Leadership for peace and reconciliation is vital to making positive changes at all levels of society in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this qualitative study was to first identify essential factors in leadership for peace and secondly, how to develop those qualities within sub-Saharan African leaders in order to contribute to the solution of the leadership crisis that has led to malevolent leaders and conflict. The literatures describing a variety of leadership styles were explored as well as literatures on conflict and conflict resolution.
Key participant interviews were conducted with 20 leaders in the public, private and civil society sectors. The sample represented a broad spectrum of leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa, identified through the researcher’s collegial and professional networks. Most participants were well known for their work promoting peace and reconciliation for many years across Africa. Questions were designed to determine leaders’ career path, motivation and characteristics for peace and reconciliation. The NVivo software was used to help code the data. Using a grounded theory approach and after data analysis, four themes -framework emerged from the thick, rich descriptions provided through study participants’ interviews. The four themes were (a) Historical background, (b) Be, (c) Know and (d) Do.