25 March 2009
“Family Talk” Empowers Sierra Leone to Move Past Civil Conflict
Fambul Tok uses traditional reconciliation practices to promote peace
Washington — Reconciliation efforts following Sierra Leone’s 1991–2002 civil war included a truth-and-reconciliation committee and a special court to try those accused of the most egregious human rights abuses, but the short mandate of these processes kept their effects from filtering down to many in the populace. As a result, renewed aggression prompted by fear or a desire for revenge continues to threaten the peace.
To encourage wider dialogue and help create more possibilities for individual and community healing, the Maine-based Catalyst for Peace foundation teamed with the Sierra Leone nongovernmental organization Forum of Conscience for the Fambul Tok program.
In the Krio language, “Fambul Tok” means “family talk.” The program enlarges Sierra Leone’s traditions for discussing and resolving issues within the family to encompass a much larger community and provide it with a structure for beginning a process of reconciliation.
Amy Potter, associate director for The Practice and Training Institute at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, spoke with America.gov about the program. She worked with Fambul Tok as a program officer and trainer from the program’s beginning in December 2007 until January and continues to serve as a consultant.
TRADITIONAL RITUALS REPAIR THE COMMUNITY
Part of the program “is about reviving tradition,” she said, such as bonfire and dance ceremonies of reconciliation that involve confessions and forgiveness, and ritual cleansing ceremonies to bring offenders back into the community and create opportunities for people to tell their stories, take responsibility and repair relationships.
These practices are rare in modern Sierra Leone, but Potter says the traditional rituals are relevant and helpful because they build a “strong community fabric.”
“That’s one of the big things that helps people work through their trauma, when they feel that they are part of the connected network of a community.”
The staff members from Catalyst for Peace and Forum of Conscience create the structure for communities to reconcile. Staff members first meet with a diverse group of leaders within a district, including chiefs, religious figures, women and youth, to discuss their needs and the community’s willingness to participate.
Fambul Tok departs from tradition because it makes a point of involving women and youth, populations historically excluded from such ceremonies. It also is a voluntary process. In the past, a community decision to reconcile made participation mandatory — effectively telling its members “Get over yourself and do it!” Potter said.
“This is not a political process,” she said, and it does not force people to reconcile or meet with those who have harmed them or their loved ones. The goal is to “talk to people to see what the harm has been, what their needs are, and to see if there is anything that they can do to facilitate forward movement.” But the community ultimately has to do most of the work, including the long preparations and discussions required before two sides can meet and reconcile through traditional rituals.
DIVIDED COMMUNITIES CANNOT THRIVE
Potter said every community that has been approached thus far has agreed to participate. Most understand “if their communities are divided, they’re not going to thrive and they’re not going to be able to really move forward,” she said. “That’s particularly true there because a lot of victims and offenders are from the same communities.”
During the civil war, the country was not necessarily divided along ethnic or religious lines, and neighbors were sometimes at odds. “Even family members hurt each other. There were a lot of child soldiers who were forced to do awful things to their family members,” Potter said. Many young people have been too scared to return home, and the communities are looking for a way to encourage them to come back.
Fambul Tok has facilitated at least 40 village-level reconciliation ceremonies in which thousands have participated. The first ceremony was held in March 2008 in Kailahun District, where the civil war started in 1991.
“The intention is in three years to have ceremonies in all of the [12] districts, two per section,” Potter said.
The program recognizes the ceremonies are only the beginning of the process, and has followed up by developing community farms, dedicating trees to serve as traditional meeting places and promoting friendly football matches between aggrieved communities.
Potter says Sierra Leone’s reconciliation traditions can be useful to Westerners, who often view the response to violence as a matter of “blame and punishment,” and do not attach the same cultural importance to community or the need to address harm.
“Addressing the harm makes a difference,” she said. “That’s what makes people OK and pulls communities back together and makes people not live in fear … on both sides.”
More information on Fambul Tok, including a six-minute film, is available on the Catalyst for Peace Web site.
