Reconciliation in Post-Colonial, Post-Conflict and Multi-Ethnic Africa

One of the difficult challenges facing many African countries today is the problem of negotiating successful transitions from histories tainted variously by colonialism, racial segregation, oppression and conflicts to a truly democratic dispensation. South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone are representative examples of countries on the continent that have attempted to confront violent and fractious histories of Apartheid, Genocide and Civil War respectively through the establishment of reconciliatory processes. The success of these processes are debatable and many of the problems that continue to plague African countries may well be attributed to the failure of post-colonial, post-conflict and multi-ethnic African states, to fully integrate. How new dispensations deal with an oppressive past will have a huge impact on how they consolidate their democratic gains.

The 18th annual conference of the International Society of African Philosophy and Studies hosted by the School of Philosophy and Ethics of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus), South Africa, from the 16th to the 18th of April 2012, will bring together scholars from a variety of intellectual backgrounds to explore the question of reconciliation in (post-colonial, post-conflict and multi-ethnic) Africa. The conference will enable participants to explore this broad theme in relation to nation-building and democratic sustainability in Africa.