While some have portrayed the court as the epitome of many of the things that are wrong with the international justice system others see it as a key instrument in the punishment and prevention of gross human rights violations in Africa and the insurance of justice for its victims. [...] Present were a representative of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, a judge representing the President of the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the President of the East African Court of Justice, the Deputy Prosecutor of the African Extraordinary Chambers for the trial of Hissène Habré and a representative of the spec. [...] How is the ICC perceived by African states that are signatories to the Rome Statute as opposed to the African Union, which represents all states on the continent? What is the extent of the homogeneity or heterogeneity of such perceptions, and how can we explain such perceptions and their changing dynamics over time? How can the challenge of coherence between the ICC and African justice, human righ. [...] To what extent are the actions of the ICC in Africa the result of its manipulation by powerful countries, and a reflection of global inequalities, which have historically resulted in the instrumentalization of many other international institutions like the WTO, World Bank and IMF by powerful actors? The significance of the politics and of history is invoked by Odinkalu who broaches the question of. [...] In a sense the process of clarifying this difference between international criminal justice, and its current incarnation in the form of the ICC, and 'political processes' is part of the much needed task of properly locating international criminal justice and the ICC in a broader social scientific discourse that goes beyond the severely restricted legalistic garb in which they 5Onoma: Editorial are.