Text: Rev Dr Patrick Devine SMA at NJPN Conference 2022

Peacebuilding in Africa

'Transforming Inter-ethnic Conflict and Religious Ideological Extremism; an empowering methodology to secure Positive Peace' was the title of a presentation on 23 July by Rev Dr Patrick Devine SMA at the 2022 annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales. The overall theme of the conference was, 'Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up'. Fr Devine is the founder and chairman of the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, an inter-religious organisation pioneering conflict resolution and development work in strife-ridden areas of East Africa. An outline of his talk follows:

Our context in East Africa is a drought in Northern Kenya and a huge food crisis. Structural violence in a multi-ethnic context is prevalent - we are for example concerned about arms trading - and environmental issues such as climate change are an increasing challenge. Structural violence hinders agencies addressing human needs.

So, Shalom was set up in 2009. The mission is to work towards a society free of physical violence and unjust social structures in East Africa. I had became concerned that I was just addressing the symptoms of problems and decided to empower local people to address the root causes of conflict and misery. We started our training. Only 2% of those involved were women originally but now it's 38-40%. We trained in peacebuilding techniques, working towards reconciliation between people and with God's creation.

Sometimes, it is extremely difficult for social and religious values of peace, truth, justice, and mercy to take deep communal root. Too often the culture legitimises violence. Gospel values are of utmost importance for people to live normal lives aspiring to the fullness of sustainable peace and reconciliation. The core objective of Shalom is to attain conflict resolution and reconciliation for the people of Africa, evidenced by sustainable peace and integrated human development. History continues to tragically demonstrate that structural conflict left untransformed has a lethal potential to escalate into manifest violence. Its too easy to do nothing.

The pursuit of reconciliation is imperative in humanity's quest for human security, living with dignity, and environmental sustainability. Reconciliation is ultimately oriented towards having proper relationships with the 'Divine', humankind, oneself, and the environment.

Shalom's approach is to its work with tribal and community leaders on education, empowerment and transcending ethnic and religious boundaries to get to the root causes of conflict. This deep-rooted approach allows for social and religious values like peace, truth, justice and mercy to take root, enable sustainable development evolve, and progressively enliven people to actualise their potential.

The training that Shalom imparts to grassroot representatives and stakeholders of the various ethnic groups incorporates intensive research and analysis of issues and contextualised conflict transformation approaches. Communities are empowered in their understanding and application of various nonviolent techniques that they can use to resolve their own conflict. Once taken through a series of training, they are brought together for inter-ethnic trust building aimed at slowly re-building and healing deep wounds.

In the first 12 years of the Shalom Center, 720 peacebuilding interventions have been implemented in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan, and more than 20,000 local peace actors empowered with skills and techniques for conflict transformation and peacebuilding. More than 500 school/educational development projects have been completed, including classrooms and accommodation and solar lighting. 142,560 pupils and students have been engaged in Conflict Transformation in schools and at community level through Shalom's Peace Education Syllabus. More than 60 Peace Club Patrons have been trained to facilitate Peace Education in schools and support School Peace Clubs.

Details of the peacebuilding work of Shalom can be found at: https://shalomconflictcenter.org/.

All talks from the 2022 Annual NJPN Conference 'Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up' are available at:
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4HAuivOZMEVt5GE-gSBfoVQbZ4PtE_av