Peace Mothers Journey: Village Two, Koinadugu District

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Sara Waldheim

Sagarleh Viilage, Mawundia Section, Demblia Sinkunia Chiefdom.

Our destination for this leg of our trip is located a long way out into the bush, over very narrow and bumpy roads, and a short way up a mountain. Again they are not aware we are visiting, even though we are planning on spending the night. Such is the hospitality of the people of Salone.

The Village

To the district staff’s surprise, we learn they are having a reconciliation bonfire tonight. One of the villagers who left for Guinea during the war has returned to find two of his cows and ten of his goats taken by another villager. These animals are the total of the man’s wealth.

This type of offense is sometimes punished by the killing of the thief by the wronged party, which (it looked to me) was about to happen. Fortunately, the local Peace Mothers intervened and called in the community Reconciliation Committee, who has been working with both of the men getting them to agree to reconcile at the bonfire tonight.

Before the reconciliation, though, there will be a football match between the young girls of the villages from the section and several from Freetown. It is symbolic of the reconciliation and will take place on the field at the school. The game ends in a tie and even though it is not supposed to be a competition, tying the score is the best ending.

Reconciliation Football Match

At one point, a long-horned cow (they are free to roam everywhere) wanders onto the field. The girls are not deterred and run right at it in pursuit of the ball. The cow beats a hasty retreat.

After the game, we are led to sit under the Peace Tree that can be found in every village. This tree is where anyone can go to work out even the smallest conflict. All are equal under this tree. First, a bowl is brought to us by the village elders. It contains kola nuts in some water and is a tradition here to welcome visitors. I am given the bowl first and told to take a nut, break it in half and take a bite out of one half. Then I am to present the other half to the Town Chief.

Kola Nuts

One of the men tells a story of the village right after the war. When the villagers began to return to the village, some of the men went to the river where before the war there was plenty of fish. When they got to the river there was only a small amount of fish. As time went on and the villagers struggled to get along with one another, the fish disappeared completely.

After Fambul Tok arrived and conducted the village’s initial reconciliation bonfire, the village then held a ceremony honoring their ancestors. After those two ceremonies, the villagers settled into a routine of peace and unity, beginning to work together once again. One day, some of the men returned to the river and found the fish back in more numbers than before! In their minds, a miracle had occurred due to the reconciliation and forgiveness process.

Several of the women speak about the success of the rice and ground nut harvests from the Peace Mothers cooperative farms. They all give credit to Fambul Tok and the power of forgiveness. They say that they love the fact that they have empowered themselves and are now able to send their children to school. Disputes are now settled under the Peace Tree – eliminating the need for the involvement of the Chief, the police and the courts and the cost of filing a complaint with those entities.

After their presentation, we are invited to go back to the village and rest until it’s time for the bonfire. As we sit resting on the porch of a large house, villagers come and go to visit with us. One of the elders brings us a whole tray of bananas as a gift, which we graciously accept.

Later that night, we make our way through the dark to the bonfire. The sky is bright with stars. It has been a wish of mine to witness a Fambul Tok reconciliation bonfire so I am in a state of excited anticipation. The significance of this bonfire for Fambul Tok is that it proves the reconciliation and dialogue process is still being practiced by the villagers, despite Fambul Tok not having a continuous presence in the village.

Before the war, these ceremonial fires were a regular occurrence used for dancing, singing, and storytelling. After the war, though, the pain of victim and perpetrator living in the same village was too great. Now, thanks to Fambul Tok, these same fires are once again used for social gatherings and ongoing reconciliation as issues arise.

A hush comes over the large crowd gathered around the raging fire. The victim is the first to speak, and he tells his story of the war and how he tried to stay in the bush outside the village, but the rebels were too active and, fearing for his life, he ran away to nearby Guinea. He left his entire wealth behind: 4 cows and 10 goats.

Why he stayed away so long is unknown to me, but he has recently returned to find two of his cows and all of his goats stolen by a man of his village who was captured by the rebels and forced to fight. He claims it is his right to kill the man and was about to do that when the local reconciliation committee intervened using the Fambul Tok process they were taught. After counseling and mediation, he finally agrees to forgive the perpetrator. Next, the perpetrator tells his story: He was captured by the rebels before he could run away and made to take the cows and goats for the rebels to eat. If he didn’t do this, the rebels threatened to kill him. He knew the man who owned the cows and goats had the right to kill him for this act, but he also knew the rebels would kill him if he didn’t obey.

After telling his story he expresses his regret in stealing the animals and asks for forgiveness. He stretches out flat face down on the ground in supplication before the man he wronged, asking for his blessing and forgiveness. The victim reaches down, lifts the man up, hugs him and grants him forgiveness. Then they dance together to a cheering crowd who join in the celebration. The faces on both the men are shining with happiness and relief. Tonight I saw and felt first-hand the peace and joy true forgiveness brings.

