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WAPI 2003 in Retrospect

African initiatives to develop home grown responses to conflicts on the continent are hardly ever reported. Nonetheless, as Africa continues to gain prominence in the international media as a continent plagued by internecine conflicts and wars, Africans themselves continue to take initiatives and make efforts to resolve their crises.

In Western Africa, this is exemplified in the scheme of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) to identify indigenous resources within West Africa that are relevant in responding to contemporary conflicts and issues of conflict that continues to ravage the sub region.

The West Africa Peacebuilding Institute, commonly referred to as WAPI, is an initiative of WANEP and its strategic partners. It is a peace institute designed and set up to provide specialized, intensive training in conflict transformation and peacebuilding to practitioners from around West Africa. It provides the space and platform for the actualization of WANEP’s schema for the resolution of conflicts in Africa by Africans.

WAPI not only aims at increasing the number of competent, informed and active peacebuilding practitioners in West Africa by providing quality training at a reduced cost, it also aims at developing mechanisms that will integrate other models with local/indigenous models to address the contextual realities of issues of conflict, peace and human security within West Africa in particular, and Africa in general.

What began as a dream has transformed into an academic institution that is now in its second year. WAPI 2003 took place at the Coconut Groove Beach Resort, Elmina, Ghana, about 145 km from the capital Accra. It was officially opened by Dr Antwi Vladimir Danso, Dean of Students, University of Ghana, on Sunday, September 7th. The Paramount chief of Elmina, the town that hosted the WAPI campus, Nana Kondua, was present to grace the occasion. The training program ran from September 8th to 26th with three sessions, each with two 5-day intensive courses running concurrently. Courses were sequenced for practitioners at various experience and skill levels.

Participants were drawn from practitioners working with religious institutions, civil society organizations involved in humanitarian/relief aid, development, peacebuilding, human rights and advocacy, social welfare, as well as government institutions. They came from different countries in West and East Africa and Madagascar.

In a group of 50 participants were fifteen nationalities represented, as well as varied personalities, gifts, skills, experiences, perspectives, prospects, fears and expectations. All participants brought personal knowledge and experiences of living or working in areas involved in protracted conflicts. They also came keen, willing and motivated to learn.

Courses covered were Introduction to Peacebuilding Paradigm; Development, Conflict and Population Movement; Active Nonviolence and Peace Education; Women in Peacebuilding; “Proventive Peacebuilding”: Early Warning and Early Response, and Justice-Building and Conflict Resolution.

The teaching method was highly participatory, providing space for extensive participant contribution and group discussion, role-plays and simulation, in combination with formal tutor inputs. The curriculum encouraged reflective learning and participants worked in learning sets that took advantage of their range of experience in different political, social, religious and cultural contexts, thereby blending theory and practice.

The WAPI family was one of mutual admiration, respect and learning. Participants, faculty, staff and guest lecturers explored issues of concern within the sub region through classroom interaction and weekend seminars. Informal sharing of personal anecdotes created trust, friendship and built hope as participants relaxed together over weekend dinners, recreational outings, variety nights, sporting activities, martial art drills, dance parties, picnics and worship. Bonds of personal and collegial friendship were established across national, regional and continental boundaries.

A typical day on the WAPI campus consisted of waking up to the magnificent view of the Atlantic Ocean. After morning drills and sporting activities, breakfast was served. Thereafter participants walked to the conference centre to attend classes. Tea break followed, after which participants went in for another session. Lunch followed at 13.00hours and classes resumed at 14.30hours. This was followed by another tea break and classes ended at 18.00hours.

On Wednesdays, variety nights were organized. These featured cultural displays from different countries, depicting the rich cultural heritage of Western Africa. Western African folklores and jokes were also shared. There were also displays from East Africa (Uganda and Kenya) and Madagascar.

On Saturdays, tours were organized for interested participants. These took participants to the famous Elmina castle and the Kakum canopy walkway. Others chose to either explore the Cape Coast hinterland on their own or stayed back on the beach to enjoy the ocean view. In the evenings, participants reconvened to attend weekend dinners. These took place in the Elmina Beach Resort and the Cape Coast Hotel on the 13th and 20th of September respectively. The climax of each of these weekend dinners was seminar presentations by invited guest speakers, who drew their themes from issues of conflict, peace and development in Africa.

FACULTY (Click link for photos)

This year seven new faculty members with experience in women in peacebuilding; Early Warning and Early Response Development; Refugee Studies and Justice-Building were brought to WAPI.

