Chapter Three THE PHILOSOPHY OF A STRUCTURED PEACE EDUCATION FOR AFRICA 3.1.        Philosophy Defined The philosophy of the structured peace education for peace is to produce African experts that could specialize in peacemaking, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation techniques that are compatible to the needs of Africans.  There is a tradition of peace in all societies and cultures, which when tapped could provide a strong foundation for localized peacebuilding and peacemaking efforts and since Africa is very rich in these cultural aspects, the students will be encouraged to develop ideas of how conflicts are resolved in their communities.  The following African techniques of conflict resolutions will be highlighted: •        Council of Elders – Family heads, respected women with profound leadership abilities, kinsmen, clans, tribal influences and connections. •        Traditional Authorities – kings, emirs, chiefs, etc •        Peacemaking in market places, town squares, occasions of anniversaries, Christmas and End of Year gatherings •        Church and other Religious Leaders and Cultural Groups •        Settlement Systems through Mutual Exchange •        Juridical systems •        Violence prevention and suppression methods Through a formal peace education that will be offered at the peace academy and through the peace education centers that will be established in the grassroots communities, Africans will be encouraged to take initiatives for peacemaking, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation and mediation.  The peace education will be structured to promote tribal peace and love and justice among Africans.  It shall be proactive in nature and will allow for interfaith and ecumenical dialogue.  It will aim at providing the know-how that could nurture peaceful co- existence among the people of Africa. For philosophical evaluation, the following questions will be asked.   Answers to these questions will be provided through the theology of peace education, the pedagogy, the sample curriculum and the capacity building proposal for the peace academy. •        Who will be students of the peace education? •        Who should teach? What are the characteristics of an effective teacher? •        What are the teaching methods? Until the peace academy shall be established, our peace education centers will operate a catechetical basis •        When, how, and where does peace education take place? •        Where does the student of peace education stand in terms of the dominant peacemaking culture?  Are they going to be pacifists, abolitionists, reconciliators, mediators, human right advocates? •        How will the student of peace education be perceived in the African society at large? Other aspects of concern for the philosophy of structured education for peace are the needs, how they arose and how they will be met; the feasibility of the proposal and its sustainability and maintenance in the years to come.  The issue of needs had been addressed extensively in the section titled “rationale and challenges of peace education in Africa.” 3.2.        Models of Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding From antiquity to our present days, various models of conflict transformation and peacebuilding had been developed and practiced.  In this section I will briefly examine these “ways to peace,” some pragmatic, others spiritual. 3.2.1        Justice and Righteousness - Prophetic Peace Model The common theme that ran through all the eighth century BC prophetic messages in Israel and Judah was justice and righteousness.  A typical example is credited to Prophet Amos: “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5: 24).  The age-old question therefore is “Can there be peace without justice?” 3.2.2        Economics of Peace Economics of peace could be described as a situation where the citizens enjoy full employment and are therefore peaceful because problems of finance and production had been eliminated.  The proponent of this theory, Xenophon, was said to have reasoned that if problems of finance and production were solved, warfare might cease without Athens impoverishing her citizens.   Perhaps, African governments could reduce the number of wars they brought upon their countries by creating enabling environments for the full employment of all their economic resources. Money saved from witless wars could be reinvested in extensive labor induced and economic generating industries, agriculture, small scale industries and services.  Honest financial institutions would have to be developed that would ensure that money circulate instead of been hoarded by a few.  Government and corruptly enriched leaders must be prepared to give back to the system what they have corruptly taken. 3.2.3        The Pax Romana Pax Romana, in other words, the Peace of Rome, had several dimensions to it.  One way to review the effect of the Peace of Rome was the presence of military garrisons under the authority of Roman military officials, such as centurion, Roman appointed governors and kings. This was peace by conquest. Through those military apparatuses and their patrol of highways and cities, law and order were maintained throughout the Roman Empire.  Since violence was ostensibly reduced every citizen of the empire enjoyed a period of peace.  Another way to look at the Peace of Rome was “peace by purchase”, where the Emperors and the wealthy Romans citizens paid the barbarians either to keep them off or engaged them for protection.  Yet, there was another way to Peace of Rome; the way represented by Madonna, where the poor of the Empire were catered for and the worship of the Emperor image and his idols. There was also the phenomenon of war-weariness and peace mindedness that had taken a sway over the people of the Empire at this time. Without turning their countries into a police state or jeopardizing the human rights of her citizens, African governments can  increase the security of life and properties of her citizens and improve the lots of the poor in their midst. Africans by and large are now war weary and are prepared to go the way of peace, provided the right leadership emerged. 