Clan and Inter-Clan Conflict: What It Is and Why It Matters

Understanding Clan and Inter-Clan Conflict Is Key to a Conflict Resolution

17^th January 2022

Clan and Inter-Clan conflicts are levels of conflict in any given society. A clan conflict is a conflict that occurs within a clan. It is also known as intra-clan conflict. But the inter-clan conflict is a conflict between a family and another clan. It can also involve more than two different clans. In this article, we will look at both line and inter-clan conflicts. With that said, let’s read more below.

Related: Life Coaching Ultimate Guide

What Are Clan Conflicts?

Clan conflict is referring to a lack of peace and harmony within a clan, and it is also known as intra-clan conflict. As you might think, clan conflict can be a result of unresolved individual and family conflicts. This means conflict can spread like wildfires. There are so many causes of conflict in a clan against itself, but mostly our human nature is the main cause.

A conflict without a certain clan can either be mild or severe. Some people had to leave their own clans to stay with another just because of the conflict within, some had to leave the whole tribe altogether and wander away to another tribe. This tells us how clan conflicts can be dangerous and unwanted, yet they still happen time and time again.

This means no matter what we know about the causes and the damages clan conflict causes, we can’t simply stop it from happening again and again. It seems conflict is part of life, not only among humans but other creatures too, such as animals, birds, insects, reptiles, fish, and more. The Bible tells a story of the conflict in heaven!

What Are Inter-Clan Conflicts?

Now, inter-clan conflict is that conflict between two clans against each other. It is a conflict outside a clan. Again, this also has its own causes and purposes. Personal conflict can still spread into a family, clan, and then other wider levels such as between two or more clans. This is when inter-clan conflict comes in. when conflict spread from clan to clan, it becomes an inter-clan conflict.

Humankind has been trying to live in peace since the time of Cain and Abel, but it seems to be one of the wishes that can’t be fulfilled here on the planet earth. As I said in the points above, it seems we can’t achieve true peace on the planet. If conflict is in heaven, it must be part of life. Though people like the Prophet Isaiah are hopeful for a feeling of global peace, we can’t tell when it is going to be realized. It is only wishful thinking every human being has.

In this level of conflict, an individual still plays a very important role in both causing and resolving conflicts. This means we are responsible for either causing conflict or helping resolve it on our individual levels before it becomes a collective effort of every member of society. As a writer, I see myself as a contributor in both creation of awareness and resolving possible conflicts in many different levels and types.

What Are the Causes of Clan and Inter-Clan Conflicts?

There are numerous causes of conflict in both clan and inter-clan levels, but a few are common. One common cause of conflict everywhere on earth and in every level is our human nature. We might be secular or religious, yet we are but human in nature. Our human nature unites us and makes us who or what we are. Everything we think, say, and do is mainly because we are humans.

To put it simply, cats are what they are because of their cat nature. They meow because they are cats, and they are supposed to do that instead of barking. If you have ever seen a barking cat that must be very strange and unbelievable. In the same way, we humans love conflict because we are human in nature. But conflict is everywhere, not only in human societies and settings.

This human nature manifests when we fight over leadership seats, political positions, land, and resources, sex and ownership of sexual partners, desires, wants, needs and wishes. Other people hurt us either intentionally or unintentionally. This can happen as they talk to us or when they act or do something that we can then interpret as being an insult to us or hurting.

We also hurt ourselves and others in the ways we think, speak, and also act. Our thoughts lead to words and other actions that may cause conflict between us and ourselves, individually, and others around us. Our human language is never perfect, and this means we can easily misunderstand ourselves, and this misunderstanding leads to conflict at any level of society.

This is why in my book, The Principles of Conflict Management, I took different concepts and ideologies as most causes of conflict in many different levels of conflict in every human society. This means there are personal misconceptions, family misconceptions, clan misconceptions, tribal misconceptions, national misconceptions, and the list goes on and on.

Why Is It Important to Resolve Clan Conflicts?

We wish to resolve human conflicts once and for all, but even Jesus of Nazareth knew how deadly it is to point out human sinfulness. Even if we just point to our own faults and then try to fix them one at a time, it is not possible to fix all human conflicts. But does this mean it is useless and unimportant to try our level best to resolve conflicts at any level?

It is very important to try our best to resolve conflicts, and it is possible to some extent to resolve conflicts even though they only restart at some time afterward. For example, I know the importance of living in my personal peace with myself. I always have conflicts with myself because of my bad past. If I said something bad to myself or to you yesterday, it may cause me trouble today when I think back.

