DRAFT
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Quakers and Peace in the Great Lakes of Africa
By David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative
Friends Peace Teams
When I begin my discussions of the conflicts in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Ilike to remind Americans that one of my great-grandfathers had three brothers severelywounded and another great-grandfather had three brothers killed less than seven scoreyears ago, when the United States was involved in a great Civil War. Approximately 1.1million people or about 3% of the then population were killed in this conflict.Sherman’s March to the Sea--a militarily unnecessary campaign--destroyed, burned,killed, and looted it way through the South; today these would be considered war crimes.Following the war there was reconstruction, share-cropping, segregation, the Klu KluxKlan, and such a lack of healing that today we are still fighting about that conflict asmost recently illustrated with the controversy over flying the Confederate flag over theSouth Carolina state house. If one has difficulty understanding the genocide in Rwanda,remember the American settlers extermination of the Native Americans.
Likewise Quakerism arose in England during a time of civil and military unrest, evenchaos. The religious ferment of the times was partially due to the unsettled nature ofEnglish society. Therefore it is not surprising that those who had found the Truth wouldgo off to convert the Sultan in Constantiople and failing to reach there, the Pope inItaly. Mary Dyer was executed in Boston and Quaker ministers roamed where they couldspeading the new gospel.
American Quakers are frequently surprised to find that the country with the largestnumber of Quakers today is in Africa. Friends United Meeting missionary arrived in westernKenya 100 years ago next summer. Today there are over 100,000 Quakers, mostly concentratedin that small area of Kenya where the first missionary founded the mission station atKaimosi. Most of these Quakers are members of one tribe called Lulya, but in fact this"tribe" is really a body of about ten sub-tribes who speak similarlanguages--the nature of the sub-tribes accounts for many of the splits in the originalEast Africa Yearly Meeting in Kenya into the present fourteen in Kenya, one in Tanzania,and two in Uganda. While the system is a little different in Kenya, the Quakers administerabout two hundred secondary schools and three hundred primary schools which are Governmentsupported institutions. The Quakers also have two hospital, Kaimosi and Lugulu and KenyaTheological College which trains pastors. As I walked down the road in Quakerland, Kenya,with my Kenyan father-in-law, the presence of the Quakers was obvious--past a QuakerChurch, a Quaker girls secondary school, a Quaker primary school where my wife’scousin teaches, meeting the clerk of Quarterly Meeting on the road, and then the pastor ofa local Friends Church.
The Quakers in Uganda are found on the other side of the border on Mount Elgon andnumber perhaps 3000. The Quakers in Tanzania originated mostly from Kenyan Quakers whocrossed the border into northern Tanzania, east of Lake Victoria. They number perhaps2000.
Quakers from then Kansas Yearly Meeting, now Mid-America Yearly Meeting fromEvangelical Friends International, went to Burundi in 1934 and established the firstChurch at Kibimba, on a most spectacular hilltop with views in three directions. Fiftyyears later in 1984 the Friends missionaries along with all other missionaries then inBurundi were denied work permits and had to leave the country.
When I visited Burundi in January, 1999, I was told that there were 10,000 Quakers in70 churches with 50 pastors. Recently I received an email indicting that two years laterthere are 13,000 Quakers. Our reaction might be that a 30% increase in two years is notpossible. But members of the African Great Lakes Initiative’s Burundi Peace Team wereat Kamenge Friends Church in November, 2000 where 46 new members were entered intomembership—another 50 were half way through their training for membership. In Burundionly adults are counted in membership and it takes three years of training before onecompletes the membership process. Five new pastors, including the first woman, werewelcomed at Burundi Yearly Meeting in December, 2000.
