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NON-VIOLENCE AS AN INDIGENUOS PRINCIPLE IN AFRICAN PEACEBUILDING 
PROCESSES. 
Peaceful and nonviolent approach to building in the society has always been utilized by 
Africans for a long time. Such approaches are employed by communities based on their values and 
beliefs to ensure continuous peaceful co-existence within them and with other neigbouring 
communities. There has always been in Africa variety of peaceful and nonviolent local initiatives 
and traditions employed to respond to permanent instabilities and different violent conflicts as well 
as other levels of disputes in communities. 
These variety of traditional methods in which the principle of nonviolence is entrenched 
can be classified into two general groups, namely: proactive or preventive mechanisms and the 
reactive mechanisms. 
 
PROACTIVE/PRVENTIVE NON-VIOLENT MECHANISMS 
These are indigenous African methods used by Africans to prevent the outbreak of 
conflicts, to de-escalate potential conflicts or keep conflict from becoming manifest. This is an 
aspect of peacebuilding that is crucial and of paramount importance to Africans. Traditional 
communities in Africa are held by traditions and cultures that down play conflicts through the 

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promotion of humanness 
(Ubuntu), 
community life, togetherness and clustering of groups. These 
preventive methods entails community based trust, confidence building measures, communication 
and communal collaboration. They are usually expressed in collective activities that ensure social 
cohesion such as building houses, bridges, roads and sharing of markets among others (Best, 
2006). 
Other nonviolent traditional ways employed by Africans to prevent conflict and ensure 
peaceful co-existence at all levels of relationship are entrenched in their proverbs, words of 
ancestors, songs, festivals, dances, joking relationships e.t.c. These traditional aspect of 
Peacebuilding basically promote nonviolence as the best way of sustaining peace in the society.