The Complexity of Peace: A Case Study of the Peaceful Islamic-Christian Coexistence in Senegal

In the field of Peace and Conflict studies most research focuses on the conflict side while instances of peace receive little attention. This thesis strives to evaluate Robert Ricigliano’s Structural, Attitudinal, and Transactional (SAT) model of peacebuilding by examining the peaceful coexistence between Senegalese Muslims and Christians. Through personal experience and observations, literature review of historical texts, indices, surveys, and journals, statistical analysis, and informal correspondence with Senegalese citizens, this project discusses two main questions: (1) Do Senegalese Muslims and Christians coexist in a genuine peace? (2) If a genuine Islamic-Christian peace exists in Senegal, what factors have significantly fostered this actuality? The findings to these two questions partially support the SAT model. In Senegal, though factors at all three levels of the SAT model exist, structural factors seem much weaker than attitudinal and transactional factors in fostering Islamic-Christian peace. This reinforces the notion of the complexity of peace and conflict and reminds that no formula exists for peacebuilding. Each situation of peace and conflict is unique and therefore will have different and perhaps unbalanced combinations of structural, attitudinal, and transactional factors. These findings will bring new insights and perspectives for how to approach peacebuilding efforts and research