Peace-building in Africa - A Challenge for Ecumenism: The Case of Angola (An Outline)
Konrad Raiser, October 2003

1. While Angola shares many characteristics with other countries in sub-Sahara Africa, it stands out in other respects, at least from an outside perspective:

Thus, Angola carries a heavy burden of the most adverse conditions faced by the countries in sub-Sahara Africa.

1. Forty years of almost continuous war which increased in brutality during the final phases have left the country, its infrastructure and its social fabric in ruins. More than one million people died, most of them civilians, who were taken hostage by the fighting parties. Four million people have become refugees or internally displaced during the final phase of the fighting alone. Large parts of the country are still highly insecure due to the 20 million land mines which were placed during the war. Now, at long last, the fighting has stopped after the 2002 peace accord between the government and UNITA. With the memory of three previous agreements in 1991, 1994 and 1997 which failed, there is hope that this time the peace will last and that reconstruction can begin.

3. The challenge of rebuilding Angola or, rather, beginning to shape a truly independent and united country 27 years after its official independence coincides with the growing awareness in Africa that a new beginning is necessary, learning from the bitter lessons of forty years of liberation struggles, nation-building and development efforts. Reconstruction or "African renaissance" have become the catchwords in public discourse. The "New Economic Partnership for African Development", together with the establishment of the African Union, are designed to project a new vision for Africa, based on the commitment to basic values and criteria for good governance. During the WCC Assembly at Harare in 1998, African delegates committed themselves to engage together in a "journey of hope".

4. The most important lesson to be drawn from these forty lost years is that the rebuilding of viable and sustainable communities and solutions in Africa can only be achieved with the people and by the people, and certainly not against them. Important as assistance from outside will remain, the energy will have to come from the people. They have had to bear the brunt of failed development, of ill-conceived structural adjustment programmes, of war and violence, of mounting foreign debt, and the lack of education and health care. Unless the people can recognize and convince themselves that they will be the beneficiaries of the programmes for reconstruction and poverty reduction, the initiatives will fail again, as so many development programmes have failed.

5. This is true even more for the task of peace-building. Africa offers numerous examples that the cessation of hostilities does not yet constitute peace. This needs to be considered seriously in a country like Angola where social, political and economic life during several decades has been dominated by the demands of war and where people have forgotten what it means to live in peace and have not learned how to resolve conflict by peaceful means. A history of violent conflict casts a long shadow into the future, which means that peace-building is a task not only of a few years and some well designed programmes, but constitutes a challenge for a whole generation and even beyond.

6. Much has been written about the causes of the unending series of conflicts which have marked the recent history of Africa. There is the colonial legacy of the imposition of a system of nation states and forms of government which are at odds with the areas of settlements and traditions of internal organization of African societies. There is also the history of ethnic tensions and conflicts which was reinforced through a divide-and-rule policy of the colonial powers. There is, finally, the burden of an economy which was, and in many cases still is geared towards exploitation of natural resources and the enrichment of a small elite, leaving the vast majority of the population in conditions of poverty, either as subsistence farmers or surviving in the informal economy in the growing urban agglomerations. In spite of more than forty years since the beginning of the process of decolonization, Africa has not been able and not been allowed to fully break with its colonial past. In fact, Africa still suffers under the conditions of neo-colonial policies and countries like Angola have been treated as a substitute theatre for the confrontation between the big powers.

7. In order to consolidate the peace process and to advance the efforts of reconstruction it is decisive to break out of the logic of war and violence and to enter the logic of reconciling conflicting interest by way of negotiation and agreement. Angola is emerging from a long period of a struggle for power, seeking domination over the adversary or dissenting groups. Most African countries have faced the difficulty at the end of the liberation struggle to shift the ‘rules of the game’ from a military logic of command and obedience to a framework of democratic governance. The ‘win-loose’ mentality is being reinforced by the conditions of an economy which favours a close alliance between political and economic interests, where winning or maintaining political power implies obtaining economic privileges. The African tradition of ‘umbuntu’, i.e. of an order of society which places the common good ahead of the interest in individual gain has to be recovered if the peace process is to take root in the consciousness of the people.

8. It is obvious that the reconstruction of the country will require massive resources. At present large groups of the population are still dependent on emergency assistance, especially food aid, which is being provided by international or non-governmental organizations. But gradually the emphasis is shifting to reconstruction and rehabilitation. The viability of the peace will depend on the readiness and ability of the government to respond to the expectations of the people. Given the large and increasing revenues from Angolan oil exports, the country, in principle, has sufficient resources at its disposal to engage in a massive programme of rebuilding the infrastructure, of reviving the education system, of assuring basic health care and providing returning refugees and displaced people with the means to produce their own food. This would mean, however, to establish transparency regarding public revenues and to institute a system of managing public funds which makes the people of Angola the true beneficiaries. Specific proposals in this direction have been made but it has proved difficult so far to move away from the mentality of secrecy of a war economy. This is, however, one of the essential conditions for successful peace building in Angola.

9. The task of peace building and reconstruction requires more than material resources. What is needed, in particular, is a comprehensive process of education, training and capacity building. Hundreds of thousands of children have not received any basic education. Even among the adult population the low level of literacy, especially among women, presents obstacles to their active participation in the process of reconstruction. There are not enough teachers, teaching materials and school buildings. All of this is an essential priority for the process of reconstruction. However, the task of peace building calls for more immediate efforts in training and equipping monitors for peace education, and for the transformation and resolution of conflicts with non-violent means. Programmes and trained people are needed to carry forward a process of disarming the civilian population and for re-integrating former members of fighting units and their families into civilian lives. These tasks have been recognized as immediate priorities by COIEPA and by CICA; the churches among all organizations in the country live closest to the people at grass root level and are, thus, best placed to promote these processes of transforming a culture of violence into a culture of peaceful settlement of conflicts. The experience of South Africa shows that it requires a long and sustained effort to achieve a demilitarization of the political process and the disarmament of the population.

