The Resolution of African Conflicts: The Management of Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Offers analyses of a range of African conflicts and demonstrates that peace is 'too important to be left to outsiders'. In this companion volume to The Roots of African Conflicts African scholars analyse a number of conflicts and their resolution - demonstrating the importance of their resolution and their impact on the wider continent '...The studies in these two books seek to advance our understanding of African conflicts by going beyond the conventional and fashionable analyses of Africanist scholarship, often inflected with, if not infected by, Afropessimism, or the simplistic stereotypes conveyed in the western media that is infused with Afrophobia....these conflicts must be understood in comparative perspective, not in isolation. Violent conflict in Africa is indeed part of the human drama, but the tendency to impose universalist models of conflict driven from stylized western experiences or faddish theorising must be resisted... such paradigms lead to poor analysis and bad policy. Conflict is too serious a matter, and its costs too grave, for glib modeling or lazy journalistic speculation uninformed by the histories of, and unmindful of the concrete conditions in, the societies under scrutiny.' - From the introduction to The Roots of African Conflicts by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza 'The search for peace is too important to be left to outsiders, however well-intentioned. It is encouraging to see that a growing number of African scholars areinterested in exploring and engaging this crucial subject'. - From the introduction to The Resolution of African Conflicts by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza North America: Ohio U Press; South Africa: Unisa Press

Table of Contents:
Introduction: the resolution of African conflicts by Alfred Nhema; The role of regional & international actors: a framework for a working peace system by Victor A.O. Adetula; The role of the OAU & the AU by P. Godfrey Okoth; The continental early warning system of the African Union by Jakkie Cilliers; The International Criminal Court & the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda by Kasaija Philip Apuuli; How to make democracy work? Local government in South Africa by Ursula Scheidegger; Local government & the management of conflict in fragmented societies: South Africa, Namibia & Mauritius compared by Christof Hartmann; Conflict resolution in the Sudan by Idris Salim El Hassan; Elections & conflict in southern Africa by Khabele Matlosa; The Somali peace process by Kizito Sabala, Aisha Ahmad & Edwin Rutto; Post-conflict Mozambique by Brazao Mazulu.

About the Author :
Professor Alfred G. Nhema is the Director of the School of Government. His research interests are in the areas of Democracy and Governance, Public Administration, Public Policy, Peace and Conflict. He is the Editor of The Resolution of African Conflicts: the Management of Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Reconstruction (2008) and The Roots of African Conflicts: the Causes and Costs (2008). Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is Vice Chancellor at United States International University-Africa.

Review :
By putting together these two comprehensive and well-researched volumes, Nhema and Zeleza have done a great service to the Africanist community as well as to interested laypersons. [They] should be commended for selecting and editing twenty well-researched and thoughtfully argued contributions to provide us with what is arguably one of the most comprehensive and perceptive treatments to date of conflict and conflict resolution in Africa from both a historical and contemporary perspective. The ambitious task established by the editors of uncovering the roots and the solutions to the current conflicts in Africa is excellently addressed by the contributors [...] the variety of views is actually one of the volumes' strengths, providing the reader with a wide spectrum of approaches to the issues at hand, enhanced by the variety of research methods used by the contributors. [...] The two volumes therefore present an intellectual challenge, pushing scholars to think about a myriad of circumstances and actors involved in some of the most poignant issues of our time. [...] These two volumes thus will not only serve scholars committed to the study of peace and conflict, but also policy makers and anyone interested in gaining insights towards the real potential for peace in Africa. Nhema and Zeleza have assembled in these two extraordinary companion volumes [The Roots of African Conflicts and The Resolution of African Conflicts], one of the most comprehensive treatments of conflicts in Africa. The two volumes, with admirable competence, address the multiple causes of conflicts from a historical and contemporary perspective, and creatively attempt to offer solutions to these conflicts that go beyond most contemporary analyses. In the end, both the editors and the contributors point to democratic governance as the best solution to African conflicts. All Africa's well wishers, scholars of conflict and African leaders in particular, need to heed the lessons presented in these two volumes. ... a must read for anyone interested in Africa's peaceful development.