SC@150: Customary-Judicial Alignment Key to Durable Settlements – Historian

Historian and Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, has highlighted the impact a collaboration between traditional authorities and judicial institutions can have on the resolution of conflict.

Delivering a lecture to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Supreme Court under the theme, “The Supreme Court and the Institution of Chieftaincy: Past, Present and the Future” on July 16, 2026, he described the outcome of such collaborations as “durable settlement.”

He made the remarks in reference to the upholding of court judgments by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, and other eminent chiefs in the resolution of the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict in 2018.

“Their final resolutions through the Asantehene and his Eminent Chiefs, who endorsed many of the verdicts by the courts, demonstrate how alternative sources of authority, working together, can secure peace. It showed that when customary leadership and judicial institutions align, durable settlement becomes possible,” he said.

“In an impressive remark, the Asantehene, when presenting the report to President Akufo-Addo, affirmed that nobody was above the laws of Ghana, including the protagonists of the strife in the North, and including himself.”

“He added that by those same laws, whether understood in their traditional or modern sense, when his time comes, and he departs, Asanteman will endure, because the customs and traditions that brought him to the Sika Dwa will be the same ones that will bring his successor.”

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, was the Guest of Honour at the gathering.

The event was also attended by Nananom, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Chief Justice; Ogyeahohuo Yaw Gyebi II, President of the National House of Chiefs; Justice Agyei Frimpong, Chairman of the Planning Committee for the Supreme Court 150th Anniversary; Justices of both the Superior and Lower Courts and Dr Frank Amoakohene, Ashanti Regional Minister.

Also present were students from the Ghana School of Law, KNUST Faculty of Law and senior high schools.

Story by Hajara Fuseini

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