Sustainable Peace, Peace Ecology and Ecological Peace Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa

This brief essay develops the theme in ten parts. In Sect.1 the author distinguished between two phases of the Anthropocene since 1945 to 2020 and for the next 80 years with a projected major demographic transition and major changes due to anthropogenic climate change. Section 2 contrasts a longer-term trend of violent conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1946 to 2019 with a snapshot on 2020. Section 3 reviews the impacts of global climate change and the human-induced disasters in Africa while Sect. 4 mentions five sub-Saharan African peacemakers: Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, Kofi Annan, Laymah Gbowee and Denis Mukwege who worked to contain violence and to cope with the environmental crisis. In sect. 5 the author introduces three conceptual pillars of a peace studies programme for Sub-Saharan Africa by briefly sketching a ‘sustainable peace concept’ (Sect. 6), a ‘peace ecology approach’ (Sect. 7) and proposing an ‘ecological peace policy’ for Africa (Sect. 8) emphasising why these concepts matter for Sub-Saharan Africa in the second phase of the Anthropocene (Sect. 9) and in conclusion it offers an outlook for a closer scientific cooperation between EU and AU countries that should not only address technological innovation but also peace and ecology issues and concerns.