Posted in From the Ground: Program Updates from Sierra Leone, Koinadugu District, Organization | Leave a comment

Fambul Tok Advisory Board Welcomes Two New Members

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Jon Lunn

Fambul Tok is delighted to welcome two new members to our advisory group – Iheoma Obibi and Aminatta Forna. This brings the total number of group members to nine. The organization benefits enormously from the advice and support which the members of the advisory group offer. Information about all advisory group members can be found at: http://www.fambultok.org/about-us/board. Here are brief biographies of our new recruits:

Iheoma Obibi

Photo courtesy of African Feminist Forum

 

Iheoma Obibi is a leading African feminist and peace-builder, with extensiveexperience providing training to rural and urban poor communities in Africa. She is Executive Director of Alliances for Africa, an African-led international NGO, based in Lagos, which works to promote and protect human rights, peace and sustainable development. She is an active member of the African Feminist Forum, along with its Nigerian chapter. She regularly acts as a trainer and facilitator on topics such as organizational development for CSOs; gender analysis, planning, mainstreaming and training; and third-party mediation. Over the years she has worked as a consultant for several international agencies, including UN Women, British Council, DfID and the Commonwealth Secretariat. In 2005, Iheoma was elected to the ASHOKA Fellows network, which invests in leading social entrepreneurs, serving for three years.  She is also currently Creative Director of a company called Mylid, which provides advice on sexual health and wellbeing to Nigerian women. Iheoma has published short stories in several online e-zines and anthologies. She is presently the Vice-Chairperson for Women Writers of Nigeria (WRITA) Lagos chapter.

Aminatta Forna

Photo courtesy of Aminata Forna's personal website

Aminatta Forna is the award-winning author of two novels: The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water. She was raised in Sierra Leone and Britain. Her most recent novel, The Memory of Love (Bloomsbury, April 2010) won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Best Book Award in 2011. She has also written essays and articles for leading newspaper and magazines. Her television credits include the documentary series Africa Unmasked (Channel 4) and, in 2009, The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu (BBC). She has been a guest presenter on BBC Radio. In 2003, Aminatta established the Rogbonko Project to build a school in a village in Sierra Leone, where she now overseas a number of projects in the spheres of education, sanitation, maternal health and agriculture. Aminatta is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and sits on the Board of the National Theatre of Great Britain, on the General Committee of the Royal Literary Fund and the Council of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is currently a judge for the 2013 International Man Booker Prize. Aminatta is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and has often acted as a visiting lecturer and tutor of literature and creative writing.

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Peace Mothers Journey: Village One, Koinadugu District

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Sara Waldheim

It’s been almost three months since I arrived in Sierra Leone to serve as a volunteer with Fambul Tok. My road to Sierra Leone was influenced by several factors — a combination of travel, conversation and inner dialogue and searching. I first visited Freetown in March 2011 as part of an educational study tour of West Africa, during which U.S. Ambassador Michael Owen spoke to us about the struggle to help mend post-war Sierra Leone and his plans to help the country move forward. That fall, I attended a screening of the documentary film Fambul Tok in my hometown of Bend, Oregon and had the chance to speak with the film’s Director, Sara Terry, about our common love for Africa. Finally, despite having become involved with projects and communities in Tanzania, Egypt and Ethiopia, I felt a need to visit Africa to serve in another manner, and was unable to shake the urge to make Sierra Leone my ultimate destination.

I contacted Sara, she put me in touch with Fambul Tok staff, and after a few weeks, I was accepted as a volunteer and the dates were set for my arrival.

As the time of my volunteer period draws to an end, I am sad to leave.  It has been the most uplifting and joyous experience of all of my journeys throughout the world. I will be back!

Before the recent elections in November, I was staying in Kono when Ambassador Owen and his wife, Annerieke, attended a presentation by some of the Fambul Tok Peace Mothers. Later that evening, we had a chance to chat and I was asked to tell my story of how I became a volunteer with Fambul Tok. During this conversation with Mrs. Owen, she expressed a keen desire to visit the villages more in depth, and I offered the opportunity for us to take her. The idea of visiting some of the villages where the Peace Mothers have the most impressive success stories after going through the Fambul Tok reconciliation and power of forgiveness bonfires was born.

Micheala Ashwood, Head of Peace Mothers at Fambul Tok, and I put our heads together and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to document the success stories of the empowerment of the women calling themselves Peace Mothers following the war. I came up with the idea to create a book of pictures and stories to be used as a fundraiser, as well as a Peace Mothers documentation piece, and Mrs. Owen agreed to be the photographer for the book. A local TV personality, Isa Blyden of Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, heard about our journey through the Embassy and asked to send an additional photographer with us to film for a short documentary to be used on her TV show.

