Breaking the Cycle: Applying Systems Thinking to Violence Prevention in Africa

Begna Fufa Dugassa^1,

¹Public Health, The Oromo Studies Association, Canada

Cite this paper:
Begna Fufa Dugassa. Breaking the Cycle: Applying Systems Thinking to Violence Prevention in Africa. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2026; 14(4):90-102. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-14-4-3

Abstract

Background: African populations continue to grapple with the cumulative impacts of the slave trade, colonialism, and ongoing neocolonialism. This violence—encompassing epistemic, physical, psychological, and economic dimensions—is both intergenerational and interconnected, manifesting in complex systems of ongoing harm. Objectives: To identify the root causes of violence in Africa by examining the racist knowledge system and to highlight Indigenous African knowledge systems, specifically Oromummaa, as vital counter-epistemes. Methods: Utilizing a systems thinking framework, this paper investigates the structural drivers and social determinants of contemporary violence in Africa. The analysis maps the root causes and examines the interplay between positive and negative feedback loops that sustain cycles of conflict. Findings: Through a public health lens, violence is conceptualized as a contagious, predictable, and preventable phenomenon with a distinct incubation period. This study identifies a "racist episteme" as the foundational driver of systemic violence. This framework underpinned the colonial and neocolonial exploitation of African human and natural resources, directly resulting in societal fragmentation, poverty, and climate vulnerability. These stressors—specifically food and water insecurity—act as catalysts that intensify competition and trigger further violence. Conclusions: Breaking the cycle of violence requires delegitimizing the racist episteme and advancing Afrocentric knowledge systems, such as Oromummaa, which emphasize social justice, gender equity, and ecological harmony. True progress demands transformative education for healing and policy frameworks that are intersectional: just, environmentally sustainable, and culturally grounded.

Keywords:
Systemic thinking violence racist episteme prevention of violence Oromummaa Africa

