Africa and Her Perennial, Elusive Quest for Peace: A Reflection on Possible Causes and Solutions

Abstract In this exercise I engage with Africa’s perennial and elusive quest for peace. In order to do so, I examine cases of conflict on the African continent, an exercise which may, hopefully, point towards possible solutions to lasting peace. Such an exercise, which is no mean feat, has been a preoccupation of great and competent African thinkers across the continent for the entire post-colonial period. In approaching this intricate issue, I move from two premises. The first is that African conflicts issue from interconnected dynamics spawned by the slave trade and the colonial, anti-colonial, and post-colonial periods. The second premise is connected to the first: In order to appreciate the present conflict situation in Africa, we need to look at African conflicts through the lens of Colin Bundy’s observation that those who wish to construct a better future have to work with “materials stamped ‘Made in the past’” (2019, 79).