Because of the magnitude of their success, we chose to highlight Koinadugu and Bombali Districts. Micheala, Mrs. Owen, George Lewis (the photographer from SLBC) and I set out on this journey, made possible by the U.S. Embassy and other funders.

Our journey lasted from December 16 through December 21, and we were scheduled to visit a total of ten villages, five in each district beginning in Koinadugu. This series of blogs is about the visits to seven of those villages.

Manna Village, Manna II Section, Dembelia Sinkunia Chiefdom, Koinadugu District

The villagers did not know we are visiting; This is the way Fambul Tok operates. Once the villages have held their initial reconciliation bonfire, the district staff is on the road everyday doing spot checks to make sure all is going well, occasionally intervening where necessary. To get a true sense of the village’s progress, they always arrive unannounced unless there is a need for a specific meeting, like the sensitization conducted before the elections.

As we drove up the road toward the village, we saw many women walking towards us with tools over their shoulders and some with pots on top of their heads. We are in luck! It is farming day at the Peace Mothers cooperative farm. Most of the villages have up to

Walking To The Rice farm

three farms: Peace Mothers Farm, Community Peace Farm and Family farm, each with a detailed schedule.

We continued into the village to meet the Town Chief, let him know we are there, and to ask permission to film. We parked by the side of the road in front of the narrow grass covered path leading to the farm and made our way through the field, careful not to step in the path of the working women.

After much careful navigation of the path, we finally reached the spot where women and some men were busily clearing a section of ground located just up from the swamp rice field. The men do the heavy clearing with machetes and axes while the women use narrow hoe-like instruments to do the fine clearing. Once the ground is free of all plant life they will cover it with cow dung and let it dry forming a flat thrashing floor for the harvesting that will take place in two weeks.

The women who arrived first were already hard at work. Nursing mothers hoeing with their babies tied to their backs, singing as they worked. It is hard, labor intensive, back breaking work, but the joy, peace and unity of the activity was evident.

The rice field stretches as far as the eye can see in either direction and is colored with different hues of green and gold. The planting is always done in stages, so the harvest is manageable. The different colors of rice show the different stages of ripening, I was told. Light, bright green for the youngest sprouts, darker green and then gold when ready to harvest.

Peace Mothers Rice Farm

Some of the rice is allowed to get dark brown and that will be used for seed at the next planting. The usual yield is two crops a year.

Located across the field is a thatched roof hut used during harvest and general tending of the field for resting, cooking and eating. On the days they work the farm, they are there all day. Labor is divided with some of the women preparing the meal while the others work. The meal preparation duty is rotational.

Having us there proved to be too tempting and soon the women were dancing and gathering around us with welcoming songs. One of the men and one of the women performed a very colorful and dramatic traditional ‘mating’ dance.

Mating Dance

When they returned to clearing, some of the women began preparing food.Once the cooking was done, the meal consumed and the dishes washed, everyone returned to the fields, once again.

This farm was started after Fambul Tok guided the community through the forgiveness and reconciliation process. The women all said that they would not be empowered as they are, nor be here together with this successful farm, if it hadn’t been for Fambul Tok. Most of the women use their proceeds to send their children to school.

When asked how the farm could be further improved, they expressed an interest in acquiring tarp to cover the thrashing floor in order to eliminate the small stones that always find their way into the rice. Additionally, they want to do cross-district fish trading as their next step for growth beyond the farm.

Posted in Bombali District, From the Ground: Program Updates from Sierra Leone, Koinadugu District | Leave a comment

Fambul Tok resolves election violence in Kailahun

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Solomon Yarjoh

The two former political rivals, Kumba (l) and Mariatu (r)

Fambul Tok International – Sierra Leone has resolved a serious post-election dispute and restored peace and unity in Ngainga village and the chiefdom headquarter town of Dea in Kissi Kama chiefdom, Kailahun district.

It was reported that immediately after the announcement of presidential results, provocation and personal attacks overwhelmed the community. There were reports of assault, intimidation and harassment, and daily activities came to a standstill.

Participants of the reconciliation workshop listen to their fellow community members

Chiefdom authorities tried to restore order but could not, as they were suspected to be playing partisan politics. The Sierra Leonean Police also played a significant role to restore law and order in the chiefdom but still did not yield any tangible results.

In Ngainga village, the section chief, Tamba Kamanda, discovered that his residence had been vandalized by a group of people. Violence also erupted in Dea town as the entire township was divided between members of the All People’s Congress and the Sierra Leone People’s Party. The whole chiefdom was under siege.

It was realized that the reason for the continued violence could be attributed to two influential women who were close prior to the elections but fell out on political differences. One of them, Mariatu Tamba, is the wife of the All People’s Congress councilor elect. Kumba Sesay, the other woman, supports the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party. Their followers were in conflict on a daily basis.

