A new open-access chapter entitled “Precolonial, Colonial, and Postcolonial Conflict and Forced Migration in Africa” by Rose Jaji and Ulrike Krause has been published in The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies: Perspectives from the Global South, edited by Siddharth Tripathi and Solveig Richter. The chapter offers a historically grounded analysis of conflict and forced migration across Africa, challenging dominant Western perspectives and highlighting the importance of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial dynamics in shaping contemporary displacement on the continent.

Abstract: In this chapter we draw on our research with displaced people, conflict, violence, gender, and humanitarian aid between 2006 and 2024 in different African countries, which we conducted separately but were brought together by these shared research interests. We address the nexus between conflict, peace, and forced migration using examples from Africa. We situate the discussion within the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras, which we take not as mere footnotes but as salient periods in the continent’s history that have influenced current conflicts and forced displacement in Africa. We therefore emphasize the role of history in understanding contemporary conflicts and forced migration on the continent. In doing so, we critique Western research perspectives on forms of violence and their ahistorical explanations of contemporary violent conflicts in Africa. We explain the role of colonial borders not only in engendering conflict but also in creating structural obstacles for refugees to contribute to transformation in countries of origin. We also critique the separation of peacebuilding in the countries of origin from refugee protection in host countries and highlight this as a limitation of global (i.e., Western) perspectives on peacebuilding.

Jaji, Rose and Krause, Ulrike (2025), ‚Precolonial, Colonial, and Postcolonial Conflict and Forced Migration in Africa‘, in Siddharth Tripathi and Solveig Richter (eds.), The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies: Perspectives from the Global South (New York, London, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic), 197–218. Open Access: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/encyclopedia-chapter?docid=b-9798881842390&tocid=b-9798881842390-chapter9&pdfid=9798881842390.ch-009.pdf