At the beginning of this book, the Court was described as a child in its teens trying to find its feet in a very complex international system which is already rooted in well-established principles such as state sovereignty and immunity, and where politics is omnipotent. In the African oral tradition, there is a saying that despair and fear have a nullifying effect upon a man's activity and throw him into confusion. That is why the initiation process in many African societies contains a test of courage. It is an exercise of the will, a struggle with oneself. The saying captures what the Court has been through since its establishment when the Rome Statute entered into force in 2002. It has been thrown into confusion, when those who had first supported it turned their backs on it and continue to threaten it with withdrawal and even decided not to cooperate with it. In Darfur, the Office of Prosecutor had to decide to suspend new investigations due to a lack of foresight from the UN Security Council. The Court is undergoing some form of initiation process to test its resolve and to shake some of the relics of international systems such that humanity can at least actually strike back when confronted with the evil of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and hopefully aggression.

In Africa, the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta captured the effect that the existence of the Court was having on some of the continent's ruling elite – it was giving them nightmares.