This is a cross-post from Africa Up Close, the blog of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Africa Program. Fana Gebresenbet Erda was a Wilson Center Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding Scholar in 2014, and was an African Peacebuilding Network Individual Research Grantee of the Social Science Research Council in 2017. Ethiopia appears in […]
Essays
Essays present critical analysis and debate on a pressing issue in African peacebuilding.
Essays
KhoiSan Rastafarianism: A Path to Peace in the Western Cape, South Africa
by Cynthia Alexandre-Brutus
To the untrained eye, Rastafarians represent an alien culture of violent and unkempt ganja-smoking individuals who seek to wreak havoc in their communities. However, on the contrary, Rastafarianism is one of the most novel religious and social movements to come out of the African Diaspora in the twenty-first century. At its founding in Jamaica, the […]
Conflict
The “Anglophone Problem” in Cameroon: Is Another Crisis Brewing?
by Abimbola Opanike
A new episode of what is commonly known as the “Anglophone problem” in Cameroon has been spurred by the demonstration of English-speaking lawyers, teachers, and students against the systematic marginalization of Anglophones in the legal and educational sectors in a supposed bilingual and bi-cultural country. The government’s response was initially characterized by Gestapo-style harassment and […]
Essays
Peacebuilding and the Academy in Africa
by Aaron Stanley
It is becoming increasingly clear that the effectiveness of peacebuilding in Africa is intertwined with the health of African higher education. Long-term peace in Africa will not be possible without greater African involvement, but African contributions will only be successful when they are grounded in strong research. In May 2017, Carnegie Corporation of New York […]
Democracy, Development and Governance
Military Humanitarianism and Africa’s Troubling “Forces for Good”
by Danny Hoffman
This article was concurrently published on Items, the SSRC’s digital essay forum, a space for engagement with the Council’s work and with the social sciences more generally. Monrovia, Liberia. August 20, 2014 ― Early in the morning, the Ebola Task Force, a joint operation led by the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), institutes a surprise […]
Essays
Gender Mainstreaming in Local Strategies for Conflict Transformation
by Fatma Osman Ibnouf
Conflict transformation implies multiple changes at different levels of society in order to deepen and sustain peace, and can be the result of individual or collective efforts. Since all conflicts reflect highly contextual dynamics, they require a thorough analysis of local conditions. Such an understanding increases the possibility of producing strategies that make the most […]
Conflict
Insecurity, Conflict, and Militancy in the Maghreb and Sahel Regions
by Jocelyn Perry
Throughout the Maghreb and Sahel regions of Africa, many communities are struggling under the strain of new patterns of violence that emerged after the Arab Spring as well as episodic cycles of violence that have resurfaced every few years for several decades. The following piece offers key takeaways from a series of recent events—a forum […]
Conflict
Whither Peacebuilding Initiatives? The Escalation of Herder-Farmer Conflicts in Nigeria
by Akachi Odoemene
There is a growing trend towards episodic, low-intensity conflicts across Nigeria, particularly in its north-central and southern zones. These conflicts often involve nomadic Fulani herdsmen and sedentary agricultural communities, and result in the unmitigated decimation and sacking of rural communities. Herder-farmer conflicts have escalated in the last decade and assumed a deadly dimension over the […]
Democracy, Development and Governance
New Wealth, New Security Challenges: The Impact of Energy and Mega-Infrastructure Projects in the Greater Horn of Africa
by Kennedy Mkutu
The Greater Horn of Africa is one of the most complex and challenging regions in the world in terms of conflict and instability. Currently, there are internal conflicts in South Sudan, southern Somalia, Sudan (Darfur), and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while armed inter-communal clashes are common throughout. Areas where conflict is concentrated are […]
Conflict
Combattants: Activists or Criminals? A Reflection on Ethnoregionalism and Political Violence among Congolese Immigrants in South Africa
by Rosette Sifa Vuninga
Most studies on African immigrants in South Africa focus on xenophobia, illegal immigration, and corruption within the South African Department of Home Affairs, while leaving unexamined some aspects of immigrants’ everyday life in the country. Saint José Inaka highlights “ethno-regionalism and political conflicts among immigrants” as one issue that existing studies have glossed over. Inaka’s […]