Territoraility, Citizenship and Peacebuilding: Perspectives on Challenges to Peace in Africa

Author : By Kelechi Kalu, Ufo Okeke Uzodike, David Kraybill & John Moolakkatu (Editors)

Civil conflicts in Africa range from few interstate wars to several intrastate conflicts characterized by secessionist movements, irredentism, coups and counter coups, genocide, wars of liberation to resource-based wars.  The varied causes of conflicts in the continent's diverse and complex social formations are seen in ethnic terms and include struggles for economic/environmental resources, poor institutions of governance and issues of identity such as religion, language and racial differences. 

The core issue addressed in this volume is how to understand and explain the structural and analytical reasons for persistent civil conflicts in Africa. The core assumption is that most civil conflicts in Africa erupt largely because of the nature of state formation in the continent. Other significant variables that are explored as explanations for the persistent instances of civil conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa and the slow efforts at nation-building across the continent include issues of territoriality, climate change, ethnicity, ideological incongruities, institutional problems, the nature of postcolonial state, unreformed governance and economic structures, and corruption.

This book also examines some sources of unresolved issues of territoriality and explains their connections to political violence and socio-political and cultural tensions across sub-Saharan Africa. It offers suggestions on how scholarly research and policies could help mediate if not mitigate future territorially-based conflicts in Africa.

 

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Kelechi A. Kalu is Associate Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs at The Ohio State University, USA. He is also Professor of African American & African Studies, and Faculty affiliate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State.

 

David Kraybill Dr. Kraybill's recent research includes studies of household poverty, household savings, governmental decentralization, primary and secondary education, and adaptation to climate change. Fluent in French and Swahili he has lived in Africa for a total of six years, including a sabbatical year as Fulbright Scholar at Makerere University in Uganda. He has been consultant advisor to World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Southeast Consortium for International Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and numerous governments and other organizations. He currently lives in Tanzania leading the implementation of USAID’s Feed the Future program.

 

Ufo Okeke Uzodike

Professor Uzodike is currently Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa. A political scientist, he had his early education in Nigeria and further studies at Wake Forest University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.   He is the editor of two peer-reviewed academic journals -Affrika: Journal of Politics, Economics and Society; and Ubuntu: Journal of Conflict Transformation.

 

John S Moolakkattu is Director of the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India. Between July 2008 and June 2010, he was the inaugural Gandhi-Luthuli Professorial Chair in Peace Studies at School of Politics, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa, and a Professor at IIT Madras.

         Professor Moolakkattu has published five books (three edited and two co-authored) and 71 research articles in rated national and international journals. He is the recipient of several academic awards including Commonwealth Scholarship, Commonwealth Fellowship, UGC Research Award and Fulbright Visiting Professorship. He has been serving as the Editor of Gandhi Marg (quarterly), the premier journal in Gandhian Studies published from New Delhi, for the last six years and is one of the founding editors of the academic journal: Ubuntu: Journal of Conflict Transformation.

 He can be reached at: moolakkattu@gmail.com

 

Pubilcation Date: March 30

Book Format	Price(In £)	Price(In $)
Paperback	£25	$
Hardback	£50	$
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Total Pages	ISBN
557	9781909112261(Paperback), 9781909112278(Hardback)