This framework teaching model evolved from the curriculum development workshop ‘Developing Teaching Resources on the Nonviolent Transformation of Conflict’, held in response to requests from academicians and leaders of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after visits by faculty and staff of the University for Peace (UPEACE) Africa Programme in 2002. The University of Natal’s Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies Programme hosted the workshop in Durban, South Africa, 27–31 October 2003. Its sponsors included the University for Peace, affiliated with the UN, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). It was the first of a series of activities aimed at developing materials and an institutional network for peace and conflict studies programmes throughout Africa. The forty-three conference participants included scholars and
administrators from various disciplines representing seventeen African universities and relevant NGOs.

The primary goal of this framework teaching model is to increase the teaching of peace and conflict studies across the African continent, in particular teaching the nonviolent transformation of conflict. This model can be used as the basis of a course within an existing peace studies programme, as the nucleus of a new peace programme, as a supplement to an existing course in history or political science, or as an independent subject. The topics discussed lend themselves to the development of additional courses. The readings and photographs presented here are copyrighted, but all other material may be freely reproduced.