This paper reviews the mediation experiences by presenting a chronology that starts from Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi’s intervention in Uganda’s civil war in 1985 and ends with Botswana’s former President Ketumile Masire’s mediation of the conflict in the DRC in 2002. This chronology of experiences depicts African actors gradually learning how to manage mediation roles, witnessed in the practice of presidents ceding mediation functions to elder statesmen and special envoys.