Answered Questions

Hello! Glad you asked.

Begin with the Conflict Resolution LibGuide, at http://libguides.brenau.edu/conflictresolution. This is a collection of sources developed by your librarians and Dr. Frank.

I began by clicking on the articles tab. In the lower left corner of this page you will see eJournals, and the African Journal of Conflict resolution. Click the link.  Scroll down the page. At the very bottom you will see a listing of every issue. Unfortunately, the best way to search is check each individual issue. For example, click on  AJCR Volume 01 No. 1, 1999. You will see a list of articles, and then book reviews. Just under the book reviews you will see a link to "download PDF". Click there to download the entire issue. You will be able to read the article "Traditions of conflict resolution in South Africa" by Choudree, R.B.G. Be patient; the site loads slowly.

The search function is limited, and a search of Zulu doesn't turn up everything. You could also try it though.

This is a good starting point. I need to do additional research before I feel we've covered all of the best sources. I will email again tomorrow.

Hello Again!

One of the better sources for conflict resolution is Lexis Nexis. This database is the first one linked under the articles tab on the LibGuide, in the top center of the page. Once you log into Lexis you will see a grid of 6 search boxes. Choose the one on the bottom right, the Combined Search. Within that search box, be sure only the law reviews box is checked. The remainder of the information sources will only clutter your search. I began searching with "conflict resolution" AND Zulu. Include the quotation marks as part of the search to focus your results. This yielded a few results including Africa, It's Conflicts and Its Traditions.

A searching tip: When you open a long article, Lexis will have the search terms highlighted in red font. You can also hit the CTRL and F keys simultaneously and bring up a search function to search for the word Zulu in the text. This will make your life much easier!

I changed up the search several times to get different results. You might try "customary law" AND Zulu. This search yielded the article Ubuntu and the Law in South Africa. Use the best results to gather search terms for your next search. For example, I would try

• ubuntu AND "conflict resolution"
• ubuntu AND mediation
• ubuntu AND and "customary law".
  

The Academic Search Complete database is also listed in the LibGuide. It should also have results.

The Web Sites tab of the LibGuide also has good potential resources. Try searching several for Zulu or for ubuntu. For example, a search of Restorative Justice yielded several results including The Historical Development of the Written Discourses on Ubuntu. Another interesting article is Restoring Justice (Ubuntu): An African Perspective. There is no full text link. To look for the full text, I went to the books tab of the LibGuide and searched the library catalog. Here I pasted in the JOURNAL title - International Criminal Justice Review - not the article title, and changed the dropdown from "keyword" to "journal title". The catalog linked me to OmniFile Full Text Select for the full text.

Sometimes the open web can also be helpful for a search like this. Googling Ubuntu and "conflict resolution" led to an article from the Journal of Pan African Studies (Practical Peacemaking Wisdom from Africa: Reflections on Ubuntu) which led me the the journal itself once I shortened the URL of the article to just the .com part.

If you run into problems, let us know. And if you like the answer, refer your classmates to us!