Towards an indigenous model of conflict resolution: Reinventing women’s roles as traditional peacebuilders in neo-colonial Africa

Women have always been at the centre of peace processes across differentpre-colonial African societies. Their peace agency in these societies can belocated in their cultural and socio-political roles as well as their contributionsto the overall well-being of these societies. It is noteworthy that women’speacebuilding roles then were reinforced by perceptions which stereotypedwomen as natural peacemakers, and as being more pacific than men. However,women in neo-colonial African states appear to have lost this myth/sacrednessthat surrounded their being and social existence in pre-colonial Africa. This isbecause apart from being marginalised socially, economically and politically,they have increasingly become victims of male violence.How and why did women transform from being active participants in precolonialpolitics and peace processes to being passive observers of politics andpeacebuilding in neo-colonial Africa? And second, given their pre-colonialpeacebuilding antecedents, do women have the potential to transform politicsand conflict in neo-colonial Africa?