Rethinking ‘August Meeting’ in Southeastern Nigeria

‘August Meeting’ is the annual homecoming or convention of Igbo women hometown associations of Southeastern Nigeria. For local communities in Southeastern Nigeria, August Meeting is a veritable platform for driving development, managing conflicts and building peace. But August Meeting is also a tool for hatching and promoting conflicts. While the conflict resolution and peacebuilding role of August Meeting has been acknowledged and applauded, its capacity for producing conflicts has been largely ignored. Drawing on a Nollywood film, August Meeting, and empirical research findings, this article exposes the ways in which August Meeting promotes interpersonal and intracommunal conflicts in Southeastern Nigeria.