Analysing the concept of peace in post-conflict African countries

Abstract

Peace is one of the issues in Africa that needs to be rethought or revisited. When discussing peace in Africa, one has to explore the society’s ontology and cosmological order, as the African concept of peace is deeply engrained in the people’s culture and moral tradition. The purpose of this article is to pose a question about interventionist Western-oriented peacebuilding and why it has failed to bring durable peace to post-conflict African countries and its implications on peace dividend. The study follows the literature study method. The paper, consequently, presented the Ubuntu and Oromo peace epistemologies as a possible alternative or authentic viewpoint on the collective. This paper has outlined that peace in Africa is far more complicated than conventional discourses portray. It was established in the study that, to develop an effective response to internal conflicts, it is necessary to explore the cultural foundations and/or institutions that can serve as the basis for conflict prevention, management and resolution.

Keywords: Conflicts, culture, peace, Sankofa;