Woodstock Report | A Geography of War

Here, Father Ferdinand R. Muhigirwa, S.J., looks at the "lugubrious setting" of wars in Africa. He is director of The Center of Study for Social Action in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and took part in a recent visiting fellowship program co-sponsored by Woodstock at Georgetown (see director's message). This brief overview of conflict on the continent is adapted from Father Muhigirwa's April 19 lecture, "Conflict and Peace in Central Africa."

By Ferdinand Muhigirwa

Peace building in Africa is a major challenge that no African can ignore today. Nowadays, certain pessimistic views on Africa have been reinforced looking at the dramatic mapping of conflict on the continent.

On all four continental cardinal points, all is burning under fire:

- At the East, conflicts in the Horn of Africa have cooled off with difficulty. Even though arms have calmed down between Ethiopia and Eritrea, suspicion persists and there still is fear; if peace outcomes are not solidified, that tomorrow we may see again reports of walking skeletons that shocked the human mind in the past. Other consequences of conflict in the Horn of Africa are still visible in Somalia, where the state has collapsed.

- At the North-East, the latest news on the Darfur conflict reminds us that Sudan is not better off, in spite of positive headways between Khartoum and the southern-Sudan rebellion. Chad is burning up again in civil war.

- At the South, South Africa is full of hope, after apartheid. But land issues, illustrated by present tensions with Zimbabwe, make people fear a possible explosion in the region if appropriate solutions are not brought to bear. Concerning Angola, wounds from a long civil war will require a long time to heal.

- At the North-West, the Western Saharan conflict [a long-running struggle that pits rebels against the Moroccan government] has been forgotten by most Africans for a quarter of a century.

- At the West, Ivory Coast, a former symbol of progress, stability, peace and harmony, is today shaking our certitudes and reminding us that Sierra Leone and Liberia were not isolated cases.

- The Nigerian giant is still subject to worries concerning harmony between religious groups. Out of this lugubrious setting, Central Africa, the supposed junction between these points, remains unfortunately the softest spot. This sub-region continues to suffer genocides, massacres, and other flagrant human rights violations, along with hunger, diseases, lootings, destruction, and crumbling values.

Looking at this map, one can say without fear of being contradicted that no one country on the continent can consider itself definitively out of conflict. These conflicts are questioning us. Conflict resolution is not only a challenge for political leaders but also for our churches, our identity, and our call. It is a moral obligation that we cannot escape.

Texts of Father Muhigirwa's two major Georgetown lectures are available online at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/berkleycenter/. More information about the visiting fellowships in which he participated are available on that page, as is "The Two Ways of Human Development According to Bernard Longergan," a paper he delivered as part of Woodstock's "Brown Bag" luncheon series on April 12.