International conference and peace march
TOWARDS A MORE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY
SEPTEMBER 2007
A CONCEPT PAPER
FOR THE
CONFERENCE & PEACE MARCH
PREPARED BY
AFRICA PEACE POINT &
KOINONIA COMMUNITY
SHALOM HOUSE, NGONG ROAD
BOX 21573-00505
NAIROBI, KENYA
Tel.: +254. 020. 3875288/3877553/384000
Fax: +254. 020. 3877892
Email: app@shalomhouse.co.ke
MAY 2007
Executive Summary
The challenge of exclusion and marginalization is not new to humanity. Throughout history, less powerful sections of population have been excluded from the mainstream socio-economic, political and cultural life of society.
In Africa, the problem is especially acute. First, relegated to the global periphery as a continent, various processes, both internal and external are at play excluding a majority of poor Africans from actively taking part in decision making processes that affect their lives and livelihoods.
As a response to this state of exclusion, Koinonia Community and Africa Peace Point will be hosting two events this year; an International Conference on Resource Conflicts in Africa and a Peace March. Both events will take place in September in Nairobi
THE CONFERENCE
CURSED BY RICHES:
RESOURCES and CONFLICTS in AFRICA
VENUE: SHALOM HOUSE, NAIROBI
DATES: 12TH-14TH SEPTEMBER 2007
Background
Africa is not at peace. More than 30 wars have been fought in the continent since 1970, and most of these have been internal rather than inter-state wars. Conflicts in the continent became more widespread through the 1990s, and changed in nature. By 2000, over half the countries in the region had been directly or indirectly affected by conflict, and most were factional wars. These have no defined front line and fighting is frequently opportunistic rather than strategic. In order to sustain conflict, these wars deliberately seek to involve, exploit and control a significant proportion of the civilian population.
Although the causes of these wars have been many and varied, conflicts over resources between local groups and complicated by external interests have proved to be especially enduring. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for example, the eastern regions are rich in gold, diamonds, coltan (columbo-tantalite), cassiterite, copper, cobalt, wolfram, zinc and oil, as well as timber, coffee and palm oil. There are also considerable diamond deposits in Kisangani, Bafwasende and Watsa, high quality gold in Ituri, and coltan deposits throughout the region. However, from the time of Belgian colonial rule, the inhabitants of the region have derived little if any benefit from its natural wealth. Instead, they have suffered an unbroken succession of abusive political administrations, military authorities and armed political groups that have looted the region and committed human rights abuses with impunity.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Old conflicts like those in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Angola and regional ones like those in the Horn of Africa have the control of resources as their epicenter. In these conflicts, the local communities are always the net losers. The elites, operating through strategic networks of local and international allies seek to gain access to these resources and often times mobilizing whole communities into conflict to achieve that end. Other times however, the locals are treated as bystanders who watch as outsiders move in to exploit their resources with very little or no benefits accruing to them.
Environmental and mineral resource capture conflicts are many and varied but can conveniently be categorized into three namely: scarcity, to do with sources of livelihoods; group identity conflicts which result from population movements and changes in patterns of livelihoods; and right determination conflicts emanating from a denial of people’s basic rights.
In many cases these conflicts have turned extremely violent and resulted in gross abuse of human rights. There are instances where communities have suffered militaristic attacks from government, rebels and mining companies. Some have had their water sources polluted, their land taken without fair and adequate compensation; and others have had their sources of livelihood completely destroyed.
Many efforts at both the local and international levels have been put towards the resolution of these conflicts. However, because of their complexity, these efforts have not always been successful. Furthermore, because of their external dimensions, these conflicts have hardly been responsive to local resolution initiatives. The international dimension has not always received as much attention as it should in spite of its primacy in resource extraction in Africa. While some institutions especially civil society activists on the continent have insisted on bringing out the obvious connection between local resource conflicts and the international markets, the foreign media, which is largely responsible for reporting Africa to the rest of the world for various reasons has not always brought out this connection.
In their recognition of the contemporary salience and the historical depth of the issue of resource conflicts in Africa, Koinonia Community, Africa Peace Point and a number of partnering organizations hope to marshal the expertise and knowledge of African peace builders and peace builders of Africa into examining the crises of resource conflicts on the continent and what this has meant for the lives of Africans. Further the conference will interrogate the interplay between resources and other factors like governance, environment and demographics on the continent. In the process, both African and Africanist peace actors will be invited to rethink their approaches to peacebuilding with the view of transforming resource conflicts in the continent. The foreign media houses, who will form a major part of the participants, will also have a first hand opportunity to dialogue with the peace builders. It is hoped that through this process, they can begin to appreciate some of the realities of conflict on the continent that have not always been obvious to them and begin questioning their own methodologies of reporting the continent’s conflicts to the rest of the world. There will also be a half day workshop on reporting conflicts in Africa. The workshop, which will be conducted by leading research bodies on African conflicts is aimed at interrogating the way conflicts in Africa are reported by the media and in the process, hoping to develop some basic best practices guidelines on the same.
The conference
Running for 3 days between 12th & 14th September 2007, the conference is expected to culminate with the Nairobi International Peace Rally, to be held on 15th of September. This is an annual event that brings together local, regional and international peace activists who, while celebrating the UN International Day of Peace also deliberate on and adopt common approaches to the challenges of peace facing humanity.