John Murhala Katunga, acting director of the Nairobi Peace Initiative (NPI-Africa), a peace resource organization, specialized in peacemaking and peacebuilding joined Mr. Emmanuel Bombande, Programs Director of WANEP, to teach the course on Introduction to Peacebuilding Paradigms. John led participants through Understanding Conflict and Conflict Analysis. He also fascinated them with his presentation and role play on Truth, Justice, Mercy and Peace.

Dr Ba-Foday Suma, Executive Director of ABC Development, an NGO that works with refugees and Dr Fode Cisse, Chairman of the Peace, Democracy and Human Rights desk of UNESCO in Guinea, both made their debut at WAPI. They handled the course on Development, Conflict and Population Movement. Participants appreciated their excursus on the dynamics of population outflow; the theories of conflict and development; the problems within refugee communities; the problem between refugees and their host communities on the one hand and between refugees and humanitarian / relief bodies such as the UNHCR on the other.

Karimi Kinoti, founding director of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa (FECCLAHA) also made her debut to co-teach the course on Women in Peacebuilding with Ms. Thelma Ekiyor, the regional coordinator of WANEP’s Women in Peacebuilding Program. They thrilled participants with their topic on “Being a Woman”, where they got male participants to emulate women. Another high point of this class was the discourse by Mrs. Aisha Musa from Nigeria on Sharia and its implication on womanhood.

Takwa Suifon, WANEP’s liaison officer in ECOWAS, also made his first appearance at WAPI to handle the course on “Proventive Peacebuilding: Early Warning and Early Response” with Mr. Sam Doe, the Executive Director of WANEP. Takwa captivated participants with his presentation on the Interface between WANEP’s WARN (West Africa Response Network) and ECOWAS and report writing in Early Warning.

Paul Kuruk, a professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Stamford University, Birmingham and Ms. Fatoumatta M’Boge, WANEP’s Capacity Building program manager, came on board to teach the course on Justice-Building and Conflict Resolution. Highlights of this session were the analysis on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in West Africa.

Christiana Thorpe, a consultant educationist, and Barry Hart an associate professor at the Institute for Justice and Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University, were in WAPI for the second time to handle the course on Active Nonviolence and Peace Education. This year, they handled the course from a different dimension and enthralled participants with their topic on personality types.

GUEST LECTURERS /SPEAKERS

Participants also benefited from the knowledge and experience of an assortment of guest lecturers. During the opening ceremony, Mr. Tayib Thomas from the Catholic Relief Services gave a lecture on WANEP/CRS partnership and its implication for peacebuilding in West Africa. At the first weekend seminar, Mrs. Ruby Dagadu, the coordinator of the WANEP/FAO program on Natural Resource Conflict Management, prepared participants for the course on Women in Peacebuilding by giving a lecture on Natural Resource Conflict Management – a Dimension for Engendering Peace. The next weekend, Mrs. Esther Offei-Aboayge, deputy director of the Local Government Training Institute, Ghana, came on board to deliver a lecture on Women on the Floor: Conflict Resolution, Mediation, Assistance and Accountability. In the third week, Dr. Kwesi Aning of the Africa Security and Dialogue Research Centre also gave a lecture on State Collapse and Early Warning in West Africa. Mr. Taylor Seybolt of the United States Institute for Peace also came to WAPI as a guest speaker.

SPECIAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

One special event that took place during WAPI 2003 was the cooking competition by men. It was fun to watch men cook for the women. The clamor and clatter of the contestants as they argued amongst themselves over what ingredient went into the pot first was very amusing.

Another activity that took place was the tour to the Kakum Rainforest Park. Here participants were made to go through the seven laps of the famous canopy walkway, which is indeed terrifying. On completion, participants were elated and likened their experience on the walkway to “the journey of life”, where one keeps going ahead without having the privilege of going back. Others related this to their experience in peacebuilding and like the ‘forward ever, backward never’ movement on the walkway, pledged to stay committed to their quest for peace, notwithstanding the challenges ahead.

A soloist, Ms. Irene Logan, was also brought in during the second weekend dinner to render peace songs. She sang on the need for peace in the world. These songs were not only inspirational, but also a moment for reflection, as it greatly roused participants’ emotions.

Participants also came together to organize an inter-religious peacebuilding service, with a catholic priest, a pastor and an imam (all participants) in attendance. The highlight of this service was the lighting of candles as a symbol of peace and a pledge to stay committed to nonviolence and peacebuilding.

The three-week intensive training program came to an end with a beach party which featured the award of certificates to participants by the Executive Director of WANEP, Mr. Sam Doe. Participants departed highly motivated, more informed and equipped to face the onerous task of peacebuilding and conflict transformation in the sub region.

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