Peacekeeping issues in all their diversity have enjoyed persistent priority on the agenda of many African security specialists and practitioners. Increased attention, however, has contributed much more to reveal the complexity of the subject, rather than to the implementation of workable models. Despite a plethora of lessons learned from specific international and regional cases, many matters in this field of study remain unresolved. Training of African peacekeepers and much of the official doctrinal thinking still rely heavily on the United Nations-type approaches. Also, in situtations where western approaches to peacekeeping are being questioned the momentum is lost due to a lack of doctrinal consensus on the continent. Africa has yet to come up with a truly indigenous approach to peacekeeping. The fluid and insecure nature of conditions on the groud and the divergent motives of the warring parties can often be traced back to centuries of tension and conflict. The situation on the ground therefore increasingly renders the UN peacekeeping doctrine irrelevant and necessitates a critical look at traditional assumptions.