African Creators of Peace Coordinators meet

Creators of Peace (CoP) has an active presence in 13 African countries. Coordinators and facilitators from nine of them came together in Johannesburg from 16-23 September 2014 for a retreat/refresher gathering, initiated by the South African Creators of Peace facilitation team. This report from Jean Brown.

‘This has been a grounding experience,’ shared a Nigerian facilitator, ‘I have re-found a sense of purpose.’  It was a rare opportunity for CoP activists from Egypt, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria and South Sudan; Kenya, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and South Africa, to meet and share and know each other. We were inspired by the strategic engagement of the Burundians with using the Peace Circles to build trust and healing across the country before the 2015 elections. We were challenged by the invitation to ‘saturate South Sudan with Circles’ over the next couple of years, planning is now underway. We were excited by the numbers of Circles and impact in Kenya, especially in addressing the vexed issue of cattle rustling in one part of the country. In some of the countries facilitators have only just been trained and in others the Circles are steadily and quietly progressing. Given that all facilitators are volunteers and juggle their CoP commitments amongst other demands on their time, and given that every Circle requires some funding – if only for food for participants – it is remarkable what is achieved. We heard of women taking it in turns to bake for their Circles, another who is starting a new business to allow her to give more time to running Peace Circles. A ring was sold to enable one participant to travel for this gathering, a city council is interested in having Circles for their community outreach programmes and on it goes.

With Shoshana Faire and Jean Brown from Australia and Kate Monkhouse from the UK, the gathering revisited the materials used in the Creators of Peace Circles, refined some facilitation skills, explored approaches to funders and addressed our needs as a CoP community. 

The programme was preceded by a CoPeace Circle facilitation training for the three Nigerian, one Egyptian and one South African participants. It was conducted by Shoshana and Portia Mosia, CoP International Coordinator from South Africa.

With Creators of Peace President Daphrose Ntarataze, treasurer Kate Monkhouse and three International Coordinators present, we took the opportunity to hold our AGM with reports from around the world.

A day out in Soweto with guide Bukiwe Maseko brought us face to face with the tragic history of apartheid and the violent confrontations of 1976 between school students and police. Bukiwe herself had been a school girl in Soweto at that time. We heard about, and met, some heroes of social change, women and men who were pioneers of truth-telling for their day.

Another day was largely spent in silence, bringing us face to face with our own inner disturbances and being present to the truth telling of the Inner Voice.

One participant commented, ‘I now understand the importance of asking the right questions’. Another reached her own conclusion that ‘forgiveness is at the heart of peace’. One of our South African hosts reminded us, ‘How we live will affect how the Peace Circles will unfold’.

Photos by Shoshana Faire