Background: As part of the Peacebuilding Practitioners Interview Series, Ilan Cooper interviewed Bishop Dinis Singulane, who is an Anglican bishop in the Maputo region of Mozambique and author of Victory Without Losers. In this interview, Singulane shares his opinion on the role of religion in times of conflict and in influencing political outcomes. He also points out specific conditions that should guide government's interaction with religious communities.
Can you talk about your own life and how religion has affected its course?
I have done very little. Although I did write an account on peacemaking in Mozambique which you might find useful entitled Victory Without Losers. I am an Anglican bishop. I grew up in a rural area of Mozambique. I was ordained a minister in 1974 after completing my theological studies at Salisbury. I worked as a priest for a very short time and then I was made a bishop. I was the youngest bishop in the Anglican community worldwide for six years.
What was the role of religion in the run up to the conflict and during the conflict itself?
The government during the 1970s and 80s saw religious actors as something to fight against. They combated its Marxist ideology. In the later period of the war religious actors and religion in general just became something that should be ignored. Now, it is seen as one of the primary partners with the government and crucial in the development of the country. I believe that spiritual needs are very important. However, during the earlier periods of Mozambique’s history the Marxists tried to eliminate the spiritual reality. However, this can never work. In 1983, 1985 etc…there were large scale natural calamities in Mozambique. There were many refugees. It was here that the church played a big role and demonstrated to everyone the importance that it could have. They also played an important role in the negotiations for peace in Mozambique. This showed people that religion was relevant. When I talked of the Church here I mean the CCM. We often worked together with the Roman Catholic Church too. This was especially true in the first negotiations between FRELIMO and RENAMO. There were many events that we were involved in. Moreover, today we are heavily involved in the process of the promoting the consolidation of peace. The CCM disarms the “hands and minds”. By this I mean we transform guns into ploughshares. We turn swords into agriculture and art (see attached photographs of the art that has been made from decommissioned guns).
The CCM in the last 10 years has collected over 800,000 weapons. These include guns, mines, grenades, etc… The Roman Catholic Church, the Muslims, the Anglicans have all got together also to do a program of “electoral observancy.” We are encouraging people to vote and encouraging them into other civic educational programs. We talk of a culture of peace. We must turn “swords into ploughs.”
However, we also realize that there is another killer in Mozambique, which also requires civic education. This killer is malaria and we do much to fight against this. We work as the CCM with Catholics, Adventists, the Assemblists of God, the Hindu’s, the Muslims to fight malaria. Indeed, yesterday we had a conference where representatives all came together to talk on this issue. There is no point in just ending the violence if the lives cannot be saved. We must work for peace to preserve human life and thus we must stop all killers. In relation to malaria the Anglican Church has a very important role to play.
What about your role during the civil war?
We have meetings in Washington, New York, etc… First we encourage our members to pray and fast for the restoration of peace. We started this very early on. The individual churches can do a lot and then as a whole we can do more. For example the ecumenical work of CCM and other projects done by all religions. The churches have a big role in initiating most things that are done here. There is also a healthy relationship among religions. And they are strongly recognized by government and the politicians. What are the limits to this?
1. Sanctity of all human life. We will cooperate with anyone who believes in this. In the past some religions (I will not say who) say that the enemy must be killed. They encourage people to fight. However, we believe all life is sacred. In 1982 we appealed for the elimination of the death penalty on these grounds. This was one of the first active involvements of the church in political life in Mozambique.
2. There must be dialogue at various levels. Both formal and informal. No one is too stupid to contribute and no one is too clever that they do not need to listen. All dialogue is good there is nothing to lose.
3. There must be impartiality from religious leaders about politics. I am not saying they need to be, or can be, neutral but they must be impartial. They must be distinct from all religious parties. Cannot be either FRELIIMO or RENAMO. By associating with one party one automatically demonizes the other and this is bad. This prevents space for dialogue. An association with one side makes the other side look bad and will prevent all dialogue. I said that if you want to be a priest, a bishop or a deacon one must be impartial. The Anglican Church then adopted this as a resolution saying that none of its ministers can be associated with any political party. The CCM then adopted this too. We let government officials come and speak to us about education or malaria or any other issues but they cannot talk about their political manifesto. Religion should be impartial. Indeed, the new electoral roll says that churches and places of worship cannot be used for campaigning. However, just because this is said does not mean it is done.
What was the role of religious actors during the war?
