Hon. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Vice President of Sierra Leone gives remarks at the Constellating Peace 2.0 opening
Every official event in Sierra Leone begins with both a Muslim and a Christian prayer. Sierra Leoneans are a very religious people, and there is a fairly evenly split Muslim and Christian population here (who by the way coexist remarkably harmoniously – a topic for another post perhaps). For Constellating Peace 2, we had selected CFP’s own Rev. Charles Gibbs to offer the Christian prayer and Mariama Jarju, a Constellating Peace participant from The Gambia, to offer the Muslim prayer. Mariama is one of the leaders of Women in Liberation and Leadership (WILL), working to amplify LGBTIQ+ voices and to fight for their rights in a society that often discriminates against them. And of course she did a beautiful job offering a Muslim prayer for our gathering.
“A woman can’t lead Muslim prayers,” the protocol officer for the Vice President of Sierra Leone told me as he reviewed the names we provided for the program. “It’s just never done.”
“But this is a Fambul Tok space,” I replied, “and we do things differently.”
The protocol chief smiled and said, “Ah, yes! Okay.”
That moment—the protocol officer’s assumption that things would happen the way they always do, but the quick understanding and acceptance of the fact that Fambul Tok spaces are defined differently—was only one moment, but it was emblematic of a larger dynamic running throughout this week.
“It’s always been done that way,” is being left by the wayside—along with its counterpart, “It’s never been done that way before.”
Fambul Tok and Catalyst for Peace have succeeded in gaining trust and credibility by trueing to values of inclusiveness and creating space for all voices to be heard. It’s the same commitment that the other teams represented here have made in their own contexts. And they continue the work borne of that commitment, moment after courageous moment.
Sierra Leone’s Peace Mothers sit together at the opening of Constellating Peace 2.0
Secretary Mukhtar Ogle from the Office of the President in Kenya embodied one of these courageous moments later in the opening ceremony. Mr. Ogle was charged with introducing our cohort to the Vice President and the Sierra Leonean government ministers in attendance, as well as the development partners who had gathered to celebrate and officially launch the work of CP2. He also passed along messages from his President and other government colleagues, conveying the depth of value the Kenyan government holds for peace work in general, but for community-centered work more generally.
But Mr. Ogle began his remarks by singling out Mariama and her example. He used his platform as a senior government leader to amplify her courage, inviting the whole group to take a moment to express deep appreciation for her—especially for the courage it takes to champion LGBTIQ+ voices in such a traditional and conservative context. By doing so, Mr. Ogle invited us all to feel supported in our own courageous rejections of the “the way things have always been done.”
After an animated first day and a half, the cohort left Tuesday afternoon for an overnight visit to the Fambul Tok communities. I have had a few moments to rest and begin to plan for the next, including to write this post. I’m excited to receive folks back, and to hear about their experiences. More to come!
