiations in precolonial Nigeria, with an emphasis on their contributions to diplomacy and social stability. While these concepts overlapped, the paper treated conflict resolution as the broader process of preventing and settling disputes and peace negotiation as one key strategy within it. The objective is to clarify how women functioned as active agents within indigenous governance systems. Drawing on secondary historical data and literature, the paper examined political structures across the various societies in precolonial Nigeria. It identified formal and 
informal institutions through which women mediated disputes, negotiated truces and sustained communal harmony. Using cases of Queen Amina of Zazzau, Moremi Ajasoro, Efunsetan Aniwura, Efunroye Tinubu, Omu Okwei of Osomari and prominent Tiv and Hausa women leaders. The analysis highlighted strategies women deployed: economic leverage, spiritual authority, market/queen institutions and direct diplomatic engagement. Feminist Peace Theory and Structural Functionalism frame the study. Feminist Peace Theory explained why women’s peace work has been marginalised and how their methods centred care, relationships and non-violent negotiation. Structural Functionalism explains how women’s roles operated as functional components of precolonial political systems, maintaining social order and stability. The theories complemented each other, revealing gendered exclusion and institutional function. Findings showed that women were not passive observers but core actors in conflict resolution. They used diplomacy and social institutions to prevent wars, settle disputes and restore stability long before colonial administration. The paper argued that indigenous women’s peace negotiation models are not historical relics but functional mechanisms. Integrating them into contemporary conflict-resolution frameworks in Nigeria can strengthen sustainable peace and development.