Project summary

Six years after the end of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, there is still a need for sustainable peace throughout the country.

Since the country’s eleven-year-long war ended in 2002, an internationally-designed Truth and Reconciliation Commission has come and gone, while the United Nations backed criminal court is about to wrap up its final deliberations in the prosecutions of the handful of men deemed most responsible for fomenting the conflict. Despite millions of dollars spent on these proceedings, neither body has succeeded in fundamentally changing the daily lives of Sierra Leoneans who still grapple with the aftermath of war.

Fambul Tok – Creole for “Family Talk” – is a new national initiative that addresses that need for change. A three-year-long program built on traditional methods of reconciliation at the community level to help foster a lasting and sustainable peace, Fambul Tok is a partnership between Forum of Conscience, a Freetown-based human rights organization, and Catalyst for Peace, a U.S.-based foundation which supports locally rooted reconciliation processes in post-conflict African societies.
Fambul Tok is a familiar phrase to Sierra Leoneans, one which implies the safety of a family circle for discussing and resolving issues. The initiative, which embodies that sentiment, is designed to draw all members of the nation’s post-war society – whether victims, offenders, or witnesses – back into the Sierra Leonean family. Over the course of three years, 161 traditionally-based reconciliation events spread across the nation’s fourteen districts will be held, each one developed and guided by local chiefdom reconciliation committees made up of respected members of the community, including elders, women, youth and religious leaders.

This community healing process of reconciliation and forgiveness is designed to address the roots of conflict at the local level, and to restore dignity to the lives of those who suffered from violence. The work will help war-affected individuals reflect on the past in ways which will enable them to be a part of averting renewed aggressions. And it will also help create healthy communities capable of building new foundations of peace through honoring traditional methods of reconciliation.

Fambul Tok answers the call of Sierra Leone’s official Truth and Reconciliation Commission to create local reconciliation activities. And its organizers will draw on extensive nation-wide networks developed as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Working Group. Fambul Tok is a distinctly Sierra Leonean initiative, rooted not in western concepts of crime and punishment but in communal African sensibilities which emphasize the need for communities to be whole – with each member playing a role – if peace and development are to be achieved for the nation.

As Sierra Leone enters a new era – with the final phases of internationally-driven institutions coming to a close and with the election of a new president and government dedicated to addressing the wrongs of the past – Fambul Tok is launching its campaign with the belief that the time for peace has come.

Our approach

Fambul Tok is rooted in consultative processes, including research and collaboration with other programs to create maximum impact in the community healing process in Sierra Leone. The Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University (USA) are among those programs offering support and insight into this work.

Fambul Tok is inspired by the conviction that each person has the power, goodness and capacity to contribute to society in helpful and healthy ways. When people experience violence and hurt, those innate capacities can become dormant, often causing individuals to act in ways contrary to their nature. We will support individual and community healing through traditional practices which have proved useful in other community contexts, aided by local leaders who can provide guidance and moral support in the process of forgiveness and reconciliation.

As these activities take root at the community level, local networks will be created to gather and share the wisdom that has been generated. These networks will provide opportunities for on-going learning, and will continue to build on local resources and capacities that will help foster on-going healing.