Mariatu and Kumba reconcile (center is Fambul Tok's Micheala Ashwood)

In its post-election activities in Kailahun district, Fambul Tok district staff realized that Kissi Kama chiefdom was in disarray, and even when the organization held meetings to evaluate the impact of the election, community members boycotted. Determined to ensure that the chiefdom was at peace, staff from Koinadugu, Moyamba and Freetown joined their colleagues in Kailahun to work toward the restoration of peace in that key part of the country.

As the situation deteriorated, the Paramount Chief and chiefdom authorities called their usual monthly meeting to discuss how to tackle the problem, as different approaches had earlier failed. Fambul Tok used their December 5 meeting to prevail on conflict parties to be at peace since elections are now over.

The two women, Mariatu and Kumba, were given the floor to express whatever they had in mind. The atmosphere resembled that of traditional bonfires, and also gave the community the opportunity to participate in the resolution and administration of their chiefdom.

After a very tense session, Fambul Tok National Coordinator of Peace Mothers, Micheala Ashwood, called for a cooling-off period. She asked the conflicting parties to come forward, swallow their pride and reconcile. Micheala went on to cite the example of the recent meeting of newly reelected President Koroma and the leader of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, Julius Maada Bio, at the Statehouse in Freetown, adding that if those two political heads had met to show they are committed to peace, there is no reason why the people of Kissi Kama could not also emulate such practice. She asked them never to allow themselves to be divided again, and to work in the spirit of reconciliation and development of the chiefdom.

Both Mariatu and Kumba reconciled and used the meeting to appeal to their followers to bury the hatchet as elections and move forward together.

After the reconciliation, the whole township of Dea went into jubilation. Mariatu and Kumba were once again seen as sisters as they walked together amidst their neighbors’ dancing.

As a commitment to the peace, Mariatu decided to withdraw an assault case she earlier brought against Kumba at the Kailahun Police station. They hired a motor bike from Dea town to Kailahun, and when they were spotted by villagers, there was thunderous applause as the community witnessed Mariatu and Kumba riding on the same motor bike.

The reconciliation was seen as  a very big relief for the chiefdom and the entire Kailahun district. To culminate the occassion, Fambul Tok also organized a reconciliation football match in Dea and a disco at night on December 5, 2012, in which the entire community joined to rejoice.

Posted in From the Ground: Program Updates from Sierra Leone, In the News, Kailahun District, People | Leave a comment

“We are fed up with political violence,” Koinadugu women exclaim

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Solomon Yarjoh

A snapshot of participants in Kabala

The newly trained Community Peace Ambassadors in Koinadugu district, north of Sierra Leone vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the November 17,2012 multi-tier elections in the country were free from violence, intimidation and harassment.

Community Peace Ambassadors in Kabala

“We are tired of political violence and we will volunteer  our time and efforts to do everything possible to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible” explained the chairlady of Fambul Tok Peace Mothers in Heremakono, Wara Wara Yagala chiefdom.

During a one-day training in Kabala on Tuesday November 6 ,2012, participants from all eleven chiefdoms in Koinadugu district were extremely grateful to Fambul Tok for organizing such a sensitive training session for rural women in that part of the country.

In her testimony, one of the Community Peace Ambassadors, Mrs.Marah from Mongo chiefdom, gave a brief account of how they were subjected to violence, harassment and intimidation during the 1977 general elections in Sierra Leone. She explained that during that period, politicians used thugs to attack their village and in the process many people fled. Mrs Marah joined the other women to denounce violence and promised that after the training they would continue to work with anyone responsible for the conduct of the elections so that peace would prevail before, during and after the electioneering period.

Another participant, Margaret Mansaray, explained how she prevented chaos in Wara Wara Bafodia chiefdom during the awarding of symbols to candidates. She said through  Fambul Tok’s experience, especially in reconciliation and peace, she swiftly intervened to avert violence during that time.

One of the women in Kabala explained how two candidates contesting for a single Parliamentary symbol in one of the political parties reconciled in the township as the losing candidate who had heard about Fambul Tok reconciliation activities in the district prevailed on his supporters not to fight in the interest of peace, but called on them to vote in the winner. Madam Kadiatu Kamara said they were so impressed that day when the two candidates embraced each other, as everyone thought their supporters would resort to fighting and further violence.

She stressed that Sierra Leone belongs to all of us and went on to denounce violence in any form or shape.

Other participants shared their experience and before the training ended, they all pledged to work hard to ensure the elections were violence-free.

The Community Peace Ambassadors were given posters and T-shirts with peace messages to preach peace in their various communities.

Posted in From the Ground: Program Updates from Sierra Leone, In the News, Koinadugu District | Tagged | Leave a comment