Africa can hardly boast about the number of conflicts that have blighted this continent. On the other hand, it can lay claim to a rich history of negotiating its way out of all sorts of confrontations.

So should the world be listening a little harder to Africa and its experiences, as it ponders a way out of Syria's desperate war?

Some of its elder statesmen are arguing as much here.

South Africa, of course, leads the pack in terms of its own extraordinary track record of negotiating its way out of apartheid - albeit with serious bloodshed....