Abstract
This chapter explores the intersection of communication and peacebuilding within African contexts, highlighting the current issues shaping peacebuilding praxis and the roles communication plays in building peace. Through an analytical review of academic and practitioner-oriented literature, the authors identify three key issues shaping current peacebuilding praxis in Africa-inclusion of historically underrepresented voices, adaptation to evolving technologies, and better assessment of peacebuilding efforts-finding a notable shift toward increased participation by gender, locally led initiatives, and civil society engagement in peacebuilding efforts. This review then considers communication's constitutive and foundational role in the process of building peace, highlighting the conceptual diversity of approaches toward communication in the literature, from positivist transmission models to social constructionist perspectives. Notably, three key types of communication seem central to peacebuilding in the African context: dialogue, media, and peace journalism. The chapter then turns to the future directions and opportunities identified within this research, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of and greater use of various modes of communication to construct lasting, locally led, Afrocentric peacebuilding efforts, thus offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners committed to fostering sustainable peace in Africa and beyond.