The conference will be attended by eminent peace builders who will give papers/talks on the dynamics of resource conflicts in Africa. A select group of social activists and scholars from Kenya will also be in attendance to engage the panellists in a rich debate. The Western media, because of its key role in communicating Africa to the outside world will also be invited.
Participants to the conference will be not more than 50. The panellists will be asked to be present for all the time of the conference, in order to exchange ideas and experiences with the participants, and to build up a community of people looking together to deepen their understanding of the causes and dynamics of African conflicts.
THE PEACE MARCH
FROM NAIROBI TO ASSISI:
TOWARDS A MORE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY
VENUE: NAIROBI
DATE: 15TH SEPTEMBER 2007
Introduction
In the tradition of APP and in responding to this state of exclusion of the wider population of Nairobi which unfortunately lives on less that Kshs. 52 (US dollars 0.74) a day, the theme for this year’s peace march will be “Towards a more inclusive community.” This also being an election year, we hope that the peace march will be used as a platform for not just mobilizing slum communities for the elections but more importantly, making the elections more meaningful to their everyday worlds in a number of ways; first by making informed choices on their candidates but especially by making these candidates accountable to the slum electorate (who form a majority in most of Nairobi’s constituencies) through drawing up strategies for making these candidates and the government at large deliver on their election promises once the elections are over. This we believe will be a milestone in making Nairobi‘s social economic and political fabric more inclusive.
In recognition of the special partnership that this event will be ushering in between the Nairobi International Peace March series and the annual peace march held in Assisi, Italy (this year to be held in October) the theme is also a reflection of the Assisi Peace March spirit “ All Human Rights for ALL.” Therefore, the Nairobi peace march localizes the Assisi march’s call for a more inclusive humanity while highlighting the specific challenge of an exclusionary society in Nairobi and Kenya at large.
The theme for this year’s march also reflects the problematic of community exclusion in resource exploitation in much of Africa, a topic that will be more thoroughly investigated in the conference that will take place just before the march.
Since its founding in 2000, APP has been hosting the Nairobi International Peace Rally. The Rally is an annual event hosted in collaboration with other peace initiatives both within and outside Kenya who share a common desire of a world where people organize to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognize their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and work towards realizing their full potential to enhance a culture of peace. The Rally is also organized to coincide with the UN’s International Day of Peace and thereby serves the purpose of annually bringing the world citizens and civil societies together in charting common approaches to issues of peace that need our attention.
The objectives for this year’s peace march are;
1. To highlight the socio-political, economic and cultural challenges of exclusion in Nairobi.
2. To institute measures towards a more inclusive society in Nairobi and more specifically, in the light of the coming general elections.
3. To establish an ongoing collaborative working relationship between the Nairobi International Peace March the Assisi Peace March.
4. To offer a platform for the dissemination of information that will have been deliberated on at the conference on resource conflicts in Africa that will have been held prior to the peace march.
The Implementing Organizations
The project will be implemented by APP in conjunction with the organizing committee of the Nairobi International Peace Rally. While APP is the principle host organization, the organizing committee, which keeps expanding every year, is made up of civil society organizations based in Nairobi and which are mostly involved in peace building.
The current members of the committee include the following organizations;
1 Koinonia Community
2 All Africa Council of Churches (AACC)
3 Interfaith Dialogue Forum-Kibera
4 Kibera Grassroots Initiatives
5 Comboni Sisters
6 Christ the King Parish-Kibera
7 Pamoja Trust
8 Radio Waumini
9 Amani-Italy
10 Africa Peace Point-Onlus
Venue/Route
Kibera DO Grounds (flag off) Kabarnet Road Ngong Road
Haile Selassie Av Uhuru Park
Date
September 15th 2007
Time
7.00 A.M to 1.00 P.M
Guest of honor
Consultations in progress
The pre-March Activities
Conference-Cursed by Riches: Resource Conflicts in Africa
Unlike in the past where we have held a number of local activities as build up towards the peace march, this year, we will be hosting an international conference on resource conflicts in Africa between the 12th and 14th of September. With participants from Europe and America (especially the media and Civil society) and African peace builders, the conference is supposed to interrogate the challenges of resource conflicts on the continent in the specific ways that they affect communities, governance and their globalization. The conference will also address the often biased way in which these conflicts and by extension other issues relating to Africa are reported in the West by the Western media.
Peace March Day Activities
At the end of the march at Uhuru Park, a number of activities will take place. These include:
Entertainment – songs, drama, recitals and other forms of entertainment will be provided on that day reflecting the day’s theme. They will be provided both by well known and also upcoming entertainers.
Speeches –Organized around socio-economic, political and cultural exclusion, speakers from various sectors of society including the slum dwellers, civil society, government and international figures will address the gathering. A practical report from the conference on resource conflicts will also be delivered at the venue. It is also expected that a representative from the Assisi March will address participants on the Assisi march and its importance to the Nairobi March.
Koinonia Peace Builder of the Year Award – During the event, the Koinonia peace award will be given out. This is an annual award that promotes a culture of peace through honoring and bringing to the public attention individuals who have worked for peace, justice and reconciliation at grassroots level using simple means. Nominations are currently going on. It is awarded by Africa Peace Point and Koinonia Community.