3.2.4        The Sermon on the Mount If we are looking for objective lessons in conflict transformation, peacemaking and peacebuilding, the right place to go is to the Sermon on the Mount.  By the time Jesus preached this sermon, the Jewish nation, as a Roman territory, was nothing but peaceful. To the average religious Jew, the presence of the Roman soldiers on the sacred land of Judea was an abomination.  There had been rebellion on rebellion to shake off Roman’s authority and her draconian taxation system.  If the Israelites had any enemies during this time, they would be Romans and whatever the Romans represent.  Unfortunately, the politics of Jesus and his gospel of peace did not resonate well with the Jewish leaders who were expecting a militant Messiah who will establish a world kingdom for the Jewish Nation.  But by his, life, ministry, death and resurrection, Jesus Christ was able to prove that non-violent resistance and love of one’s enemies were the perfect way to peace. 3.2.5        Pacifism The position of several early Church Fathers was that of pacifism, where Christians were expected to refrain from joining the army to avoid killing and taking of lives.  Three varieties of pacifism were proposed: “the first may be called legalistic and eschatological” , where it is unlawful for the Christian, the son of peace, to go to battle.  A second variety of pacifism was a combination of Christian love with Gnostic views, where Marcion, “in the name of Christian love, rejected the God of the Old Testament together with all his wars.”  The third variety was said to be “pragmatic and redemptive.” “It took cognizance of life on earth and of social consequences and responsibilities, but objected to war in part because there was a more excellent way.”  This theory insisted that since pagan priests were refrained from going to battles, Christians should similarly be allowed to remain pacifists because they are priests of God. 3.2.6        The Christian Peace and the Roman Peace During the Constantinian Shift, the Church and the State became partners and “The Roman Peace and the Christian Peace supported each other, and the prophecy that swords should be beaten into plowshares had received fulfillment in the Pax Romana.”   The effect of the Pax Romana was that the Gospel was able to be preached throughout the Roman Empire, which in turn promoted Christian Peace. It could then be preached through the message of the City of God that “the religion of the one God and the empire of one ruler were recognized as having been made for each other.” 3.2.7        The Just War Theory It was soon realized that pacifism could not survive in all situations and in spite of the Christian Peace and the Roman Peace, and as a result of the imperfection of men, skirmishes still erupted among nations that demanded that aggressions or injustice should be addressed through wars.  “An object of just war then was to vindicate justice,”  as well as for self-defense. St. Augustine, proponent of this theory (though not a Christian theory per se), explained that “the love of enemies admits no dispensation, but love does not exclude wars of mercy waged by the good.”  However, just wars must observe some ethics: it must be just as to its observers, waged only under the authority of the ruler and constituted authority. It appears that just wars had continued to permit wars on the grounds of their being just.  Just wars also had the tendency to assume the characteristics of holy wars most especially when the rules or leaders take the authority to declare such wars upon themselves and claimed to be representing God’s authority to destroy the infidels or the opponents which they have surreptitiously demonized. The fact remains that if aggression is justified by one party because of injustice, then self- defense is also equally justifiable by the other party.  In this way hostilities may never end, and cause of just war as a means to peace will now become peace by conquest. 3.2.8        Islam is Peace “Islam is the religion of peace.  Its meaning is peace.  It is the peaceful surrender to the will and commands of God.  The Muslim salutation “Assalaam Alikum” means, “May God’s peace be upon you.” Islam strives to bring peace in the world.  Islam will never act with aggression against non-Muslims who make peace with it or are even indifferent to it.  Islam does not force people to accept it, because it is a faith that must come from the deep conviction of an individual. The Koran categorically affirms this by saying, “There is no compulsion in religion.  The right direction is henceforth distinct from error” (Koran 2:3256).  These are the words of the Muslim scholar, Badru D. Kateregga. If these words are true or unquestionable, then Islam is peace indeed.  But the prove lies not in the words of one author but in the different opinions of several historians who were writing from different perspectives.  The refined Islam may be peaceful after its first 100 years of existence, when it had conquered the world through the sword but not before.  Evidence abounds that emissaries of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in the early days of his Arabian kingdom, were sent with double-edged sword messages to Pagan, Christian and Jewish nations with the ultimatum to choose between Islam and war.  The letters of the just war theory might have dictated the reactions of those under siege, even though they were punished for a real crime - their refusal to embrace Islam. Perhaps, a quick review of the situation is necessary here.  Men had fought several unreligious wars on earth but each time had tried to make it religious in nature by attaching the names of deities to their man-made wars.  The Pagans had been led to battles and had fought battles in the name of Janus, the Hebrews in the name of Yahweh, the Warrior, and the Christians, in the banner of Christ, the Prince of Peace, and the Arabs, in the sword of Islam, the religion of peace.   