Dr Riek Machar, Vice-President of the South Sudan Regional Assembly, with participants of Creators of Peace Circle in Juba.

The Vice-President of the South Sudan Regional Assembly, Dr Riek Machar, opened a five-day workshop in Juba led by a team from IofC's Creators of Peace programme. The workshop, in October, was for members of the Regional Assembly, the National Assembly in Khartoum and for peace and social activists. Angelina Teny, Deputy Minister for Petroleum and Energy, hosted the team from eight countries who were visiting South Africa, Kenya and Sudan during September and October to conduct a series of women's 'Creators of Peace Circles'.

The 'Peace Circle' process includes participants sharing their stories, accepting their contribution in the perpetuation of conflict and embracing their peacemaking potential. Together they examine the character of peace and the character of the peace creator. The workshops focussed on enabling the participants to run Creators of Peace Circles in their respective villages and regions.

Jean Brown, one of those facilitating the workshops, reports:

The women came from Soweto, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Harare in the south of the continent; there were grass roots teachers and social activists from Uganda and Kenya in the east; there were members of Parliament, academics and NGO leaders in north and south Sudan. Everywhere the response was instant, dynamic and ongoing.

Northern Sudanese women at Creators of Peace workshop

'I shall not keep quiet,' spoken with the intense authority of a woman who has found her voice for the first time. 'The negative feelings I have had about life have changed. Sharing with trust removes so much bitterness – this is the beginning. I shall not keep quiet about what I have learned here.' The words of this Kenyan village school teacher echoed similar words from the fragile peace of Sudan, where 60 women gathered in two workshops of a few days each, one in Juba, the capital of South Sudan and the other in Khartoum, the national capital in the north. A southern journalist shared 'I had viewed northerners as "enemy". When my northern sisters shared their struggles I realized southerners were not the only ones who suffer.' A northerner responded, 'This is unique – the chance to sit with my southern sisters, to have real connection and connectedness. We need to know each other and visit each other. I have decided to look deep inside myself.'

Angelina Teny, Minister of State for Petroleum and Energy, Sudan.

We were invited to Sudan, a nation emerging from decades of war, by Angelina Teny, Minister of State in the National Assembly and Deputy Minister for Petroleum and Energy. 'I wanted the women to experience the change that I have experienced through Creators of Peace and Initiatives of Change,' she said. Frustration over the slow implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement may destabilize peace and power sharing processes at government level, but individuals are powerfully at work, personally and communally.

One northern woman shared, 'This is the first workshop that dealt with me as a human being. There are many things I will not forget. Forgiveness is not a weakness but comes from strength.'

A member of the National Assembly in Khartoum said, 'It is so good that such a programme comes at this crucial time. Though the guns are silent, so much goes on in people, so much dysfunction. There are many peace programmes but not always deep enough to touch the souls of people…. The desire for revenge makes a monster out of you. Forgiveness restores our humanity.'

In Juba, the Vice -President of the South Sudan Regional Assembly, Dr Riek Machar, both opened and closed the workshop. The closing was televised. 'We demand that the Khartoum Government should start the process of reconciliation,' he said, 'but what about us – have we accepted that we should reconcile?'

A former deputy governor from the south, who had sworn never to return to Khartoum, overcame her bitterness and accompanied us to the north to assist with the second workshop there. After an 18 year gap, she kissed the ground of Khartoum on arrival. 'We have worked on peace but not on change,' she said.

North South reconciliation at Creators of Peace workshop in Khartoum

Everywhere the theme of forgiveness was powerfully relevant. As facilitators we were aware that we had no right to demand forgiveness and were only too aware of the depths of suffering that we were hearing; from domestic violence, gang rape, and child abuse, to the legacy of 50 years of war in Sudan and the anguish of inter-tribal conflict and dispossession. We were privileged to live into personal stories of all these experiences and even more privileged to witness the honest exploration of forgiveness as a key to healing and liberation and the compassionate pursuit of justice. We shared in the tears and were challenged by scenes of reconciliation and steps taken with enormous courage to reach out to oppressors.

'Forgiveness is a space we create by our own will in order to communicate with others to create peace,' said a lecturer and social activist from Dafur, who asked us to return to do a training for trainers for handpicked women from Dafur as they try to resettle them from IDP (internally displaced persons) camps back into community life. Another woman, a leader in one of the political parties, asked forgiveness of everyone because she had come to the workshop in order to waste time and escape from office problems and had not expected much. She apologized also for her superiority towards others and shared a decision to forgive five particular people in her life. 'I can’t believe the timing of your visit in the midst of my turbulence.'

Workshop in South Africa

The aspects of the workshops that participants constantly referred to as 'unique' were the depths reached in the sharing, the focus on the character of the peace builder with the expectation of personal application and transformation, and the awareness of the spiritual dimension in peace creation.

As one commented, 'This was unprecedented. We addressed things that are usually hidden....'

A lecturer from Afhad University shared, 'This has been very fruitful. I am well trained in many fields, but we forget about the spiritual aspect. We really need to look at personal transformation. The film, The Imam and Pastor, affected me very much. I will cherish this experience and keep it alive, in my work and in my peace bureau. I will adopt this approach of the spiritual and the personal. I have decided to revise these principles inside me...'

There was a lot of rethinking among women engaged in development and peace education issues. 'I need to restructure my peace building work,' said a woman in Kenya working in an NGO that serves thousands of women in agricultural development and microfinancing. 'Without the inner searching we do not have an impact. We need inner soul searching to forgive and transform.' During the workshop she telephoned to reconcile with her father.

Tribalism constantly undermines progress and harmony in Kenya. We were invited there and hosted by a young woman whose family were dispossessed during tribal clashes. Her personal journey has included becoming aware of inheriting negative attitudes towards the offending tribe, how she has passed that on to others and now her new responsibility to build friendships with that tribe, to forgive and to ask their forgiveness for her part in perpetuating hatred. 'I thought apologizing would be easy,' she said. 'My pride is so great, it so hard.' But she is doing it all the same!

Our journey had begun in South Africa against the backdrop of pervasive insecurity. Yet here and elsewhere we encountered an extraordinary boldness, warmth and energy. An un-cynical responsiveness marked the workshops in every country. Black, white and coloured, Muslim and Christian, Dinka, Darfurian and Nuer, women passionately engaged in nation building and peace creating opened their hearts and minds to new possibilities and a new effectiveness.