Africa's Peacemakers: Nobel Peace Laureates of African Descent

Adekaye Adebajo

Feb 2014 · Zed Books Ltd.

About this ebook

As Africa and its diaspora commemorate fifty years of post-independence Pan-Africanism, this unique volume provides profound insight into the thirteen prominent individuals of African descent who have won the Nobel Peace Prize since 1950. From the first American president of African descent, Barack Obama, whose career was inspired by the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles promoted by fellow Nobel Peace laureates Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Albert Luthuli; to influential figures in peacemaking such as Ralph Bunche, Anwar Sadat, Kofi Annan, and F.W. De Klerk; as well as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Wangari Maathai, and Mohamed El-Baradei, who have been variously involved in women's rights, environmental protection, and nuclear disarmament, Africa's Peacemakers reveals how this remarkable collection of individuals have changed the world - for better or worse.

About the author

Dr. Adekeye Adebajo has been Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa, since 2003. He previously served as Director of the Africa Programme of the New York-based International Peace Institute, when he was also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He also served on United Nations missions in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq. He obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in England, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of four books, and the editor or co-editor of a further seven.