Violence in Africa: Reflecting on a Broad Concept

The editors in this introductory chapter clarify the concept of violence. It is never a simple concept and should never be presented as such. In the Handbook violence is broadly examined across the African continent’s divisions of the North, East, Central, South and West. Diverse themes of violence are explored such as: the topography of violence, technologies of violence, terrorism, civil war and insurgent violence, child soldiers and violence, epistemic violence, structural violence, violence and memory, violence and the law, cultural mechanisms for creating, sustaining, resisting, and mitigating violence, political violence, violence in moments of religious, social and geo-political transformation, gender and violence, and violence against nature, among many other themes.