No matter how little one knows about Africa, we cannot help but hear of raging poverty and out-of-control wars. Defying popular misconceptions, however, Seeds Bearing Fruit: Pan-African Peace Action for the Twenty-First Century recounts the stories of seemingly minor, local acts of creative resistance—acts that are the concrete basis for realistic hope. Based on an understanding that these acts will flower into new movements ready to right the wrongs of generations past, the authors draw their inspiration from the elders who have gone before us and the youth who work in our midst. This volume brings together grassroots activists, academics, nonviolent campaigners, local government officials, and researchers, from a wide variety of fields and from every region of the continent and Diaspora, to create a comprehensive picture of the budding initiatives that will make Africa a global force for good in the decades to come.

Contributors include Esi Sutherland Addy, Ousseina Alidou, Elombe Brath, Aminatou Haidar, Wangari Maathai, Joseph Sebarenzi, Paulos Tesfagiorgis, Anneke Van Woudenberg, and many others.

The logic of the country with the most powerful army in the world seems to be that peace can be made through war. Experience shows us the flaw in that logic. Experience in African wars shows that this logic leads to disaster. Seeds Bearing Fruit shows us that peacemaking is the way to peace.
?Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, from the foreword

Since the earliest days of building the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO), we strove to bring empowerment and justice to the smallest of grassroots communities, to the most remote villages and peoples. The essays in Seeds Bearing, which span the length and breadth of our diverse African continent, similarly cast a spotlight on local, community-based, indigenous initiatives. They point the way towards an African future of peace based on fairness, political democracy, and liberation.
?Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique

At a time when the news out of Africa is for the most part depressing, Seeds Bearing is a refreshing and uplifting account of recent developments on the continent. Through wide-ranging case studies, it provides empirical evidence of what various actors are doing to address the peace, security and development challenges facing Africa. Particularly significant is the fact that it indicates the potential cumulative effect these efforts could make to positively transform conditions on the continent, a much needed touch of optimism.
—Ambassador Frances Deng, UN Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide; Director of the US Institute for Peace Sudan Support Project; Senior Fellow and Africa Project Founder of The Brookings Institute

ABOUT THE EDITORS
Elavie Ndura-Ouédraogo is Associate Professor of Education at George Mason University where she also coordinates the Shinnyo Fellowship for Peacebuilding through Intercultural Dialogue. She co-authored 147 Tips for Teaching Peace and Reconciliation, and co-edited Building Cultures of Peace: Transdisciplinary Voices of Hope and Action. She is the Chair of the Peace Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the founder of the Burundi Schools Project.

Matt Meyer is the founding Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and a co-convener of War Resisters International Africa Working Group. Meyer is the author of Time is Tight: Urgent Tasks for Educational Transformation-Eritrea, South Africa, and the USA and co-author (with Bill Sutherland) of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation. He is also co-editor (with Elavie Ndura-Ouédraogo) of Seeds of New Hope: Pan- African Peace Studies for the 21st Century.

Judith Atiri earned her Ph.D. in political science in Vienna, working on issues regarding gender and social change in her native Nigeria. Affiliated with Nonviolent Communications, Inc., she has been active with the War Resisters League in 2005, and is currently teaching in Croton-on Harmon, New York.

CATEGORY
History, Politics, War and Peace Studies/AFRICA