Peace Psychology: Contributions from Africa

Abstract As the cradle of humankind, Africa probably has the longest history of negotiating human relationships — including resolving conflicts and building peace. Over the centuries many stable communities were established all over Africa by successful conflict resolution. This is not to say that there were never any wars in Africa, but ancient African communities most often evolved through cooperation and mutual respect. In most modern African countries colonial intervention ended the relative stability and peaceful coexistence prevalent on the continent. Boundaries were redrawn to suit the needs of the colonizers and with little regard of the historic reasons for the boundaries. Groups were split up, or artificially combined, rekindling old animosities and creating fresh grievances. Long‐standing traditions that ensured peace and justice were carelessly abandoned in favor of new, poorly explained systems thrust upon societies that were very different from the colonial society where the laws and practices evolved. Remnants of indigenous aspects of peacebuilding have sustained many communities in Africa and some of those will be offered here as contributions from Africa to the field of peace psychology.