Humankind is constantly growing in self- understanding. This is evident in the field of science and technology that have made possible exchanges of information and rapidity of transportation that would have been unimaginable even fifty years ago. With the collapse of imperial systems in the years since the Second World War we are conscious of human rights that are not limited by differences of gender, ethnicity, or race. These rights would have been invisible when the world was largely divided into the colonies of one or another nation. To an extent, they demonstrate humanity's capacity to progress and outgrow certain self-incurred immaturities. This spectacular advancement in diverse spaces presupposes that the human race leaves behind self-incurred immaturities like wars and conflicts and a disregard for the integrity of other people and now knows itself. The successful nation should have grown beyond immaturities like wars and territorial expansion and substitute for armed conflict rational analysis of its own identity. I suppose then that the benchmark for any progressive society should be premised on the notion that it leaves behind certain self-incurred immaturities like conflicts and rather use the faculty of reason to understand things related to itself.

We have, however, sadly to acknowledge that armed conflicts do not entirely belong to our past. This is because of the conflicts in Ukraine and in places in Africa like South Sudan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameron, and Mozambique. This raises questions on how we can learn to understand and contain the conflicts that assault our reason: Why should conflict still occur despite the presence of institutions like the United Nations or the African Union? Why should dialogue not always be preferred to armed conflict? How can peaceful priorities invariably displace armed conflicts? What priorities should institutions for the advancement of human progress serve?

This issue of Chiedza seeks an understanding of why people turn from dialogue to conflicts and wars. It centres on “Africa and World Conflicts”. The idea of conflict dominated the deliberation for a theme because of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and no issue of Chiedza has yet addressed armed conflict in isolation. The goal of investigating conflict is to understand humankind's tendency to conflicts and wars: what conflict is, its relations to humans, its response to conflicts, and a change of perspective in matters of conflict. The hope of this understanding is that it would inform the fundamental decisions and priorities the continent of Africa ought to focus on and the important goals its institutions ought to serve.

Agnes Behr and Mikhail Namweya observe that there is a new conflict in the scramble for Africa; a conflict where both old empires and recently developed nations have a renewed interest in Africa. The authors observe that these countries - Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany - partitioned the continent in the old scramble, whereas the new scramble has added the United States of America (US), China, Russia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, India, and Qatar seem to be in competition with one another and their competitive tactics are coming up against China’s rise to prominence in global economies and Russia rediscovered interest in Africa. covertly Russia’s inroads and "unbiased" justification of interest for Africa. The authors note that the presence of these countries in Africa perpetuates cultural colonialism - the imitation of foreign languages, customs, and feeling in the absolute loss of the national idiosyncrasy. This cultural colonialism undermines the efforts of regional bodies like the ECOWAS, ECCAS, and AU to successfully create a platform for the flourishing of trade and conflict management. Both authors further raise concerns over Russia's arms sales, China's debt-Diplomacy, and the apparent willingness of some African states to submit to Chinese imperialism. They conclude that African autonomy is being compromised by the presence of these countries offering 'help' disguised as disinterested aid.

With a view of critically analysing the current conflicts in the central and northern provinces of the country and evaluating the impact of the United Nations peace intervention after the civil war, Ernesto Graciano delves into the conflicts in Mozambique. He argues that conflict is a natural phenomenon in society, and in Africa, its major sources are ethnicity, regionalism, marginalisation, and elitism. He posits that regionalism, tribalism, and ethnicity are major drivers of conflict in Mozambique, given the protracted political centralisation of power, economic centralization of the use of natural resources, elitism of political leadership and marginalisation of the Centre to North. Graciano uses the frustration-aggression theory, which is premised on the notion that the behaviour of people in society is connected to their frustrations. He holds that the conflicts in Mozambique are struggles for the inclusion of marginalised regions in the country. He concludes that Mozambique should support local initiatives for building unity, harmony and cooperation among the people by eliminating ethnicity, regionalism, and tribalism to give way to harmony and cooperation.

Gwaza Tersoo identifies the root causes of conflicts and insecurities in Africa as individualism - the notion of only I, me, and myself. He brings in the notion of resourcement as a solution to the many conflicts and insecurities in Africa; which entails going back to the sources of Africa’s ontological philosophy, the very being of one existing because of a community. He posits that the looming and protracted conflicts and insecurities across the continent but especially in South Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria result from the borrowed notion of individualism, which is incompatible with Africa’s ontological philosophy. Referring to it as communalism or community, Gwaza says that each person in Africa, even before birth, belongs to a community and no one claims to live in isolation but in a community; thus, communalism underlies Africa’s ontological philosophy and any attempt to lose this philosophy would be disastrous for Africa because individualism, as it were, is like a single tree somewhere in the forest which cannot make a whole forest no matter how many branches it has.

