Kujenga Amani: Peacebuilding in Africa

In this episode of the Kujenga Amani Podcast, Professor Siphokazi Magadla reflects on her journey as a South African scholar of political science and journalism, and an activist who aims to center the existence, imagination, and hopes of African women, girls, and children in the work towards ensuring a future that sustains the dignity, vitality and creativity of human life. Professor Magadla reflects on the deep entanglement of our lives and the urgency of reimagining the global order—not just to reform it, but to dismantle and rebuild it entirely to eradicate what she describes as an unworkable social, political, and economic fabric antithetical to peace and cohesion. She urges African scholars, practitioners, and activists to take for granted that Africans have always been theorists of the world, encourages them to revisit moments of persevering struggles for liberation, asks that they consider the morality that guides their generation, and warns against disillusionment. What does it mean to live in a world where wealth is hoarded and inequality reigns? What happens when we lose the language to name the future we want? Professor Magadla emphasizes the moral imperative for Africans to resist and to embed in their liberation an ethics of love, for the survival of the planet and the flourishing of the African imagination.   Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of rape, specifically from the timestamp 26:26 to 27:44, which may prove emotionally challenging. Please feel free to skip this section if needed.         

Our guest today is Dr. Monde Muyangwa, an expert on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Africa, democracy and governance, gender, US foreign policy, and the African Union. She currently serves as the director of the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center where she leads programs designed to analyze and offer effective, practical solutions to Africa's most pressing current and future issues. Among these initiatives is the Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding, a consortium of research and policy organizations from across Africa. The network seeks to foster local knowledge production and dialogue, and to increase the visibility of African perspectives on peacebuilding within the U.S. policy arena. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, she served as Academic Dean at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University for 11 years. She also worked as the Director of Research and then Vice President for Research and Policy at the National Summit of Africa as well as Director of International Education Programs at New Mexico Highlands University. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Freedom House and previously served on the Advisory Council of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a project of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.  

For the latest installment of the African Peacebuilding Network's Kujenga Amani podcast, we sat down with Search for Common Ground's vice president of programs, Lena Slachmuijlder, an accomplished journalist, editor, human rights defender, director, producer, performing artist, cultural facilitator, trainer, and project manager with over twenty-five years of experience in peacebuilding. Lena joined us to discuss how Search for Common Ground measures the impact of its work; the organization's unique approach to peacebuilding that emphasizes practical, hands-on, grassroots-focused methods; and how to build synergies between researchers, local practitioners, and communities.

Since the founding of the African Union (AU) in 2002, its role in promoting peace and security on the continent has evolved considerably. Compared with its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, the AU has played a more active role in peacekeeping and peace support operations. For the third episode of the APN's Kujenga Amani podcast, we sat down with Paul D. Williams, a professor of Security Policy Studies at George Washington University's Elliot School of International Affairs. He is an expert in the politics and effectiveness of peace operations, the dynamics of war and peace in Africa, emerging threats in international security, and has published extensively on the peace and security architecture of the African Union. Professor Williams spoke with us about the history of the African Union's peace and security institutions, the factors shaping the future of African peace operations, and his personal experiences researching and writing about the African Union.  

International peacebuilding efforts in conflict-affected countries, including the DRC, typically prioritize top-down approaches. According to Séverine Autesserre—an expert on peacebuilding, humanitarian aid, and African politics—international peace organizations rarely tap into local knowledge and expertise or consider the voices of local communities. For episode 2 of the APN (SSRC) Kujenga Amani podcast, we spoke with Séverine Autesserre, a professor of Political Science at Barnard College, about the overall impact of international peacebuilding efforts in the DRC, the difficulty of building peace from the top down and without input from the intended beneficiaries, and the potential for local peacebuilding efforts to transform conflict situations in the DRC and beyond.