Initiatives of Change
December 2012 – No 33
After a bomb exploded in Nairobi on 18 November, sparking riots, two renowned peacemakers from Nigeria, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, were able to respond quickly, leading prayers at the scene of the blast and calling on the community ‘not to make the same mistakes that have been made in Nigeria’. The peacemakers were in Kenya to run training of trainers’ workshops for peace practitioners, supported by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Initiatives of Change.Their first workshop brought together faith leaders invited by the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (SUPKEM) and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), together with lecturers Residents of Eastleigh gather to listen to prayers and messages of peace at the scene of the blast in Christian-Muslim relations provided by the Ministry of Provincial Administration and from St Paul’s University, Limuru, and activists from conflict Internal Security. As the first faith leaders to visit the scene flashpoints, including Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums, of the blast, they held prayers and encouraged one Muslim and the suburb of Eastleigh, home to many ethnic Somali and one Christian leader from the workshop to read a Peace Muslims. Declaration condemning the misuse of religion and calling Seven people were killed when the bomb was detonated on on Kenyans ‘to shun all politics of identity and religion at this a bus in Eastleigh. It was followed by random reprisal attacks, critical moment’. leaving a further six people dead including the brother of one This work is part of an on-going project supported by of the workshop participants. USIP and IofC to transfer the peace-building methodologies At the urging of Sheikh Hassan Omari, Assistant Director depicted in the documentary film An African Answer across of Religious Affairs for SUPKEM, Wuye and Ashafa and Kenya. Meanwhile GTV, the national TV network in Ghana, the USIP/IofC project team decided to take the workshop is broadcasting both of IofC’s films about the Nigerian to Eastleigh. Invited by George Natembeya, District peacemakers in all six of the country’s major languages, Commissioner of Kamakunji, and Hassan Yusuf, MP for reaching an estimated 10 million viewers. Eastleigh, the group toured Eastleigh in an open-air truck
Alan Channer
Faith leaders pray at site of Kenya bomb blast
An American victory over poverty ‘An American victory over poverty, illness and pain is needed for the sake of the American people and also for the sake of the rest of humanity,’ Rajmohan Gandhi told participants in the annual Metropolitan Richmond Day forum organized by IofC’s Hope in the Cities programme in November. ‘In particular, I would argue that fairness within America is needed to show an example to newly advancing nations such as China, Brazil and India.’ Speaking in the context of the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, Prof. Gandhi asked, ‘What does emancipation mean in our time? How do we as a community become truly free?’
Gandhi told the packed room of 300 community leaders that while all the world speaks of the American Dream, ‘standing up for dignity and equality is at the core of that dream’. He recalled that his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, dreamed of ‘an India where men and women feel they are the equal of anyone else, treat everyone else as their equal, and support one another of their own free will. No highs. No lows.’ That was also the dream of Martin Luther King, he said. ‘I think it’s the American Dream.’ Gandhi commended Richmond’s ‘visible willingness to acknowledge a difficult past, learn from it, and move forward in interracial partnership. It is not only a great American story,’ he said, ‘it is a great global and human story.’