In 1993, Burundi Yearly Meeting had a theological school in Kwibuka, up-country nearGitega. This one-year course had eleven students. During the unrest in October, eight ofthese students, along with others at Kwibuka, were killed by the Burundi Tutsi army.Ironically two of those eight killed were Tutsi. This illustrates how much morecomplicated the situation is than the simplistic Hutu/Tutsi explanation given in mostpress reports. David Niyonzima, the General Secretary of Burundi Yearly Meeting, showed mehow he hid in the pit of the auto repair garage behind the seminary building. He said hisheart was pounding has loud as possible when a soldier came to the window and anotherasked if anyone was there. The soldier responded, "Only an old automobile!" andleft.
But Burundi Yearly Meeting was not to be discouraged. In September, 1999, they startedthe Great Lakes School of Theology in Bujumbura with now twenty-three students fromBurundi, Rwanda, and the Congo. The course is now a three year one, taught in Englishwhich is the fourth language for most of the students. The Yearly Meeting has also revivedKibimba Secondary School and Kibimba Hospital. In Gitega, Modeste Karerwa is theheadmistress of the Magarama II Peace Primary School which is trying to teach peace andreconciliation to its six hundred students along with the usual government sponsoredcurriculum.
After the missionaries were expelled from Burundi, they went to Rwanda in 1986 andbegan Rwanda Yearly Meeting. Now Rwanda Yearly Meeting has about 2500 members, threesecondary schools, four primary schools, and churches. While the Quaker Center in Kigaliis substantial with a nicely designed church, I visited Quaker churches which were no morethan plastic tarps on poles.
The unique characteristic of the Rwandan Yearly Meeting is that since the recentbeginning, there has been a conscious balance in leadership positions between Hutu, Tutsiwho survived the genocide, and Tutsi who returned from exile. The Church seems determinedto make itself a model of reconciliation in Rwanda. Sizeli Marcellin, the clerk of RwandaYearly Meeting, barely survived the genocide, while his wife and all but two of hischildren were killed. He, a Tutsi, later married a Hutu woman, whose husband and all butone child were also killed during the fighting. They have since had a child of their own.This is promoted by Sizeli and others as a step towards reconciliation and forgiveness.
Rwandan society is still in a state of shock from the genocide. Its people are stilltrying to analyze and understand what happened and why it happened. Islam has made moreinroads in Rwanda, one of the most "Christian" countries, by asserting that thegenocide shows that Christianity has failed since it was Christians, including some churchleaders, who participated in the killing of other Christians. There is a realization thatconverting people to Christianity is not sufficient in itself—this conversion has tohave real meaning in concrete behavioral changes where loving one’s neighbor is acommandment kept by all Christians. Rwanda Yearly Meeting is a leading group in thisactivity of peacemaking and reconciliation.
There are also about 1000 Quakers in Congo Yearly Meeting, consisting of people livingin the east of the Congo near Lake Tanganyika. This is not a missionary church, but wasstarted in 1981 by Congolese who attended Quaker Churches in Bujumbura.
To briefly describe the history of the Great Lakes Region of Africa is more difficultthan writing at length. The first important point is that the area of Rwanda, Burundi, thetwo Kivu provinces of the Congo, northwestern Tanzania, and much of Uganda and includingparts of western Kenya along Lake Victoria is a geographical region carved by thecolonials in 1886 into various slices even though they didn’t know much about thearea—no European, for example, had visited Rwanda or Burundi at that time. In 1965when I first worked with Rwandan refugees, I met elderly people who could remember whenthe first Europeans came to Rwanda. These two kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi were know fortheir military prowess and together with the very hilly nature of the terrain were able tokeep Europeans and slave traders out of their territory. Ironically this is one of thereasons that Rwanda and Burundi are so heavily populated today and why people livescattered on the hillside and not in villages and towns as people do in West Africa toprotect themselves from slave raids.
