The potential in the power of sport for achieving development at various sectors of life—spanning health, to poverty, to good human relations—has become a topic of both academic and social discourse. Both the United Nations and world-renowned individuals like the Noble Prize winner Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu and Nelson Mandela have made elaborate claims emphasizing the power of sports. Confronting Global crises, sport identified as an effective tool for poverty reduction, education, health, conflicts, and war. In Ghana, one devastating root of conflicts that has marred tranquility in most communities is tribal/ethnic conflicts precipitated by land disputes, political supremacy, succession, religious violence, among various others. The Alavanyo and Nkonya conflict is one of the longest still existing conflicts in Ghana. It started due to a land boundary dispute about a century ago. Sports is an integral part of Ghana’s society with a constitutional mandate of integrating the many fundamental differences in the country. Marked with many underlying conflicts, sports is a major tool to foster greater inclusion in the Ghanaian society. Reconciliation among various conflicting groups is also at the heart of sports through the Sports for Development and Peace initiative. This research took a unique approach of accessing grass root activities and sports events. The people of Alavanyo and Nkonya among themselves organized these events. The purpose is to ascertain the possibilities of greater impact through deploying professional assistance.How one interprets the meaning of a social occurrence formed the rudiments of analysis used in this research.The research proves that fundamental sporting activities exist within the Alavanyo and Nkonya communities even at the individual level, to the inter-community level. Indeed sports has chances of making meaningful contributions to the Alavanyo and Nkonya’s century long conflict resolution process as an auxiliary tool. There is an existence of common sports such as Football and Volleyball, and an interest to play together. In addition, residents have tried various attempts to create for themselves platforms through sports with various degrees of success. The fact that sports has once lightened tensions in the region—to allow trade and shuttling between the two sides in times past, create hopes of its impact—if more organized, with the involvement of sports for peace experts.The longevity of the conflict matches the hunger of some people in the Alavanyo and Nkonya region for change and development. This suggests the readiness of the region for innovative initiatives to help fast track the needed change to counter the migration of people, and the association of the region with nothing but the unpleasant memories of tension and war.As occurred in post-apartheid South Africa, which has a more complicated situation compared to that of Alavanyo and Nkonya, expectations are that when relevant authorities are involved with a concerted effort to resolve the differences in the land—achieving success is most probable. All that is required is to engage all affected parties taking into consideration Auerbach’s hierarchy of reconciliation or developing a similar system to guide steps towards total reconciliation in the region.It is therefore encouraged that the government and sports authorities in Ghana should take it more seriously—realizing the many benefits of sports, and exploit its chances in strategies drawn for conflict resolution in the country.We implore SDP organizations to look favorably on supporting the planting and growth of sports for development activities in Ghana and other countries in the African sub region.
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The potential of Sport for Development and Peace for the reconciliation of Alavanyo and Nkonya
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