Pan-African Intellectual Traditions and the Future of Peacebuilding in Africa

This paper assesses the applicability Pan-African intellectual traditions to the?prospective peacebuilding in Africa in the context of continued conflict, structural inequality and epistemic dependency. Peacebuilding today continues to be profoundly influenced by externally generated liberal frameworks?that emphasize institutional transformation and technocratic management of the state but often fail to take the historical experiences of Africa, indigenous knowledge systems and socio-cultural realities into account. Building on the works of Kwame Nkrumah, Frantz Fanon, and Ng?g? wa Thiong'o,?the article offers a de-colonial critique of liberal peacebuilding and articulates an African-centred alternative grounded in epistemic sovereignty, indigenous governance, economic justice, and cultural restoration. The paper employs a qualitative interpretive method and?holds that sustainable peace is premised on intellectual emancipation, youth participation, regional solidarity, and structural reform. It?argues that lasting peace in Africa is contingent upon the recovery of African intellectual agency and the re-imagining of global peace architectures via more just, plural and historically informed models.    Received: 19 May  2026 / Accepted: 30 June  2026 / Published: July 2026