New Narratives for Peacebuilding in Africa and the Global South research group

Description

The New Narratives for Peacebuilding in Africa and the Global South research group examines alternative personal transformative practices (including plant medicines, meditation and indigenous healing traditions) and their role in peacebuilding and social transformation across the Global South, with particular focus on Africa and Latin America. It investigates three interconnected dimensions: how indigenous communities (such as Yoruba Babaaláwo practices in Africa and Ayahuasca traditions in Brazil) maintain and transmit peace-oriented knowledge systems; the impacts of Western appropriation and the psychedelic renaissance on these communities; and pedagogical questions around how these practices are represented (or excluded) in formal education versus sustained through intergenerational learning outside institutional structures. While peacebuilding scholarship has traditionally focused on institutions, governance reforms and elite negotiations, the group advances a complementary lens: how personal and communal transformation practices shape social cohesion, moral education, conflict resolution and post-conflict healing.

It plans an initial empirical focus on Africa and Latin America, with comparative attention to West Africa (Yoruba Bàbáláwo traditions), Central and Southern Africa (Iboga and Bwiti practice in Gabon; Kanna herbs and Khoisan people in South Africa) and Brazil, Costa Rica and the Amazon basin (Ayahuasca traditions). A central concern is how these practices are being reshaped by the Western psychedelic renaissance (including medicalisation, commercialisation, neo-shamanism and spiritual tourism) and the implications for indigenous communities, local economies, epistemologies and peace-oriented knowledge systems. The group is hosted by the African Leadership Centre within the King's College London Global Institutes, and held its opening event in June 2026.

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King's College London (KCL)
London