By Marc Eliot Stein, World BEYOND War, December 20, 2025

“Colonialism didn’t end with the raising of African flags,” Sellah King’oro told me as we spoke on the World BEYOND War podcast to celebrate “Imagine Africa Beyond War”, a regional peace conference that gathered speakers from more than 17 countries last month. I was already trying to grasp the enormity of a gathering that included all of WBW’s chapters in Africa, including Burundi, Cameroon, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Gambia, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, South Sudan, South Kiwu, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Isingoro Nakivale, Burkina Faso and Malawi. I was mostly struck by the enormity of the one good idea that motivated this peace conference: Africa can define its own future for itself, and is already doing so.

Sellah King’oro began her peacebuilding career working on local problems in her region of Kenya, and is now looking towards pan-African philosophies and initiatives as a key path forward, and a path away from the ruinous trajectory of a planet dominated by war and greed. Sellah sees Ubuntu as the essential idea that unifies activists from diverse backgrounds. Even the activity of getting together across long distances for a peace conference or a podcast is an expression of Ubuntu, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all human fates, and warns away from the foolish delusion that it is possible for a person or a society to achieve happiness while harming neighbors and creating enemies by ignoring the effects of actions on others.

We talked about many things during this unstructured conversation (including the fact that Ubuntu was chosen as the name of a popular and influential operating system that powers organizations like World BEYOND War). We talked about the African Union, reparations, south/south partnerships, gang violence, policing, and the importance of finding alternatives to rotten and corrupt neo-colonialist leadership that often dominates African nations. Finally, we spoke about the courage of African peacebuilders and activists who are suffering or have suffered for the important and difficult work of healing societies broken and torn by war.

Thanks to Sellah King’oro for talking with me on episode 79 of the World BEYOND War podcast! Music excerpt: “Mali-ko” by Voices United for Mali.

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