10. The task of education goes beyond these immediate needs. The challenge for the churches and the ecumenical community relates especially to the task of moral formation and of regenerating a sense of basic communal values and respect for the dignity of the human person. In its statement on the “African challenge” the Harare Assembly of the WCC said: “There is an urgent need to carry forward the process of moral regeneration, a process to which the churches have an important contribution to make, through the development of both a new ecumenical vision with a coherent prophetic voice and the capacity to explore and articulate ecumenical social thinking”. (Together on the Way, 225). The WCC together with its African member churches has given focussed attention to this task during this past decade and the churches in Angola can draw on the resources developed during this process. What is decisive is the rebuilding of human relations and affirming the value of life against the continuing impact of violence, destruction and death.

11. In Angola, as in other African countries, women play a decisive role in the process of moral regeneration and in the moral formation of children and young people. Churches count a majority of women among their active membership. CICA at its national conference has clearly identified this challenge in accepting the task: “to strengthen the capacity of programs, which aim at the formation and promotion of women, providing them with opportunities in the public sectors of life as well as in assuming responsibilities at various stages of labour, political and cultural life, where their participation is less visible so far.” The equipping and empowering of women is of particular importance with regard to the promotion of basic health care, awareness building about the threats of HIV/AIDS, access to clean water etc. The Christian Medical Commission has accumulated an impressive record of experience and credibility and should be given full support.

12. Ultimately, the process of peace building must aim at national reconciliation. This is the heart of the ecumenical challenge, because it is a concern which reaches beyond physical reconstruction, training and promoting a political framework, which serves the common good. Reconciliation is a moral and spiritual process and requires the courage of faith, hope and foregiveness. National reconciliation cannot be proclaimed from above hoping to be able to leave the past behind and focussing attention on the future. The scars and the trauma caused by the long years of war and violence will not simply disappear but need healing. In particular women who have become victims of rape and children who have become witnesses or even been forced to participate in brutal acts of killing need caring accompaniment in order to restore their sense of dignity. This calls for the concerted efforts of pastors, lawyers, psychologists as the national conference of CICA has recognized.

13. On the national level the spirit of reconciliation will grow to the extent that the fundamental questions of justice and truth are being addressed. We have the example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and of similar commissions in other countries. There is no blueprint for this process which can be transferred from one context to the other. The case of Angola is particularly complex given the length of the civil war and the involvement of outside powers. However, a new culture of peace and reconciliation can only grow as the sense of justice and accountability is being re-established. National reconciliation also requires the will to face up to the situation of divided memories and to the tendency to justify ones own action and behaviour by placing the blame and the responsibility on the other side. The churches can create spaces where the stories from both sides in the conflict can be heard and thus distorted images of self and the other can be corrected; where fears and even hatred can be confessed and tears can be shed.

14. The churches can make a decisive contribution to this task of national reconciliation by opening the way to a spirituality of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a legal or political category; it cannot be ordered or demanded, but it comes as an undeserved gift. Forgiveness breaks the circle of retribution and retaliation and draws on a spiritual courage which is rooted in the certainty of being forgiven by God. Forgiveness does not simply mean to forget but implies recognition of both the wrong and the wrongdoer. On the part of the perpetrator as well as the victim forgiveness is an act of liberation. “In forgiving, the victim decides to free himself or herself from the grief and resentment in which she/he is imprisoned …Rather than to suppress the past, forgiveness can free victims and their descendents from the tendency of the past to dominate the present and poison the future” (G. Jacques).

15. In order to become credible agents of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness the churches must engage in acts of reconciliation among each other. Through the establishment of CICA and more recently of COIEPA the churches in Angola have become engaged on the way of reconciliation. The long years of civil conflict and war have caused splits and divisions within and among the churches which need to be healed, now that the immediate causes of these events have disappeared. It is important that CICA has recognized the need to assist affected member churches and other churches in the country to overcome internal conflicts which hinder their witness in society. The same national conference has also addressed the challenge to the spirit of fellowship and cooperation which arises from the evangelizing activity of new Christian groups and movements arriving in the country since the end of the war. For the integrity of the Christian witness for peace and reconciliation it will be decisive that the churches develop a common understanding of their public role and relationship with the government and do not allow political interests to divide the churches against each other by treating them differently. The rights of minority communities need to be fully protected.

16. The process of peace building and reconstruction will pass a decisive test with the first general election since 1992. So far the conditions do not yet allow elections to be held. However, the example of South Africa and of many other African countries suggests, that the churches can play a decisive role in the process of voter education and education for democracy. For a considerable number of people these forthcoming elections will be the first time that they are able to exercise their democratic right to determine the government and the political direction of the country. Voter registration alone will require a considerable effort, given the fact that large movements of people will continue to take place over these coming years as mine clearing progresses and people can return to their places of origin. In this task the Angolan churches will be able to draw on the experiences of churches in other African countries.

17. The Africa plenary session at the Harare assembly ended with a commitment by the participants to engage themselves in mutual solidarity for the reconstruction of Africa. “In the case of those of us from Africa this represents a commitment to work with and through the churches for a better future and to seek to ensure that never again will Africa suffer such humiliation as has been experienced previously. In the case of those of us who belong elsewhere this represents a commitment to work with and through the churches in accompanying our African brothers and sisters in their journey of hope”( Together on the Way, 226). This remains valid for the way which lies ahead of the churches in Angola.