For parties to neighbourhood and family disputes, a direct communication model is seen as too confrontational. For many traditional cultural groups face-saving is a necessary component of conflict resolution and the appointed 'middle person' plays the role of a negotiation advocate, assisting each side in commenting for clarity and closure with the other party. There are very few formal written agreements that come out of conflict interventions in a traditional peacebuilding forum. People negotiate with the parents of the spouse or the man she should marry. Conflict resolution is a growing industry in their day to day life.
People differ and they use traditional negotiation to handle their differences.
Indigenous people reach most decisions through negotiation, even when they go to traditional court, they always negotiate a settlement. There are no appeals in most of the traditional courts. As we head toward the 21st century, there is every indication that processes which once were referred to as traditional tools in conflict-resolution are now increasingly called appropriate dispute resolution. Indigenous approaches in dispute resolution procedures are of increasing interest to scholars and policy-makers. It is my privilege now to move with you to the region of the North-Central Nile valley, north of the equator, where the Nilotic people of Southern Sudan survive in a decaying environment.