Conciliation Resources: Building paths to peace: Bo Peace and Reconciliation Movement

Zainab and her brother-in-law Ibrahim

Zainab and her brother-in-law Ibrahim can now enjoy sharing food from the same plate after years of conflict forced them apart.

"Even our children who went to the same school would not talk to each other... it didn't feel nice."

The conflict that resulted in an acute split between families and friends in Wonde chiefdom can be traced back to underlying political tensions in 1986. More than sixteen years later people were still gripped with hatred and mistrust. Two of Wonde chiefdom’s ruling families were involved in politics and when family supporters backed each of the political candidates, they effectively drew an unspoken division between the chiefdom. By 1997, as the war raged throughout the southern region, those divisions took on a more fatal nature as unrelated acts of violence against communities were blamed on the opposing families and revenged.

When the resident Minister approached BPRM in 2002, he was desperate to bring an end to the conflict. International development agencies had come and gone, without unity within the chiefdom all development projects were sabotaged and the situation became intolerable. BPRM wrote to all four sections of the chiefdom inviting them to a meeting but discussions were slow and yielded little progress. No one wanted to talk about the conflict or share their version of Wonde’s history. Eventually people agreed to talk, but only following the sacrifice of a sheep to appease the ancestors and God and to dissolve all the negative feelings of the past and help guide them.

By working with the communities to analyse the conflict and openly share views and feelings, BPRM was able to start the process of peace. Communities elected members to be trained as voluntary peace monitors as part of a new Chiefdom Peace and Reconciliation Committee (CPRC), and now they actively advocate for peace and development.

Chief Koroma admits that he rules differently “I don’t fine people anymore and even persuade our elders to follow this way”, and he is eager to show how people now actively participate in developing their chiefdom. “We now have a school, a health centre and water wells”.

Ibrahim Alpha and his sister, Zainab Dabo, were caught on different sides and refused to talk to each other for over five years. Even their children ignored each other. Brother and sister are now part of the CPRC and work together. Zainab believes that the training from BPRM helped her to be elected as Town Chief. “Because of the training, I know how to stand and talk to my people, and how to solve cases.” She joined BPRM’s “family of peacemakers to be able to talk to people about peace” and quickly noticed the changes “people started to feel free, little by little and I saw the start of community between us.”