Political Histories and the Struggles for Peace: African and International Developments

The present lecture undertakes a retrospective analysis of Peace and Conflict Studies with reference to its African and International Developments. It highlights the critical scholarship within this field as co-created by African scholars and identifies the vested interest of people in the Global South to extending a peace steeped in experiences of development, international politics and peace processes.
The lecture singles out the contours of the field through which existing epistemologies in Peace, Conflict and Development studies encounter feminist contributions and gendered relations. It brings to light how a framework inspired by, and of relevance to, Africans counters the normalisation of armed conflict and requires visions of a new world to come. The talk is divided into four substantive sections to reflect how Peace and Conflict Studies, like International Affairs more broadly, ought to strive for global resonance rather than universal truth.
The identified African context requires a multi-level and multi-pronged approach befitting the policies and praxes it analyses in support of a balanced academic project.
A summary of Prof R Mageza-Barthel inaugural lecture delivered on 29 August 2023 at Unisa.