On October 6th at the University of Texas at Austin, the Innovations for Peace and Development research program hosted an event titled “Achieving Peace and Reconciliation in East Africa” featuring Father Patrick Devine from the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation. Father Devine, a missionary priest and social entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in mitigating conflict and poverty in Africa, founded the organization in 2009.The Shalom Center organizes and leads workshops and trainings with Kenyan community leaders on peaceful conflict resolution. The center’s work is dedicated to empowering local communities through education and resources, functioning on the idea that development cannot exist without peace. A nonsectarian organization, the Shalom Center consists of an international team of experts from different religious backgrounds and disciplines who are based in Kenya and surrounding countries. Devine was awarded the 2013 International Caring Award, putting him in the company of the Dalai Lama.
As an organization dedicated to conflict resolution and reconciliation, the Shalom Center works on the ground in Kenya with various ethnic groups. Father Patrick Devine discussed the center’s methods of organizing problem-solving workshops to discuss the causes of conflict and possible solutions. In the Kenyan conflict, ethnicity is largely centered on religion. The objectives of these workshops are to empower communities to discuss solutions, and more largely, to discuss why religious differences create these tensions. The workshops focus on four types of relationships: personal, relational, structural, and cultural. How do Kenyans interact with each other, with the cultural landscape, and with the state structures that govern them? The Shalom Center aims to address underlying causes of conflict and poverty and to examine structural and systemic violence through these workshops. As a result, community leaders will feel empowered and educated to take action in addressing ethnic relationships and working toward an end to systemic violence.
Over 40 different ethnic groups reside within the borders of Kenya. This ethnic diversity poses significant challenges to good governance. Because “there’s always minorities yapping,” concerns of specific ethnic groups can go unnoticed by the government. The country is also facing resource scarcity and rapid population growth. These coinciding trends, intuitively, do not work well together and only increase ethnic tensions as groups struggle to provide for themselves amongst depleting food sources. In addition to these significant challenges to peace, radicalization from groups like Boko Haram threatens sustainable peace and security in the country. Evidently, violence in Kenya is greater than just ethnic hatred or lack of harmony. Serious structural problems continue to feed instability and violence.
In all honesty, I was skeptical while waiting for the event to begin. I was skeptical about the intentions of a European organization founded by a Catholic priest in intervening in African affairs. I was skeptical about the efficacy of a nonprofit in correcting bad governance, radicalization, and food scarcity. We’ve seen Europeans invade the Global South under a rhetoric of caring for the livelihood and morality of the people here. We’ve seen the impact colonialism has had around the world: murder, rape, slavery, economic exploitation, government corruption, stoking or complete creation of ethnic tensions and conflict, among other ills. We still see much of this impact on African countries. Motivated by a blind ambition to “make the world a better place,” these organizations can often do more harm than good.
Pleasantly enough, I was pleased with the methods and philosophy of the Shalom Center. Father Devine acknowledged that only the Kenyan people can solve their own issues. No outside, foreign power can achieve this result, and it is foolish and detrimental of these organizations to operate under this notion. However, when involving the voices of those impacted firsthand, foreign organizations can effectively advocate for and support these voices. The center also prioritizes listening to the community by gathering feedback. Kenyans are actively involved in every step of the center’s work, improving its efficiency.
I am still left wondering more about what these workshops look like. While I understand the purpose of them, I’m curious as to how the lessons are taught, what material is presented to the participants. Additionally, does the center facilitate meetings or workshops amongst conflicting ethnic groups at the same time? Father Devine believes that the solution to ethnic violence is to unite the narratives — find common ground between groups. How does this unity occur? How does a foreign organization inspire warring groups to drop their weapons? I hope to learn more about the role of NGOs in conflict resolution, and I am grateful to attend a university that enables direct interaction with these organizations.
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