But knowing the fact that I can’t change the past, I can decide to forgive myself. In the same thing applies to when you said or did something bad to me yesterday. All I need to do is to try to forgive you so that I live in peace with myself even if you are not ready to live in peace with me. Sometimes, it can be me not wanting to live in peace with you, but I can try to live in peace with myself.

The fact is that we all need peace, but do we try our best to live in peace individually? What do you think will happen if all of us try our level best to live in peace with ourselves individually? This peace can then become family, clan, and tribal peace in no time. But doing it is real work, not saying or writing it. I love peace and this makes me think, speak, act and write about it.

I love personal peace, and I have written all I know about it here. This shows how important it is to live in peace individually as well as collectively. Peace is good, and we all admire it, but we also love conflict too much that we dive into it without giving it a thought. We are all emotional whether we are male or female.

Why Is It Important to Resolve Inter-Clan Conflicts?

In the same ways and reasons we resolve conflicts at the clan level, we also have to resolve them at the higher level and that’s the inter-clan level. We have already touched on the importance of individual peace, which can then spread to the family, and then to the clan, and then to other clans around or far. In this section, we will expand that a little bit.

Why do you think it is important to resolve inter-clan conflicts? I think it is because if we don’t they will spread to tribal conflicts, which then spread to the level of a nation, and then to the international levels of conflict. We all know the consequences of any human conflict, and this knowledge should drive us forward into finding ways to resolve the conflicts before they are out of hand.

Oh, yes, it is very important to resolve conflicts in the inter-clan levels in any given human society. But how exactly do we go about this? We will see some tips about how to resolve conflicts in any level below, but for sure there is nothing like a one-size-fits-all rule in this situation, yet there are ways and methods in use in resolving human conflicts.

Just the thought of having no conflicts alone is so important and peaceful, right? I think it is. I would love to see our clans live in peace with each other in the Dhiaak community. Dhiaak is a bigger clan with smaller families and clans within. As a bigger clan, Dhiaak is one of the 11 clans of the Ngok Lual Yak Community in the Upper Nile Region. Ngok is a Dinka sub-tribe, a member of the Padang Community, the descendants of Ayuel Longar.

How Do People Resolve Clan and Inter-Clan Conflicts?

Now, how do we humans resolve conflicts in the inter-clan and clan levels? There have been many ways and methods in use. Before the coming of the foreign worldviews and ideologies, we used to resolve conflicts in both clan and inter-clan levels our own ways. These ways include chiefs, elders, and even youth leaders who acted as the government of the day to deal with such issues in our communities.

But as they say, prevention is better than cure. If we can, first of all, prevent conflicts, this is the best way to resolve them. But as always, it is not possible to prevent conflicts, so the only option left is how we can resolve them when they occur.

In those days, people were also afraid of the supernatural intervention in human affairs, especially through curses to those who don’t listen to the elders, chiefs, and youth leaders at the time. But today, we have other methods to use since no one fears the spiritual world anymore in our new and modern world of technology and scientific knowledge.

Today, education and conflict resolution initiatives are the way forward to resolving clan and inter-clan conflicts. People who read and write often think bigger and wiser. They think objectively about life and everything in it. There are a lot of things they no longer see as important as they use to, and this is the best way to bring peace and harmony into a clan and beyond.

Having your individual peace matters the most, because this personal inner peace spreads to any level in any human society. It spreads from you to your family, clan, and then to other clans. This means living in peace personally is what we can do instead of talking about it. Talking is good, but it doesn’t speak much compared to our actions and deeds for peace and harmony.

My Final Words

Lastly, we have come to the end of this article. But have you read from the very beginning? I suggest you start reading from the beginning where you will define what clan and inter-clan conflict is, what causes it, why it is important to resolve conflicts, why do we resolve conflicts, and how we do it. But we have to say that saying something is not the same thing as doing it.

Even though we humans want and need peace, we always have personal, family, clan, tribal, national, and even international conflicts to think about and try to resolve. This is just a life issue, and not only humans but all creatures have the same trouble. Whenever I see insects fighting, I think about how conflict is everywhere, even in heaven between spiritual beings.

Does this fact mean we can’t do our level best to live in peace with ourselves and others? I don’t think so. I think we have a chance to try and live in peace with everyone as the apostle Paul says in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Romans.

I hope this article has been helpful to you. Would you like to share your experience with it in the comment below? I will deeply appreciate your comments and feedback, and I think other readers too will love it. I pray and hope that God will bless and keep you and your loved ones safe and secure during and after the global pandemic.

Shalom!

Further Readings

• DYNAMICS OF INTER-CLAN CONFLICT BETWEEN THE DEGODIA AND THE GARRE OF MANDERA COUNTY (PDF file download)—KU.
• Inter-Clan Conflicts in Somalia—IJHRS.