Perhaps, the time will arrive when historians will refrain from telling the stories of wars among humanities as having to do with religions.   Perhaps, the time will arrive when wars will be analyzed and illustrated as predicated by the inordinate ambition of men. 3.2.9        The Peace of God and the Truce of God The Peace of God was a decree that limited the categories of people who can engage in or be attacked in battles and holy sites upon which wars could not be fought.  The Truce of God on the other hand, limited the time and days for military operations.  However, when crusades were called, the peace of God and the truce of God became of no consequence. 3.2.10        Monasticism and Sectarian Pacifism Monasticism had provided a haven for Christians who had objected to the Church entering into any alliance with the State.  These Christians, who were supposed to champion the cause of peace through their solitary lives of prayers, soon became belligerent to the point of considering killing for the sake of Christ a noble act.  Bainton pointed out that “Even monastic pacifism collapsed and there came to be monastic military orders, the Templars, the Hospitalers, and the Knights of St. John.”  A famous monastic leader, St. Bernard, was said to have exhorted fearless fighting on the ground that “he who killed benefited Christ and he who died benefited himself.”   St. Bernard had called on the knights to “attack with confidence and courage the enemies of the cross of Christ, assured that neither life nor death can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   From accounts like the ones cited above, it could be clearly seen that Christianity had had a violent past just as Islam.  It can also be concluded that a mutual suspicion and fear existed between Christendom and the House of Islam today because of the parallel violent past of these religions.  It is therefore unfair for one to condemn the other of the same crime. For peace to reign on earth, Christians and Muslims must outgrow their mutual fears and suspicions. 3.2.11        Humanistic Pacifism Erasmus of Rotterdam, a great humanist and pacifist of the Renaissance, was possessed, like other alumni of the several schools of the Brethren of Common Life, a renewal organization founded by Gerhard Groote, with a critical and reforming spirit.  He, and several others like him, devoted their lives to church renewal, advocacy for peace, and renewed interest in Greek classical scholarship.  Since “peace was necessary for his program of the reform of the Church and society through the processes of education,”  Erasmus had poured his pleas for peace in all his literary works, notable among which were the Institute of the Christian Prince and the Complaint of Peace. In spite of all these promising efforts at the abolition of wars, the hope for peace was dashed “when the very year of the Diet of Worms… the Holy Roman Emperor and the most Christian king of France embarked upon war.” 3.2.12        The Traditional Peace Churches The three churches commonly referred to as the traditional peace churches are the Anabaptists, the Brethren and the Quakers.  Though these churches emerged at different times, in different geographic locations, and out of different settings, they had one thing in common, the religiosity for peace through the imitation of the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus Christ.  The Anabaptists, whose offspring are the Mennonites and the Hutterites, had maintained, in spite of deadly persecutions by the Roman Catholic and the Mainline Protestant Churches, their doctrines of believers’ baptism, non-violence resistance, and the separation of the two kingdoms, the kingdom of heaven represented on earth by the true believers’ Church and the kingdom of the world, represented by the State. The peace, justice, mediation and relief works of the Mennonites are today enjoyed in almost all the parts of the world.  The Quakers on the other hand had sought peace through politics  and they continued to do so till this day as they work in close partnership with the United Nations Organizations and other agencies for world peace. The Quakers had placed priority on the obedience to ones conscience rather than just to a lord or king or somebody in authority. In contrast to the teachings of Calvinism and Lutheranism, a Christian may not obey bad authority if his conscience convinced otherwise. 3.2.13        The Leviathan The theory of the Leviathan, developed by Hobbes, suggested that a totalitarian government is better than a state of anarchy, when no-one actually seems to be in control.  This could be a domesticated variation of the just war theory, where the citizens, instead of taking the laws into their own hands, by defending themselves individually, the task of personal safety and security of properties is assigned to an elected or constituted government. 3.2.14        Reverence for Life Albert Schweitzer in his collection of sermons had argued that though life must be killed for life to continue, but because he had reasoned that human life is sacred, he believed man is not permitted to take another man’s life.  “But may man kill man? God obviously takes the life of man, but God may do so because he gives life.   The creature is not to usurp the office of the Creator.”    Bainton saw this as “the principle on which our hospitals are conducted, and there we exhaust every resource of medical skill to keep life going even at a vegetative level, whereas in war we squander the choicest of our youth.” 3.2.15        bolition of War Emmanuel Kant, in his Perpetual Peace, had echoed the similar thoughts espoused by Erasmus in his Institute of the Christian Prince.  Kant had opined that for world peace to ensue, “no independent states, large or small, shall come under the dominion of another state by inheritance, exchange, purchase, or donation.”  Kant had seen the possibilities of standing armies being abolished and the principles of international law and commerce gaining upper hand in every state, thus creating a situation of perpetual peace on earth. 