DIALOGUE AND PEACE BUILDING

DIALOGUE AND PEACE BUILDING

Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua

                       

Introduction

I was privileged to participate in a peace building training that was organized by the Christian Relief Services (CRS) in Nyeri, Kenya in 2010. Some of the materials used in that training were taken from the CARITAS MANUAL. I would like to share some of the fruits of that training in this essay by using the presentation of John Katunga on the principles of peace building. Katunga used the parable of tree planting in analysing the most enduring principle of peace building. He compared this to the wisdom of planting in a child what he / she can contribute positively to the next generations. Information imparted on a child is like a seed that is planted. This seed should reflect the capacity to prevent conflict, reconcile conflicts and plan strategies and skills that can help the human person. This will finally help the community and the society to have a sustainable peace. This is a reflection on how we can plant and sustain a peaceful coexistence at all levels especially ethnic and religious harmony in our world.

Principles of Peace Building

Among the principles that may serve as the seeds of lasting peace is the capacity to integrate all levels of intervention in conflict management. The leaders and peace builders must resist the temptation to take sides in contributing to the larger justice and peace issues. The peace builder must act locally and think globally but with the consciousness that no single level, activity, person, organization is able to bring peace in isolation of others. There is need for collaborative effort.

Integrating people, roles and activities is necessary akin to the spider that uses a combination of flexible threads and strands to make its web.  Forging relationships between people who are not like-minded but interdependent require a lot of skills and prayers.  In bringing about a good relationship between people of different groups, there is need and courage to talk to one another in accordance with the following principles:

Sustainability: This principle is akin to creation. It is an on going response capacity to address the cyclical nature of conflicts. Cyclical because it is not easy to forget the hurts that one suffers from a conflict. Invariably, the appeal to forgive and forget can only be successful in the capacity to forgive. Forgetting has to do with the memory so “forgive and forget” can only make sense if one accepts that even though “I remember the pain you caused me, I will not revenge”. In peace building, it is important that as you make progress, there is the need to go back and move again to build sustainable capacity. We should develop local capacities for peace that should survive us. In doing this we should not forget that there is a difference between Human right activism and peace building. For our peace initiative to survive us, we should create functional structures. This is an area where dialogue calls for people who are interested and ready to make sacrifice.

Strategic: The strategic principle has to do with proactive response to emerging issues while reinforcing longer and larger change process. If a person wants to succeed in using dialogue as a means to build peace, the person should not wait till there are conflicts before building good relationship with the people around him or her. When there was conflict in my village, it was easy for me to reach the elders and the chief because there was an existing relationship. It follows that we can not fold our hands when we see problems emerging. It is not my business often turns out to be the business of every body. Building relationship before conflicts is a potent means of building trust on both sides to attain a sustainable dialogue. This can also help in building committees that would be functional in development, reconstruction and response to emergencies when the need arises.

Vertical and Horizontal Capacity: In peace building and conflict management, there are questions we must respond to: When to act, where to act, what to react to and how to react. Who do you engage? There is need to identify the voice of reason by building vertical and horizontal capacity. You need people that have the capacity to reach the top from the bottom. In other words, people that can reach the poor, middle class, the rich and the people in leadership position. The people with the voice of reason can reach from top to bottom and verse versa. These people are very influential. This can be used to form the structure that can communicate at all levels to build bridges across divides in form of horizontal capacity.

The need to also build a vertical capacity is indispensable. In doing this, there is the need to identify people who are willing to carry the cross. The religious leaders fit into this group. However, the relevance of vertical relationship is the ability to talk to God in prayer so that the horizontal capacity can work in such a way that the vision of peace is animated with a mission that can take peace building to a point of martyrdom. The combination of the relationship with God on the vertical level and relationship with human beings on the horizontal level clearly defines the love of God which must spur us on. This love must recognize that on the horizontal level, a neighbour is created in the image of God (imago Dei). This awareness becomes an added advantage that can take us beyond the time of division akin to the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” (Luke 11, 4).

Infrastructure: This principle deals with the management of logistical mechanism and institutions. This is people relationships in the context of social spaces. This principle transforms violence and divisions to increased peaceful and interdependent relationship in order to create a space that is safe. Very often it is people that have no jobs that can easily be used for violence. If people have comfortable places to stay instead of sleeping under the bridge in our major cities and if everybody has a job to do to earn a decent living, then, the meaning of life will be enhanced. No one who has a value for life would want to be a suicide bomber.

Spirituality: This becomes necessary because if God does not build a house, in vain do the builders labour (Psalm 127, 1). God must be the beginning and end of our entire peace project.  God at the centre implies that we recognise human beings as creatures made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1, 26-27). We therefore must be conscious that we are having peace engagement with God’s people. The principle of spirituality is a recognition that our human capacities are limited and we constantly need help beyond ourselves. This calls for a change of attitude and inner conversion to bring about transformation. This principle is also the recognition that peace building is a form of evangelization. For God to take control, we need to follow our peace building with prayers.

Evaluation and Results

The effect of our peace building may not be immediately tangible. How do we know when we are successful? How do we know the desired results? How do we get the desired change? How are we sure that we are not fooled or deceived into pseudo peace? Evaluating the following indicators may give us some clue:        

• Trust: If for example, we can now eat and drink together. I can even leave a bottle of drink with the person with whom I have had conflict and come back to drink it again without fear of the drink being poisoned; we can then count on this indicator of trust that we are making progress.
• Work: The principles of peace building should guide our choices in our work. Peace building initiative includes who you work with, what you do, where you work. The indicator that you can work with somebody in the opposing camp after a conflict situation without fear gives a green light.

How do you identify the people you want to work with? You can begin by drawing the list of the people you can trust. It is not enough to ask the group for representatives. This can easily be politicised. People can be chosen on merit with close monitoring and evaluation.  You can even ask group A to choose those they want from group B to talk with and verse versa. Next, identify the type of action and be comprehensive having in mind that challenges are not failure. Learn from what is successful because emphasis on failure tells on your capacity.

Conclusion

The conflict manager must however be firm in insisting that self, pride and esteem even for the child cannot be compromised in the justification of superiority. He is aware that some people don’t see the opportunity of the moment because they are stunk to the past. So the process of reconciliation and transformation at different levels is indispensable. There is no substitute for peace and reconciliation. Let us keep the peace we have realized akin to weaving peace in the rift valley. This calls for healing of memory and peace building.

Peace building is a long term effort of building a peaceful and stable communities / societies. It is a process of strengthening and restoring relationships. It is a process of transforming unjust institutions and systems. Conflict resolution is immediate and time bound. Conflict transformation is a process that goes from stage to stage. It is sustainable when the root causes can be identified. It promotes growth and strengthens relationship. It is very important to be pro-active in peace building. For instance it is easier to make peace if one begins a cordial relationship and friendship say with a Muslim neighbour before the eruption of conflict. In the heart of conflict it is difficult to make friends.  

Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja; and Consultor of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City (comonokhua@hotmail.com).