This paper is a review of the southwest Nigerian Yorùbá and their recognized peacefulness in the context of Nigeria as a country. It attempts to address the peacefulness amidst the Nigeria unstable circumstances and in comparison, with the established peaceful societies (PS). The first part of the paper provides a concise discussion about peace and conflict studies as it developed in the West followed by an outline of conflicts in Nigeria and amongst the Yorùbá to identify a gap for this inquiry. The paper suggests the Yorùbá multireligious community provides some clues to how peacefulness could be retained in a society. Similarly, it suggests the roles informal peace education play in supporting people of different beliefs but same culture to retain their harmony. The author, nevertheless, left a challenge to move the study of PS beyond the agrarian and rural communities to investigate more modern societies for peacefulness. NOTE: This article is taken from part of chapter 2 and the conclusion of the author’s doctoral thesis, with a few amendments.

Most works in peace studies concern interventions in conflict situations – such as conflict management – or projects seeking to sustain peace after a conflict, such as conflict resolution and peace education. However, using a peace lens, this study affirms culture as one of the means the Yorùbá utilize to sustain peace in their community. The paper ascertains the presence of conflict and proceed to discuss how some features of Yorùbá culture facilitate harmony. This article is based on a primary research among the Yorùbá within 2014 and 2020, the bulk of which is taken from chapter 5 of the dissertation.

The inevitability of interactions among the Yorùbá as a community of people regardless of their religious differences is the focus of this paper. Here, I present how the Yorùbá have displayed a substantial evidence of freedom of religion and understanding of their neighbours to manage conflict and sustain their peace. One of the ways in which religion has been useful to maintain good relationships among the Yorùbá is its focus on tolerance, patience, and other virtues that the leaders teach their members. Their social interactions at home and within their community are incredibly inevitable, and these helped to keep the Yorùbá in harmony and to settle conflicts and disputes more often than would have thought of in other communities. Note: This paper is a part of the author’s research findings and contains some of chapter seven of the dissertation with a few amendments to suit this journal article requirement.

This paper presents the roles the interpretations of religious text(s) and understanding of religion play in the sustainability of peace among the Yorùbá people of southwest Nigeria. The Yorùbá’s way of interacting and practising religion has remained moderately amiable over the last two centuries. With attention on Yoruba Christians and Muslims, this author examines some specific religious concepts and social values that have been useful in guiding the two religions to retain their peace or return to dialogue table to refrain from violence and keep the peace. Please note: The bulk of this article is taken from chapter 8 of the author’s doctoral dissertation with a few amendments to suit this journal. Keywords: Christian-Muslim relations, peace studies, African Yoruba, religious – ethics – culture – values.

This article is a review of the southwest Nigerian Yorùbá and their perceived peacefulness in the context of Nigeria as a country. It attempts to address the question of how peaceful the Yorùbá religious people are amidst the Nigeria unstable situation and in comparison, with the established peaceful societies (PS). In as much as the focus of peace and conflict studies has being to bring about peace in human societies and nations, peace researchers and practitioners have been working to resolve conflicts and support their subjects to stabilize their societies. Whilst academics and practitioners were focusing on resolving conflicts and resettling the communities and individuals affected by conflict and wars, other initially peaceful communities were beginning their own conflicts. The newly emerging conflict makes peacemaking efforts more difficult to achieve as O’Reilly rightly asserts (2016). To join other researchers to ameliorate the setbacks by attempting to sustain positive peace in human society, this study hereby focuses a relatively peaceful community [the Yorùbá] to find how they handle disputes, crises and conflicts that have the potential for violence, whilst maintaining its harmony. The first part of this paper provides a concise discussion about peace and conflict studies as it developed in the West followed by an outline of conflicts in Nigeria and amongst the Yorùbá to identify any gap to justify this inquiry. The paper ends with some clues on how peacefulness is retained in the multireligious community. This study argues for an informal peace education to support a mutual-reciprocal relationship between people of different beliefs to retain peacefulness in human society. NOTE: This article is taken from chapter 2 and the conclusion of the author’s doctoral thesis, with a few amendments.