The colonial powers all ruled their "slices" by indirect rule, promotingtheir favorites over others. Divide and rule was a basic technique of this system. InRwanda and Burundi, the Germans and then the Belgians after World War I continued themonarchy that had already been in place, but emphasizing more centralization. People weredivided into Hutu and Tutsi as indicated on everyone’s identity card, and the Tutsiwere given all the benefits—education, jobs, power, and positions of authority. Sinceeveryone in these countries spoke the same language, participated in the same culture,lived intermixed and sometimes intermarried, Hutu and Tutsi cannot be considered differentethnic groups, but perhaps more like a class division. The authority was double-edged. ATutsi, for example, would be required to produce a forced labor crew of Hutu to work on astretch of road. He was encouraged to use the whip and, if the work was not performed asexpected, he was in danger of losing his position of power.
Intermarriage had, for us, interesting rules. One could not be half Tutsi and halfHutu. If your father was a Tutsi, you were a Tutsi even if your mother was a Hutu.Likewise your father was a Hutu, you were a Hutu even if your mother was a Tutsi. Thislead to incidences during the Rwandan genocide when mothers who were Hutu were asked tokill their own children who were Tutsi. Usually when they refused to do so, they werekilled also as accomplices of the Tutsi.
European racism was also an important factor. During the genocide, people wereinstructed to throw the dead Tutsi in the river so that they could go back to Ethiopiawhere they came from—20,000 bodies were pulled out of the Kagera River where itempties into Lake Victoria by the Tanzanians. Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile andthe Nile also rises in the Ethiopian highlands. The colonialists taught the following intheir schools so that even today many Rwandans/Burundians, both Hutu and Tutsi, believeit: The Ethiopians were considered the southern most branch of the White Race. The Tutsi(although there is no piece of historical evidence that this is true) came from Ethiopiaand were therefore members of the White Race and should rule over the Hutu, who were justBantu peasants! This is the kind of mis-education that the Peace Primary School in Gitegais trying to counteract.
In Uganda, where there are many different ethnic groups, an additional major aspect ofthe conflicts was over religion. Protestants, Catholics, and Moslems fought for convertsand power—Milton Obote, the first Ugandan president, was a Catholic, while Idi Aminwas a Moslem. My former father-in-law in Kenya who is a Protestant pastor used to comehome elated if they had converted someone who had been a Catholic or Moslem.
In Kenya, politics is ruled by ethnicity—the present government has a concept of"majimboism," meaning "regionalism." This means that one can only livein the area where one was born, implying that all immigrants from other parts of thecountry do not have a legitimate right to live in another area of the country. Since thelarger tribes, including the Lulya to which most Quakers belong, have very small homeareas, they have migrated to other places and could be considered only temporaryresidents. In 1993, in the Rift Valley, the home area of the President Daniel Arap Moi,the local inhabitants attacked those who had migrated into the area and many were killedand hundreds of thousands were displaced. The Government, as usually happens in cases of"ethnic strife," either actively promoted the violence or at least did not takeforceful action to prevent it
Tanzania is the only country in the area which, so far, has not had civil unrest andviolence. This can be attributed to a number of factors. Tanzania has many, small ethnicgroups so no one group could dominate the country. Its first president, Julius Nyerere,came from a very small tribe, the Zanaki, of about 10,000 members and vigorously promotedthe concept that everyone was a Tanzanian, rather than a member of an ethnic group.Swahili became the national language and almost everyone learned Swahili and so couldcommunicate without difficulty with everyone else. Yet it is so easy for politicians toplay the "ethnic card" to gather support that even in Tanzania, the situationmust be considered fortunate for now, but potentially dangerous.
In addition these countries, but particularly Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania, areextremely poor. Control of government is about the only viable economic activity.Consequently those who control the government usually give power, jobs, influence, andeconomic opportunities to first, their family members, then those from their home area,then their ethnic group, and leaving almost everyone else out. It is a total win-losesituation so people do desperate things to become "winners."
The situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone illustrates the problem in the Great Lakesalso. In Liberia, Charles Taylor, essentially a bandit, first robbed, looted, anddestroyed people from his area of Liberia. His goal was to take over the whole governmentof Liberia where he could continue to rob and loot the whole state, under the guise oflegality. After he succeeded in this, he has supported "rebels" in Sierra Leonewho wish to accomplish the same goal. In these situations, those most prone to violence,those most ruthless, and those who feel that they have to copy the violent, ruthless onesare the people who come in control of the government. The scum rises to the top. Many ofthe violent actors, regardless of the ethnic or political ideology they purport to have,are no more than sophisticated bandits.
Quakers in these countries are sometimes the victims of the conflicts. Just recentlyduring renewed fighting in Bujumbura, two members of Kamenge Friends Church, were killedby stray bullets. The General Secretary of Burundi Yearly Meeting, David Niyonzima, had togo into exile for over two years because he was placed on a "hit list." To be apeacemaker in these areas of conflict, which each side wants everyone to be classified aseither a supporter on our side or an enemy on the other side, is dangerous in itself.There are winners during these conflicts and those who have risen to power throughviolence do not want to give up that power and a willingness to continue to use violenceto keep it.
But area Quakers are not passive to these acts of violence and war. As I described inthe March issue of the Friends Journal:
"In Eastern Congo, whenever there is a massacre, Friends build a monument. Thatis, they have a memorial service where everyone from all sides is invited to come andbring a stone. During the praying and singing, these rocks are placed together to form amonument for those who were killed.
"In Burundi, at up-country, out-of-the-way Masawa Friends Church, members haveidentified 98 vulnerable families—the elderly, women with missing husbands—andif their modest houses are destroyed during the fighting, the church community rebuildsthem. I visited the house of an elderly blind man whose house has been rebuilt four times!
"In Rwanda, Kidaho Friends Church did not seem to be doing much until we went intotheir church office and found three-and-a-half 240-pounds bags of beans. I asked what thebeans were doing there and was told that at harvest time the women bring in the beans,which are kept and given to needy people during the dry season.
"In Uganda, a small one-room Friends Church has a training trade school during theweek. At night it is a homeless shelter for families whose homes and livelihood have beendestroyed by mud slides on Mount Elgon."
In January, 2000, David Niyonzima and many other Quakers joined a demonstration ofabout 20,000 people in Bujumbura, promoting the end of the violence and the negotiating ofa peace settlement for Burundi. In Rwanda, the Quakers have been appointed the lead churchfor peacemaking by the National Christian Council of Rwanda—an alliance of aboutthirty Protestant churches. They are establishing a Peace Center in downtown Kigali. TheQuaker reputation of peacemaking has reached even unto Burundi and Rwanda.
The world body of Quakers has also been active in supporting the work of the Friendsand other peacemakers in the Great Lakes Region. These include Friends United Meeting,Evangelical Friends International, Right Sharing of World Resources, American FriendsService Committee, the Quaker United Nations Office—New York, Canadian FriendsService Committee, Britain’s Quaker Peace and Service, Norwegian Quaker Peace andService, Germany’s Quakerhilfe, and the Friends Peace Teams’ African Great LakesInitiative. To this list we must also add extensive involvement by the Mennonite CentralCommittee in peace activities in this area, frequently working closely with the localQuakers. I am frequently asked if these different Quaker groups know what each is doingand do they cooperate with each other and even perhaps overloading the activities in thearea. First the different groups cooperate quite closely in their peace activities.Moreover the need is so great that we would welcome additional resources. All ouractivities taken together are but drops into Lake Victoria.