3.2.16        Conscientization From the works of Paulo Freire, it could be concluded that if a man self- consciously educates himself through the “authentic source of knowledge and truth”  by doing God’s will, i.e. being obedient to the teachings of Jesus Christ, there is a probability that he would be liberated from the chains and oppressions of darkness. For Jesus had said “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,” (John 8:38). Dr. Schipani explained, that “conscientization seems to provide a nice illustration of how to foster moral development as a transforming learning process that includes the “dislodging” of oppressive structures and identification with oppressors as well as transformational role-taking.  The very conscientizing pedagogical approach contains a message of liberation from restrictive patterns of moral reasoning and for higher and better forms of understanding and solving moral dilemmas in the quest of justice.”  This is one of the reasons why I think conscientization as developed by Paulo Freire and expounded by educators like Dr. Schipani could be a way to peace. Though primarily addressed to Latin and South American nations, the conscientization as a way to peace could find fallow grounds in Africa.   Africa, a continent that had experienced perennial denial of freedom both political and economic freedom, needs a new pedagogical approach to overcome her present decadence and underdevelopment syndrome.   This can only come if Africans can conscientiously create a new social structure, one that will not focus on violence as a means to liberation, but rather a social structure that is built upon a total awareness of her predicaments and the readiness to break free from them.  A statement credited to Freire might explain my point better: “As in the case of Freire, critical reflection is perceived as a conscientizing communal process with a three-dimensional focus:  It leads people to look for the fundamental causes of alienation and marginalization, poverty and oppression by engaging the analytical memory in search for root causes and understandings; it attends to present reality in order to “problematize” it and to question the prevailing social system and its supporting ideology; it also envisions future consequences and possibilities in terms of “utopia” by engaging the creative imagination.” So, the long and short of this statement is that Africans need to start to creatively imagine ways out of the continent’s problem, not necessarily by escaping them and fleeing overseas or escaping to safe havens , but by facing the issues with a determination to conquer and overcome them. In the light of this reasoning, I will like to summarize some ways or praxes of conflict transformation and Peacebuilding that Appleby highlighted in his book, the Ambivalence of the Sacred as this could provide illustrative examples of what could be done to achieve the goal of political, economic and justice in Africa. 3.2.17        The Ambivalence of the Sacred In this work, Scott Appleby emphasizes the fact that religion had play, is playing and still has important roles to play in conflict transformation and peacebuilding.  Appleby stated that it can be asserted that “in the decades since the end of World War II, and with a special intensity in the years surrounding the end of the Cold War, religious militants, religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national and transnational religious hierarchies and offices, ecumenical and interreligious bodies, and local religious communities, assuming a variety of critical roles, participated vigorously in conflict transformation in its three dimensions: conflict management, conflict resolution, and structural reform.”  Appleby also highlighted the three modes under which religious actors had participated and still participate in conflict transformation in different sets of sociopolitical circumstances as the crisis mode, the saturation mode, and the intervention mode.  Appleby mentioned that in each mode, religious individuals and organizations had collaborated effectively with government, non-government, and other religious actors.  The great work of several erstwhile peace activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, Mahatma Gandhi, and numerous others fall perfectly well under these modes.  What remains to be achieved, however, in my opinion is how to consolidate the efforts of all these religious actors in a coherent way to maximize world peace.  A suggestion I would like to make however is that all religious peace actors and activists could work at a common peace agenda but they should begin at a point of their religious conviction and work toward a common goal of making the world a peaceful place for everyone, irrespective of race, tribe and religion.  Such a common agenda may include the establishment of a structured education for peace at the grassroots community levels, the creation of frameworks for both proactive and post-conflict transformation, and mechanisms that could strengthen universalism and pluralism. This leads me therefore to another way of peace, namely, the Just Peacemaking. 3.2.18        Just Peacemaking In a book with the title Just Peacemaking – Ten Practices for Abolishing War, a group of peace educators, peace workers, human right activists and theologians, presented ten articles illustrating some practices that they believed could help in promoting peacemaking in our present world situation.  Is just peacemaking a direct opposite of Just War Theory or is it a derivative of pacifism?  It is not easy to answer this question in the affirmative, but the compilers of these practices saw just peacemaking as a new ethic. They divided their work into three major parts: peacemaking initiatives, justice, and love and community. Peacemaking initiatives involve supporting nonviolent direct actions, taking independent initiatives to reduce threat, using cooperative conflict resolution, and acknowledging responsibility for conflict and injustice and seeking repentance and forgiveness.  