London: Quaker exhibition features stories from African peacebuilders

Cécile Nyiramana

This week at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, being held at ExCeL in London from June 10 -12, Quaker Peace & Social Witness present excerpts from an extraordinary book and exhibition of photographs: This light that pushes me. African peacebuilders relate their journey from violence to healing to activism.

The book and exhibition feature more than 20 peacebuilders from sub-Saharan Africa, all are Quakers or involved with Quaker work and all have experienced violence. Using photographs and personal testimonies, This light that pushes me traces the journeys that have transformed that suffering into a force for social change. Some stories can be heard here www.quaker.org.uk/Peacebuilder-stories

Among the testimonies is this from Cécile Nyiramana from Rwanda who says: “Someone can’t forgive with a broken heart. We need first to heal our wounds...Then start the work of peace and reconciliation.”

More than 40 peacebuilders in Africa offered their stories and conducted many of the interviews with one another. The stories were gathered and edited by Laura Shipler Chico, programme manager for Peacebuilding in East Africa for Quaker Peace and Social Witness, a department of Quakers in Britain.

Speaking about the inspiration for the project, Laura Shipler Chico said: “Weaving throughout these stories is the belief that somewhere within our imperfect selves, however hidden under layers of grief, loss, tragedy, hurt, and disillusion, there is something good, something wise, something knowing. And it is this Divine kernel that pushes us to keep struggling to fix our broken world; to transform hurt and grief and the human lust for vengeance into something new, into a commitment to peace no matter the cost. This book invites us to do what the peacebuilders in this book have been striving to do for a long time: listen – with simplicity – for the truth. And when we hear it, let us walk side by side right into the heart of hurt, the deep and frightening darkness, and look for light.”

The photographer, Nigel Downes said: “I want people to look at these photographs and recognise something of themselves in them.”

Commending the book, John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame writes: “Enter this book with care. Turn the pages slowly. Watch and read with respect, the kind that asks you to look, and then look again. Hold the gaze of these eyes longer than normal, for they speak from deep, too often invisible and silent pools of compassion. Listen, as they have, from the ear of the heart and you will find what has long been understood and true from Quaker tradition -- there is that of God in every person. And when we notice that divine spark we feel the hope that our broken family can find the way to restitch the fabric of our common humanity. Here are the faces of our beloved community. Prepare to receive their gift and hold it close.”

The exhibition will be at stall G5 at the Fringe Event at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence, held at the Excel Centre 11 – 13 June.

For more information about the summit, see: www.esvcsummit.com/

This light that pushes me, published by Quaker Books, ISBN 9781907123665, extent 80pp, hardback, price £12 Contributors: Nigel Downes (photographer); Laura Shipler Chico (editor); Hezron Masitsa (Foreword). Available online at www.quaker.org.uk/africa-peacebuilders and from the Quaker Centre bookshop at Friends House.