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Holcomb, Bonnie & Ibssa, Sisay (1990) The Invention of Ethiopia, The Making of a Dependent Colonial State in North Africa, The Red Sea Press, Trenton.
[2]	Jalata, Asafa (2005) Oromia and Ethiopia. State Formation and Ethnonational Conflict 1868-2004.The Red Sea Press, Inc, Trenton, NJ.
[3]	De Salviac, Martial (1901/2005) An Ancient People, Great African Nation, The Oromo, Translation from the Original French Edition by Kenno, Ayalew,Father Martial de Salviac Missionary.
[4]	Lata, Leencho (1999) The Ethiopian State at the Crossroads: Decolonization and Democratization or Disintegration?, Red Sea Press, Laurelville, New Jersy.
[5]	Dugassa, Begna (2025) Colonial Pathology: The Experience of the Oromo People, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK.
[6]	Dugassa, Begna (2019) Where is the Global South in the Health Discourse? Attempt Forthcoming from the Oromo People’s Perspective, American Journal of Public Health Research, 2018, Vol. 6, No. 6, 243-252.
[7]	Dugassa Begna. (2021B). Structural Inequality (SI) and Underdevelopment of Public Health Conditions: the Experiences of Oromo people in Ethiopia. HPHR.; 30.
[8]	Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/life-expectancy-in-africa-is-lower-than-on-other-continents.
[9]	Dugassa, Begna (2024) “Climate Change and Violence in the Horn of Africa.” American Journal of Public Health Research, vol. 12, no. x (2024): 8-21. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-12-2-1.
[10]	Fricker, Miranda. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: University Press.
[11]	Audi, Robrt (1998) Epistemology, A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, Second Edition, Routledge, New York.
[12]	Seale, Clive (2006) Researching Society and Culture, Secondary Edition, Sage Publications, London.
[13]	WHO (2008) Closing the gap in a generation Health equity through action on the social determinants of health, https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/cb08095c-55c8-484e-bff6-0e9c78fd38dd/content.
[14]	APHA (2018) Violence is a Public Health Issue: Public Health is Essential to Understanding and Treating Violence in the U.S., Policy number 20185.
[15]	CDC (2025) About Violence Prevention, https:// www.cdc.gov/ violence-prevention/about/index.html.
[16]	Slutkin, Gary; Ransford, Charles and Zvetina Daria (2018). How the Health Sector Can Reduce Violence by Treating it as a Contagion, AMA Journal of Ethics, Volume 20, Number 1: 47-55.
[17]	Dugassa, Begna. (2008). Indigenous Knowledge, Colonialism and Epistemological Violence. The Experience of the Oromo People Under Abyssinian Colonial Rule, A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
[18]	Meadows, Donella (2008) Thinking in Systems. A Primer, Chelsee Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont.
[19]	Dugassa, Begna; Bachie Oli and Diba, Fantahun (2026) Climate Change and Public Health in the Horn of Africa: Mitigation Strategies and Resilience Building, The Journal of Oromo Studies 30 (2) Accepted for publication.
[20]	Dugassa Begna (2023) The Nexus Between Violence Against Children and Public Health: The Experiences of Oromo People in Ethiopia. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2023; 11(1):25-37.
[21]	O'Shaughnessy PT (2008). Parachuting cats and crushed eggs the controversy over the use of DDT to control malaria. Am J Public Health. Nov;98(11):1940-8.
[22]	WHO (2002), World Report on Violence and Health, Geneva, Switzerland.
[23]	Taylor, R. and Rieger, A. (1985). ‘Medicine as Social Science: Rudolph Virchow on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia’. International Journal of Health Services, 15(4): 547-559.
[24]	Dugassa, Begna (2017). Collective Violence and Public Health: The Experience of the Oromo People in Ethiopia. Sociology Mind, 7, 102-127.
[25]	Dugassa, Begna. (2004). Human Rights Violations and Famine in Ethiopia. The Journal of Oromo Studies, Vol.11, Number 1 and 2, page 47-68.
[26]	Ford, Richard; Adam Hussein and Ismail, Edna (2000) War Destroys, Peace Nurtures. Somali Reconciliation and Development, The Red Sea Press, Lawrenceville, NJ.
[27]	Mamdani, Mahmood (2002) When Victims Become Killers, Colonialism, Nativism,, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
[28]	Dugassa, Begna (2022) Fostering Healthy Social Policies and Sustainable Development: Employing Oromummaaa as a Framework of Thinking, The Journal of Oromo Studies, Vol. 28, No.1, pp65-90.
[29]	Dugassa, Begna (2021) The Public Health Significance of Religious Imposition: The Experience of Oromo People in Ethiopia. J Relig Health 60, 974–998.
[30]	Jalata, Asafa (2007) Oromummaaa: Oromo Culture, Identity & Nationalism, Oromia Publishing Company, P.O.Box 467472, Atlanta, Georgia, 31146.
[31]	Dugassa, Begna. (2019). Public Health Impacts of Famine in the Horn of Africa American Journal of Public Health Research, 2019, Vol. 7, No. 5, 171-181
[32]	Smith, Linda (2002) Decolonizing Methodologies. Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books Ltd, London.
[33]	Dugassa, Begna (2015) Epistemic Freedom and Development of Better Public Health Conditions: The case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia, Journal of Oromo Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1& 2, p199-238.
[34]	Dugassa, Begna (2011) Colonialism of Mind: The Experience of Oromo People in Ethiopia, Journal of Sociology of Mind, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp55-64.
[35]	Dugassa, Begna (2026) “The Ethiopian Discriminatory Educational Policies and Public Health Underdevelopment in Oromia.” The Journal of Oromo Studies 30 (1): 87–124.
[36]	FAO (2026) FAO Chief Economist warns of severe global food security risks from disruption to Strait of Hormuz trade corridor, https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-chief-economist-warns-of-severe-global-food-security-risks-from-disruption-to-strait-of-hormuz-trade-corridor/ en#: ~: text=Rising% 20input% 20costs% 20and% 20risks, baseline% 20usage%20is%20already%20low. (Retrieved on May 2, 2026).
[37]	Bulcha, Mekuria (2002) The Making of Oromo Diaspora: A Historical Sociology of Forced Migration, Minneapolis: Kirk House Publishers.
[38]	Hochschild, Adam (1998) King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Houghton Mifflin.
[39]	Slutkin, G. (2013). “Violence Is a Contagious Disease.” The Contagion of Violence. Institute of Medicine. Available at: www.cureviolence.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/01/iom.pdf.
[40]	Stone, Gregory (2010) Proxy War: A Critical Examination of Superpower Indirect Conflict in Africa. A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Political Studies, Faculty of Arts University of Manitoba.
[41]	Elkins, Caroline (2014) Britain's Gulag: Brutal Ends of Empire in Kenya, The Bodley Head, London.
[42]	Gathenya, Wambui (2003) Alternative education provisions for "street children" in Kenya, Ph.D thesis at University of Toronto, Canada.
[43]	Jalata, A. (2005a). State Terrorism and Globalization: The Cases of Ethiopia and Sudan: The Cases of Ethiopia and Sudan. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 46(1-2), 79-102.
[44]	Dugassa, Begna (2012) Denial of Leadership Development and the Underdevelopment of Public Health: The Experience of the Oromo People in Ethiopia. Journal of Oromo Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 &2, p139-174.
[45]	Human Rights Watch (2005) Suppressing Dissent. Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region. Volume 17, No. 7 (A).
[46]	Berger, Peter and Luckman, Thomas (1967) The Social Construction of Reality, A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, New York.
[47]	Foucault, Michael (1977) Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books.
[48]	Dugassa, Begna (2024) What are the Roles of Civic Organizations in Public Health Development? Attempting to Make Politics A Social Medicine in the Horn of Africa, American Journal of Public Health Research. 2024, 12(4), 87-99.
[49]	Jalata, Asafa (2016) Phases of Terrorism in the age of Hlobalisation. From Chrstopher Columbus to Osama bin Laden, Palgrave, Macmillan.
[50]	Wallack, Lawrence (2019) Building a Social Justice Narrative for Public Health, Health Education and Behavior, Vol. 46 (6) pps901-904.51.
[51]	Crichlow, W. (2002). Western colonization as disease: Native adoption & cultural genocide. Critical Social Work, 2(2), 104-126.
[52]	Dugassa, Begna. (2014). Reclaiming Oromo Indigenous Organizational Structures and Fostering Supportive Environments for Health, Archives of Business Research – Vol.2, No.1, p2-24.
[53]	Dugassa, Begna. (2012). Knowledge Construction: Untapped Perspective in Pursuit for Health Equity. Sociology Mind, 2, 362- 372.
[54]	Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) First International Conference on Health Promotion Ottawa, 21 November 1986 - WHO/HPR/HEP/95.1 http:// www.who.int/ hpr/ NPH/docs/ ottawa_charter_hp.pdf (Retrieved on March 18, 2012).
[55]	Dugassa, Begna. (2018). The Significance of Collective Rights to Public Health Development: The Case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia, American Journal of Public Health Research. 6(5), 203-214.
[56]	Glover, Chris & Makooie, Bobbak. (2018). Exposure to Community Violence as a Social Determinant of Health, Report to Toronto Board of Health.
[57]	Dowden, Richard (2009) Africa, Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, Public Affairs, New York.