Justice involves the advancement of democracy, human rights, and religious liberty, and the fostering of just and sustainable economic development.  For love and community, it is encouraged to work with emerging cooperatives in the international system, strengthening the United Nations efforts on human right issues, and encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations. This new ethic of Just Peacemaking was a child of necessity just as the Just War Theories developed by St. Augustine several centuries ago...   Though these works were several centuries apart, the circumstances that led to them remained almost the same, nations are still fighting nations, treaties are still being violated, terrorists had replaced vandals and religious extremists had replaced barbarians, injustice and neglect of the poor is still prevalent in the world, and just like all eyes were on Roman Empire and Constantinople for good or for evil, so all eyes are now on the United States and Washington.  While the goal of just war theory was peace by force as a reaction to external violence and aggression, the goal of just peacemaking was conflict transformation, as a response to internally generated grievances and externally imposed evils of geopolitics. There is no doubt that just peacemaking requires the spirit of pacifism, but in my opinion it is not pacifism. While pacifism is a choice, just peacemaking appears to me to be a vocation.  It is therefore not only the princes or the rulers that ought to be taught peacemaking; every citizen ought to receive peace education and cultivate lifestyles that can increase the promotion of positive peace and reduce the need for negative peace. The just war theory requires the authority of one person, the king or his council to sanction warfare, but just peacemaking calls upon everyone to proactively work for peace. The ideals of just peacemaking call for the need that every hand ought to be on deck if peace were to be achieved.   This therefore leads me to the need for grassroots religious education and formation for peace. 3.2.19        Grassroots Religious Education and Formation for Peace Appleby pointed out that at the “core of religious peacebuilding are religious actors living and worshiping in local communities around the world.”   In the opinion of Appleby those local religious actors can be integrated into conflict resolution and peacebuilding teams.  Appleby recognizes that “in many conflict settings the candidates from religious communities are prominent among the midlevel and grassroots leaders who are ideally positioned to serve as local counterparts in conflict transformation.”  There is no doubt that these people require some level of peace education if they are to be effective in their vocation of peacemaking.  This is the reason why African Projects for Peace and Love Initiatives had made it her major objective to promote grassroots proactive interfaith peace and love through a structured peace education.  In the meantime, this organization is designing and developing some infrastructures that would serve as the vessel for the promotion of grassroots peace in Africa, such vessels include the formation of grassroots peace clubs in religious houses, schools, and other grassroots communities.  The vision is to saturate the grassroots with clusters of peace and love clubs and peace education centers.   Along this line, a post secondary peace academy is being envisioned, the concept of which is being developed through this thesis.  The peace academy would teach a structured curriculum for peace in Africa.   Through these means, it is expected that the average African would be encouraged to cultivate lifestyles and attitudes that could promote more positive and less negative peace.  The next section of this work will discuss the pedagogy of the grassroots structured peace education. 3.2.20        The United Nations Organization Through its several peacekeeping and peace oriented programs, the United Nations Organization had contributed to world peace in a great number of ways.  Though it has not been possible for the organization to stop major wars, and in spite of many human failures and imperfections, the United Nations Organization could be said to be making necessary impact toward peace in our world today.  Perhaps, what is vitiating the effectiveness of the organization is the occasional reluctance or refusal of powerful members of the organization to accept the directives of this world body. Though the debate is on the ground whether or not this institution had outlived its usefulness, there are still hope that if given the respect it deserves, some usefulness might still be derived from its various activities and programs. 3.2.21        Pope John Paul II – The Servant of Servants Pope John Paul II needed to be identified as a peacemaker in our present world.  During many of Pope John Paul II speeches, he had always referred to himself as the “servant of servants.”  In a recent speech, he was quoted as saying “God, while knowing my human fragility, encourages me to respond with faith.  He invites me to assume the responsibilities that He himself has entrusted to me.”   This resonates well with the statement of Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4: 7, where he says: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Pope John Paul II had made bold attempts to reconcile not only the Church but people of other religious faiths and even countries and communities that had been wronged in the past through the imperial policies of the Roman Catholic Church. Had it been his predecessors in office considered the frailty of man and allowed the ethic of grace to dominate their thoughts and guided their actions, may be the world would have known fewer religious violence. x.        The World Council of Churches Since the Second World War, the World Church Council had contributed immensely to ecumenical and world peace.  With the Council’s declaration of this decade as the Decade of Peace, it is hoped that the opportunities by everyone, including political leaders to pursue peace in our world, (Psalm 34:14).