Let me illustrate with the example of Alternatives to Violence Project(AVP)—Uganda. In 1996, three Quakers—two American and one NewZealander—gave some introductory workshops. This led to interest in the program amongUgandan Quakers. Hilary Wright, a British Quaker living in Uganda, arranged for threeUgandans, including Grace Kiconco, now the administrator of AVP-Uganda, to attend a courseat Woodbrooke College, the Quaker study center in England, where they participated in allthree levels of AVP training. They came back to Uganda and started facilitating AVPworkshops in Kampala and near Mbale, where the Ugandan Quakers live. They were supportedin this work by Quaker Peace and Service and the Mennonite Central Committee. In January,1999, the AGLI delegation sent Bill and Rosemarie McMechan to Uganda and theyco-facilitated two AVP workshops with the Ugandan facilitators. They recommended a moreextensive involvement and so in February, 2000, AGLI sent a team of four internationalfacilitators—two Americans, one British, and one South African—to co-facilitateeight AVP workshops including two in men’s prisons, one in a women’s prison, andone with former soldiers. Quaker Peace and Service and Quakerhilfe gave financial supportto this project. Now AVP-Uganda has at least eight different groups doing AVP workshopswith support from numerous sources. Subsequently AGLI in partnership with Rwanda YearlyMeeting sponsored twelve AVP workshops in Rwanda with three American, one British, andthree Ugandan facilitators. They are in the process of organizing an AVP group and hope tofacilitate AVP workshops in Rwandan prisons and elsewhere.
The African Great Lakes Initiative’s method is not just to send expatriates to theGreat Lakes Region nor to fund activities in the area, but to partner with local Quakersand other peace groups, bringing both personnel and finances to a program. This reciprocalarrangement allows things to happen, but also establishes relationships between theAfricans and the expatriates. For example, in the Kamenge Reconciliation andReconstruction Project, seven foreigners—one British, one Tanzania, one Canadian, andfour Americans—joined seven members of Burundi Yearly Meeting to from a Team whichrebuilt the guest house/residency at Kamenge Friends Church in Bujumbura. The substantialamount of funds needed to transport the seven expatriates to Burundi was matched withfunds used to purchase the materials for the building. But the Burundians did their shareof the work too, because members of the Church dug the clay, made the bricks, and firedthem all before the Team arrived. The bricks were still warm when they were laid. Thirtyyouth members of Kamenge Church also helped out and participated in some mini-nonviolenceworkshops. The Team also went one week up-country to Kibimba Secondary School and helpedhundreds of youth from that area prepare the Kibimba Secondary School to be reopened thefollowing month. It had been closed in 1993 and used as a displaced person camp so wassadly in need of refurnishing.
AGLI’s major program in partnership with Burundi Yearly Meeting is to launch theBurundi Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Center (BTHARC). When David Niyonzima firstproposed this to AGLI, I was uncertain if the Quakers had the skills to accomplish this.Other American Friends questioned if trauma healing was really peace work. David Niyonzimareplied that, if healing has not occurred, then the conflict will recycle again in thefuture. Healing is the first step needed before reconciliation and peace can occur.
BTHARC is a twenty-five month effort to launch this Center. Four Peace Team members,two Burundians—Charles Berahino and Adrien Niyongabo—and twoAmericans—Carolyn Keys and Brad Allen—make up the team. They have completed sixmonths of training, two and a half in Burundi, and three and a half at the Quaker PeaceCenter in Capetown, South Africa. The actual work on trauma healing and reconciliation hasjust begun.
Perhaps all parts of the world have had their periods of violent conflict—Europesure has and the Americas have had it also, during the time of the so-called "Indianwars" and the battle over slavery. The conflicts in the Great Lakes Region aretherefore not unique. Nevertheless the death and destruction caused by the conflicts areto be deeply lamented. Today the world is quite small—one can get to the AfricanGreat Lakes in about a day from New York. Those enmeshed in the chaos of these conflictsare our brother/sister Quakers. They also share this planet with us. Our hearts, prayers,concerns, support, and assistance should reach out to them. When I was in Burundi inJanuary, 1999, I was one of only the second group of expatriates to visit BurundianQuakers in a number of years. When I visited remote churches, people thanked me soprofusely for just being there. I really have never had some much thanks for doing solittle, except being there. But there is a Burundian saying, " A real friend appearsduring hard times." Are we F(f)riends?