LocationsThe work of holding together: Five young African women on peace as safety, dignity, trust and shared civic work
September 17, 2026
Peace enters daily life through ordinary verbs: wake, speak, learn, return and gather. In North-East Nigeria, it is the certainty that a family member will come home. In Guinea, it includes the freedom of women and girls to speak within decisions that affect health and dignity. In Mauritius, it is dialogue held across religious and cultural difference. In Kenya and Rwanda, it has required national mediation and community processes capable of carrying truth, accountability and repair.
Across the reflections of five African Young Women Leaders fellows, peace emerges as the work of holding communities together while giving tension the serious attention it demands. Their analysis moves across public safety, education, health, economic inclusion, political participation and historical memory. People closest to conflict bring essential knowledge to its prevention and resolution. Sustainable peace grows when that knowledge is recognized, resourced and connected to authority.
Peace begins in lived reality
Zainab Abdulfattah, a Nigerian fellow placed in Ethiopia, brings the stakes into sharp focus. “Peace therefore for the people of my community is the ability to wake up without the fear of hearing bomb blast, to sleep without the fear of insurgents breaking into their houses and to go out with the certainty that they will make it back home safe.” Her perspective from North-East Nigeria places physical security at the foundation of daily freedom. Education and economic opportunity can reinforce that foundation by widening young people’s choices and strengthening coexistence. Zainab carries this analysis into practice through what she describes as “an initiative that I led in my community”, convening young people to discuss peaceful coexistence.
Peace therefore for the people of my community is the ability to wake up without the fear of hearing bomb blast, to sleep without the fear of insurgents breaking into their houses and to go out with the certainty that they will make it back home safe.Zainab Abdulfattah, 4th cohort AfYWL fellow
Mashoud Kaba, a Guinean fellow placed in South Africa, directs attention to quieter pressures. Her research on female genital mutilation in Guinea showed how household expectations can constrain the voices and choices of women and girls. Surface calm can coexist with unequal power. Alongside this, Mashoud sees social networks, shared responsibility and mutual support sustaining communities. She writes: “Peace, in this sense, is active.” Peer and community conversations can address sensitive issues, reduce stigma and open room for change. “What made these efforts effective was their grounding in trust.”
Siphesihle Tengetile Masuku, from Eswatini and placed in Rwanda, follows conflict through displacement, interrupted schooling, fragile livelihoods and weakened access to healthcare. “What I have come to understand about the absence of peace in communities and countries is that it's very personal and shows up in the everyday realities of people.” Her formulation makes dignity a measure of peace and positions social and economic recovery within the peacebuilding agenda.
What I have come to understand about the absence of peace in communities and countries is that it's very personal and shows up in the everyday realities of people.Siphesihle Tengetile Masuku, 4th cohort AfYWL fellow
Institutions can carry repair
The fellows also examine institutions created at moments of rupture. Siphesihle points to Rwanda’s Gacaca courts as a locally rooted process through which communities confronted the legacy of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. She emphasizes the encounter among testimony, accountability and reconciliation: “This created a space for truth telling and healing at the community level.” Her account treats community relationships as part of the institutional architecture of repair.
Lisa Akinyi Agutu, a Kenyan fellow placed in Rwanda, looks to the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation process following the 2007–2008 post-election violence. Mediation created a political route out of violence and toward agreement. Lisa then widens the lens to representation, proximity and public ownership. “Peacebuilding should be both for and by the people in order to be sustainable and inclusive.” Communities contain different ages, abilities, genders and socio-economic experiences, each carrying needs that peace processes must understand.
Peacebuilding should be both for and by the people in order to be sustainable and inclusive.Lisa Akinyi Agutu, 4th cohort AfYWL fellow
Marie Rebecca Jolicoeur, a Mauritian fellow placed in Senegal, offers lakorite: a Mauritian Creole concept of togetherness, accord and care across difference. “In short, this is how I will describe peace: it is making lakorite a lived reality in our everyday actions.” She points to Mauritius’s Council of Religions as an interfaith platform that can mediate, speak across communities and call institutions and citizens to account. National belonging gains strength through dialogue, solidarity and mutual respect practiced consistently.
In short, this is how I will describe peace: it is making lakorite a lived reality in our everyday actions.Marie Rebecca Jolicoeur, 4th cohort AfYWL fellow
Share authority with those building peace
Women and young people appear throughout these accounts as mediators, educators, organizers, advocates and early readers of tension. Lisa is unequivocal: “Women and young people are at the forefront of peacebuilding.” Mashoud traces their influence through family mediation, community groups and peer dialogue. Zainab places them at decision-making tables as shapers of peace. Siphesihle links women’s leadership with reconciliation and community rebuilding. Marie adds: “Women play an essential role as guarantors of peace.”
Women and young people are at the forefront of peacebuilding.Mashoud Kaba, 4th cohort AfYWL fellow
Their shared proposition concerns authority. Recognition must carry pathways into policy, institutions and formal negotiations. Education should equip young people to participate in peacebuilding and build secure livelihoods. Economic inclusion should support recovery and reduce pressures that deepen instability. Transitional justice should engage historical wounds and intergenerational trauma. Community processes should connect with national frameworks while retaining local ownership and the ability to respond to specific realities.
Young African women leaders are especially well placed to build these connections. Their work often spans community engagement, service delivery, advocacy and policy. They can organize intergenerational coalitions, translate lived experience into institutional choices and keep inclusion tied to accountability. Their leadership joins prevention with repair and civic energy with durable systems.
Peace as a public practice
The fellows offer a demanding and hopeful definition of peace: the capacity to live with safety, dignity and voice; to hold differences through trusted institutions; to address historical wounds and present inequalities; and to keep dialogue possible before tensions harden into violence.
The work of holding together is already underway in households, classrooms, faith councils, mediation rooms and community conversations. Its future strength lies in recognizing the people who carry it, investing in their leadership and sharing the authority to shape peace with them.