After independence the government was Marxist and they were against the church. The church was seen as an obstacle. This was after the war of liberation from 1975 to 1985 or even 1987. The churches were closed in rural areas and only a few were allowed open in towns. However, the real church continued to exist. There was no Sunday on which I did not celebrate Eucharist it was just harder to do this and we did it in weird places. Religion was ostracized not banned. From the beginning Mozambique has had a law allowing for freedom of worship thus churches were never made illegal they were just closed and ostracized. The first churches reopened in 1984 and the main ones were reopened in 1988. But when they were the buildings were too small. Many people had become Christian during this period. In spite of all this misunderstandings no one asked about the past. No one asked who had banned the churches and who was responsible. It was like the returning of the Prodigal Son. Also it was very good that when the country became a multiparty democracy no Christian party was established. It is important to mention that it happened but there should be no recriminations.
What was the role of religious actors during the transition?
During the civil war we felt like the church needed to do something to restore peace.
1. We called Christians to pray and fast. We organized bible study groups and prayer meetings.
2. We wrote material for young people about peace.
3. We lobbied politicians for dialogue. It took four years for us to be understood. This was mainly done through the CCM. There were two aspects to this call to dialogue.
a. CCM told FRELIMO that a dialogue was necessary.
b. The Roman Catholic Church issued pastoral letters saying that they must talk. Thus there were two different means of communication.
When it became clear that it could be done CCM told the Roman Catholic Church that we must find people to negotiate with. The difficulty was finding people from RENAMO who were located in central and western Mozambique but could not be contacted. We needed to find people to contact. We had to go to Washington and New York. Here we found people who might know someone who knew someone who might know someone in RENAMO. This was the only way to make contact with RENAMO. Then we had a delegation to Nairobi to talk with RENAMO representatives. We were thus the first ones to meet RENAMO. This was the first dialogue session ever. When we got back the government asked us what the “bandits” had said and we said no you must talk to them. We were not trying to be mediators we just wanted them to talk to each other.
The two sides eventually agreed to meet. But where should this happen? Many places were suggested. Nairobi, Malawi etc… but one side always complained that this was not fair. Then the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Beira, Goncalves, suggested it be done in Rome. This was primarily the result of Roman Catholic members of the CCM. So negotiations were started in Rome and Goncalves facilitated. Thus it seemed peace was on the horizon. Seeing this we knew that we must talk to the people and see what would endanger such a peace. So I travelled to all the provinces with the church and talked to local people to ask what would endanger peace. People said the past, murders etc…but one woman she said guns. Because both sides had given people guns freely. I was very troubled by this answer. My theology had not taught me about guns. I talked to the pastor of the local church and then we thought about the Bible. In Isaiah 2 it says we must turn swords to ploughshares. So we asked the people to bring their guns.
1. First we got the guns.
2. Then we cut them and made them unusable.
3. Then we gave every person who brought a gun an instrument of production in exchange.
4. Then we wanted to remake the guns into further instruments of production. But we realized that we did not have the capacity in Mozambique to do this and did not trust South Africa to do it for us. So we asked artists to de-glorify war. In our country before then war had been glorified. Our heroes were from war, our art was inspired by war and our holidays were those of war. Thus we asked the artists to use the guns to make monuments of peace. (See photographs).
Thus our role was to bring moral pressure to bear on the government and RENAMO to make peace and with grass roots campaigns. Also we gave much material assistance to the poor.
Do you believe that there should have been trials in Mozambique?
I agree with this. After the restoration of peace it was important to just work for a better country. To institutionalize dialogue. The parliament came from both sides and no one was prosecuted. The media was relatively free. We had generally got what we wanted. Thus we did not think of who had done what. For example let me tell you a story. I went to a remote rural village named Homoine. Here there had been a massacre and 400 people had been killed. I came as a representative of the gospel but also as a representative of peace. I was talking to a man and he told me that now we talk of peace we can tell the truth. He told me that there was a place nearby where many bones were. Many had been killed and their bodies left. He asked whether I could bless the ground and give them the rites that they needed. He asked me to make it holy. I asked him who had killed these people. Was it FRELIMO or RENAMO? His response was that “the war killed them”. Without the war there would have been no death. It does not matter who did it we must blame the war. I was very struck by this answer.
What was the role of religious actors in the post-transition period?
The transition is not complete. We have much work to do. We must:
1. Disarm the hands and minds. There are still a lot of guns. Although most of these guns are not politically motivated and there are no armed political groups in general there are still a lot of guns.
2. Domestic violence is a big problem in Mozambique. This is another continuation of the conflict.
3. We need economic justice. There is much sophistication of wealth and much sophistication of poverty. And these are often juxtaposed. This needs much work.
4. We need to take the young people more seriously. Education is very important.
5. Finally we must take our spiritual lives seriously. Africans are very spiritual. There is growing crime and violence and we must get in touch with our spiritual side to stop this. I am not saying everyone must be Christian but that we must take religion seriously. If one does not worship God then worships the devil.
This is the future. There is some political will. And there is awareness on the part of religion. Moreover, there is a growing civil society. It is a shame if people take justice into their own hands.