Conflict is not peculiar to Africa nor is individualism. Denis Relwindé Ramde considers dialogue as the more valuable alternative if conflict resolution is to be resized. Building on Eric Weil’s idea of dialogue as the opposite of reason or the ‘other possibility of a man’, he argues that violence is a reality to be eradicated from human actions and dialogue remains the means through which violence is prevented. Drawing from the Weilian perspective, he divides conflict into three: sentimental, work-like or existential, and nature conflicts. Finally, he presents opportunities offered by dialogue in the management of violence in which he says that dialogue provides the common ground for understanding conflict between the anthropos and the Other, where its end is to promote living together.

If the notion of dialogue becomes the more universal approach to conflict resolution, what should be the nature of this dialogue, how can dialogue be realised and what should precede dialogue? Jacques Koko attempts an examination of what ought to precede dialogue. He proposes meditative mediation for conflict management and peace-making, which is the notion that practising meditation increases the predisposition for dialogue. Relying on data collection from male and female participants who were at least eighteen years of age in Vedic City and at the Maharishi University of Management, where people practise Transcendental Meditation, and different populations of meditators made of Jesuits in Africa, Koko claims that the “practice of meditation would increase subjects’ inclination to negotiated problem-solving for conflict management and peace-making” since “the peace dwelling inside one’s mind and body would likely contaminate or spill over into one’s social environment” and such a “mind that would be able to make peace with itself would be able to make peace with others.

Meditation and contemplation have a long history; in ancient Greek, it was a way of life which ensures one becomes wiser and happier and in the middle of the sixteenth century it was a pathway to finding one’s way to God. Kouakou N’zi Koffi offers an analysis of the ancient Greek conception of meditation and the sixteenth-century conception of meditation. Drawing from Pierre Hadot’s Philosophy as a Way of Life and St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, Kouakou discovers that there is a profound relationship between the meditation of the ancient Greeks and the meditation in the Spiritual Exercises. One such relationship is that meditation is a practice of dialogue since dialogue in itself concerns questioning what one is; hence, it is a dialogue with oneself, a dialogue with God, a dialogue with the spiritual director, and dialogue even with nature.

Drawing from the thoughts in Jacques Maritain’s Integral Humanism, Christian Lusakueno Ntsolani offers a commentary on the notion of a new Christendom. Therein Maritain instructs that the study of philosophy consists in giving an account of what is, it is a place where theory and action, not to say practice, follow the same path. In other words, it is a question of what man is and man’s relationship with freedom and the attainment of progressive emancipation of man. From this basis, Ntsolani comments that the new Christendom is characterised by the unity of social races and the collective task of realising a fraternal community. Ntsolani’s comments on the “Historical Ideals of the New Christendom” ends with a focus on the influence of Aquinas' theology on Jacques Maritain.

We trust that the academic articles in this edition will provide original commentary on the diverse realities surrounding conflicts and wars. We also hope they will make available the critical discourses which are indispensable if we are to attain the socio-economic and political development and coherence we greatly desire in Africa. Some of these articles also propose solutions to the problems surrounding conflict-torn countries. Other articles which do not directly address our theme also bring to our awareness topical issues so that by reflecting on them we can acquire more autonomy over our lives in Africa. These articles are followed by a book review and a poem. The book review is Dr Ugo Nweke’s review of Afrocism by Emeka Dike. The poem, “Mother Talks With Gaps” is by Oguike Ugochukwu.

A word of gratitude goes to the Editorial Board of Chiedza, Journal of Arrupe Jesuit University for their invaluable and unswerving support, availability and ardent commitment to the Journal. I remain thankful to Agber Thaddeus Igbalumun (Asst. Editor-in-Chief) for his prompt and forthcoming assistance and generosity; I Salute you. I also want to thank Victor Eledi for designing this issue and laud his relentless assistance in the layout process. I remain grateful to the venerable Anthony Chennells for his wise counsel and guidance as well as his unparalleled intellectual and academic prowess. I also extend my gratitude to the administration of Arrupe Jesuit University, more-especially Dr Evaristus Ekwueme (Pro-Vice Chancellor Academics) for his continuous support. Finally, special thanks go to our authors. This issue is possible only because our contributors took the time to write on problems that they have pondered on and shared their conclusions with us. I greatly appreciate your invaluable contributions, patience and cooperation. Thank you so much our beloved authors. God bless Chiedza Journal in its endeavour to light up Africa and beyond.