Women, who know the price of conflict so well, are also better equipped to prevent or resolve it.
– U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan
The women filed into a conference hall near Johannesberg, South Africa carrying their homemade placards spelling out some of the challenges facing women across the vast African continent:
Conflict. Female Genital Mutilation. Injustice. Poverty. Wife Battering. Malaria. Illiteracy. Unemployment.
The placard held aloft by Rev. Miriam Banda of Malawi's Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), read: HIV/AIDS.
Banda was one of three Malawian delegates — two Christians and a Muslim — to April's second Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa summit coordinated by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and hosted by the National Religious Leaders Forum of South Africa. The 38-year-old mother of two was also among the 100 or so women who gathered for a pre-summit "mothers and daughters of Africa" forum focusing on women, who bear the brunt of Africa's many problems.
Drawing together about 240 delegates from different cultural, tribal and religious backgrounds and from 34 African nations, the summit was an expression of Africa's multi-faith reality. Most of the delegates were Christians or Muslims but there were Hindus, Buddhists, Baha'is, Jews, Rastafarians, and followers of African traditional religions among them. What united them was a shared dream of a healthy, peaceful Africa free from war, conflict and disease.
Describing Africa as being at a crossroads, a high-ranking UN official said in a message to the summit that sub-Saharan Africa is the only area in the world heading backwards, with life expectancy declining and the number of people living in grinding poverty rising. If the continent is to find the road to recovery, he said, it must especially listen to the voice of women who represent more than half the continent's population.
As a member of Malawi's Public Affairs Committee, Banda could relate to the UN official's message.
Begun in 1992, primarily to play an advocacy and mediation role in Malawi's transition to democracy between 1992 and 1994, the committee — made up of Christians and Muslims — encourages religious communities to participate in the country's social and political affairs by promoting democracy, peace, unity and human rights. It also acts with NGOs and other humanitarian groups to improve living conditions, promote human rights and to prevent the spread of AIDS.
"We act as the voice of the voiceless," Banda said in an interview. "We are like a watchdog, a spokesperson for people."
Raised a Presbyterian, Banda was granted a BA in theology by the University of Malawi even before her church began to consider women as suitable candidates for ordination.
After some heated debate, the denomination approved the ordination of women and Banda was ordained in 1999. Now ministering to two congregations, she is one of only five CCAP female pastors in Malawi.
At the end of the Johannesburg inter-faith peace summit, Banda participated in an extraordinary display of inter-faith solidarity as delegates joined hands, sang We Shall Overcome, and promised to renew with even greater vigour their efforts to bring peace and stability to their turbulent continent scourged by war and conflict, natural and man-made disasters, poor governance, corruption and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Banda returned to Malawi having endorsed a Mother's Cry for a Healthy Africa statement from the women's forum acknowledging that women as well as men are perpetrators and victims of violent conflicts that have destroyed Africa's "spiritual, economic, social and political well-being."
Spirituality and peace cannot be separated and the value of diverse religions in Africa are essential to peace-building, the women said, calling for measures to ensure women's full involvement in decision-making and peace-building.
Having mingled with women from all over Africa, Banda says women can be arbiters of peace, can help resolve conflict and promote tolerance and reconciliation. Education is the key, she says, making the education of women a vital component of Africa's recovery process.
In a manifesto adopted by the summit, religious leaders said "conflict, violence, disease, poverty and the unequal distribution of resources are common challenges for all Africans of every religious affiliation." Continuing cycles of violence "make Africa a continent with many unhealed memories, including those inflicted by conflicts between the many nations and even the religious communities that we represent."
At the same time, delegates left the summit with a caution that ethnicity, tribe, religion and other potentially divisive factors could torpedo their efforts to bring about a stable, peaceful Africa. They were also asked to take a hard look at religious dogma and the interpretation of their holy scriptures, which could help trigger conflict and misunderstanding. Constant communication, they were told, breaks down barriers, challenges stereotypes and builds confidence across the wider society.
Following the summit, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, the Zimbabwean-born LWF General Secretary and summit convener called the interfaith gathering a "historical new African process on the road to peace." He said delegates from different faiths had put aside issues that divided them in the interest of a peaceful and healthy Africa.
Summit delegates agreed to reconvene in three years to evaluate progress and to consider the inter-faith summit future.
