2024/05/21 by Mahamadou Samsoudine SADIO
#FOS: Languages and literature
paper · doi:10.48734/akofena.n012.vol.3.15.2024
Abstract: This article seeks to analyze how discourses can be tools of power and influence in understanding and resolving security crises in sub-Saharan Africa, and how competition and contradictions between these discourses can either prolong conflicts or contribute to their resolution. This approach highlights the importance of communicative and discursive dimensions in understanding the region's complex security crises. Issues relating to conflict, peace and security have attracted particular attention in recent decades due to coups d'état on the one hand and terrorism on the other. African countries that have been involved in violent conflict are characterized by abject poverty, inadequate services, slow economic growth and other challenges to overall development that prevent improvements in human security. It is for this reason that we have turned our attention to these conflicting issues, in order to sketch out some perspectives. Here, the discourse of conflicts refers to the narratives, histories and discourses produced by various actors involved in security crises in sub-Saharan Africa. The conflict of the discourses, however, refers to the contradictions, divergences and rivalries in the discourses surrounding security crises. It involves the coexistence of multiple competing narratives and interpretations, often in conflict with one another. These conflicting discourses may reflect the divergent interests, perspectives, agendas and worldviews of the different actors involved. Regarding the methodology, our approach commences with assembling the most notable historical events and subjecting them to rigorous analysis to establish robust perspectives aimed at ensuring peace and security. The expected results would likely provide insights into the historical roots of the security crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, the role of Indigenousness theory in understanding and addressing the conflict, and potential pathways towards sustainable peace that prioritize Indigenous agency and perspectives. Keywords: discourse, conflict, Africa, terrorism, security.