Background: As part of the Peacebuilding Practitioners Interview Series, Ilan Cooper interviewed Aida Muhai, who is a social worker by profession. She now works as the programs coordinator for the Organization for Conflict Resolution (Organizacao para a Resulucao de Conflictos [OREC]). In this interview, she shares her opinion on the role of religion in resolving the conflicts within Mozambique and shaping democracy there after the civil war.
How has your life been influenced by your religion?
I am a coordinator for OREC, and Adriano works as a training officer here. I am a social worker by profession. I have worked with OREC since it began. OREC started with the LINK forum [Forum of National and International NGOs in Mozambique]—which was partially assisted by a volunteer member of the U.S. Mennonite Church. It started as a project of the LINK forum aimed at capacity building. There were many NGOS affiliated with this LINK forum. However, LINK was only mandated to coordinate member NGOs and not to implement activities, and thus OREC later became an independent NGO, in 1999. (It was determined that due to the fact that LINK had some limitations OREC should become its own independent NGO.) We now go beyond the initial project. We do more than capacity building. We are now independent and do research at a community level on the causes and types of conflict that exist in Mozambique. We especially look at how one can deal with conflict using endogenous methods. We work in all the provinces, but our original research was only done in six provinces. We publish many reports on our work. Recently we have even had some doctoral students write their theses using our research reports. We also do intervention using mediation.
What was the role of religious actors before the civil war in Mozambique?
The role of religion was very crucial because there were many churches who helped resolve the conflict. They brought the two sides into dialogue and they created the cease-fire. They are also responsible for the reconciliation that we have seen. Also, ourselves, we have a quasi-church approach. We train church leaders and members and traditional leaders in conflict resolution and conflict management mechanisms. They have such a central role in the community, and thus we must make use of their influence. They have much legitimacy, respect, and credibility.
What was the role of religious actors during the civil war in Mozambique?
During the conflict the two sides were polarized in their views. However, because the church had credibility it could do a lot. Church leaders convinced each party to come together as one and created a dialogue. Soon after independence FRELIMO did not like the church because during the colonial rule the church has been used as a legitimization tool and had helped the Portuguese rule. Thus, immediately after independence the church was seen as an enemy. The colonial rule was Catholic, and the church was used to help them. It had a moralizing role, and it made people obedient to the state. It made people more loyal.
What was the role of religious actors during the transition period in Mozambique?
The Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) were the ones who got most involved. They showed that they had no political agenda and just wanted peace; they were crucial in making the dialogue happen. It is not easy for anyone to convince the parties that they must talk, and it took a lot of work. But because of the credibility of the church they managed it even if it was a very long process.
You mentioned the CCM, but was there much interfaith work at this time?
The Muslims did help the CCM but they did not do as much as the CCM.
In OREC’s work how important are religious actors?
They are very important. They are our partners. We involve them in our training. First we identify communities that we wish to work with and where there is a potential for conflict. Then we contact the local authorities. We recruit the traditional and church leaders and meet them for a period of five days in which we train them. We train them in conflict resolution and management skills. After we have done this we leave them to their work, but we conduct follow up work to ensure that the work is successful. These leaders have always had a conflict resolution role throughout their history, but we just train them and ensure they can do their job better.
Specifically what training do you give these leaders?
We mostly teach them the basic concepts of conflict management. The best approaches in conflict resolution. We teach them negotiation, mediation, facilitation etc we also deal with cross-cutting issues such as gender and conflict, HIV/AIDS, and conflict and leadership skills. However, our main area of focus is with the conflict itself, but we do deal with many cross-cutting issues.
Do you feel that the transition is over in Mozambique?
The war is over, but the country is still transitioning. There is no armed conflict now, but there are still many problems. We have peace, but we do not have everything we want. We have freedom of speech, and we can now do whatever we want. But there are still many problems like poverty and illiteracy. We must still battle with these problems. Once these are over only then will the transition be over completely. For the time being we are still facing these problems. There is no longer any space for armed struggle to erupt again. Also the issue of the decommissioning of arms is important. The CCM has done much work with this. They have turned arms into sculptures and put them in museums. However, the criminals also prevent society from moving on. They negatively affect the stability of the society. The high crime levels come from many problems such as unemployment, poverty, and urbanization.
What was the role of religious actors in the consolidation of democracy?
The process is still running. The churches are involved in many campaigns. They work to combat HIV/AIDS and poverty for example. Whenever celebrations of the peace accords the church is used to create meetings and facilitate the celebrations. Moreover, the church educates its members in the ways of peace and tells them to respect one another. Peace starts from each person, and the church helps with that. The other way that they do this is through the schools. The schools are very important in teaching the youth. Some of our schools are run by churches. They use these institutions to educate people in peace.
What is the current relationship between the church and the state?
It is very good. Indeed, the president goes to church. In fact he goes to many. Sometimes he goes to the Muslim mosque, and sometimes he goes to the Christian churches. The government uses the church to promote peace. When there are elections the government asks the church to encourage people to vote. It does not ask them to tell the people who to vote for, and largely the church does not do this, but it encourages people to exercise their civic duty to vote. Party leaders also often speak at churches. But the government does not use the church to spread its political agenda.
What is OREC's interaction with religious actors?
We mainly work in training, research, mediation, and advocacy. Our training consists of designing and training people on conflict resolution and mediation issues. In negotiation and conflict management with gender issues etc Sometimes we also do interventions. Often people go to legal bodies for intervention but sometimes, where compromise is needed, these organizations refer people to us. We can then mediate their conflict and try and find the best possible solution. Our research is mainly in the field. We go to communities and assess the cause of conflict. Then we assess how they can best be resolved and what the most frequent types of conflict are. We also lobby and have an advocacy role. We do this both when we go for training and also when we find a problem that is not in our specific area. We try and make the problem known, and we try and see if we can get people to deal with it. We also have information services so that where people are interested in learning about conflict resolution they can find out more about what is going on.
What do you think of the fact that there were no prosecutions from the civil war?
Myself? I think it was a good thing in this context. Maybe this would not be the case in other places, but for us this was the best option. We must not find out how people are guilty or who did what. This could make people want vengeance. We need reconciliation. We must forgive. Also it is often easier to forgive if one does not know who killed their son or father than if we have the full truth and know who did it. This often makes forgiveness harder. The peace process was very successful. We have had a process of forgiveness. There were local mechanisms which were used too. We did not have a TRC as in South Africa. In our context the people in the communities have their own rituals. Often in our case two brothers would have fought on different sides—one for FRELIMO and one for RENAMO. In this case the people in the community would bring them together. The local, traditional mechanisms were very useful in Mozambique. In Sofala they call these rituals magamba. However, in different places they are named different things. I have given presentations in South Africa and at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation on this. It has several denominations in different places. It is both for the living and for the dead (for the spirits). The churches were not really involved in these, but they have their own mechanisms.
I am a coordinator for OREC, and Adriano works as a training officer here. I am a social worker by profession. I have worked with OREC since it began. OREC started with the LINK forum [Forum of National and International NGOs in Mozambique]—which was partially assisted by a volunteer member of the U.S. Mennonite Church. It started as a project of the LINK forum aimed at capacity building. There were many NGOS affiliated with this LINK forum. However, LINK was only mandated to coordinate member NGOs and not to implement activities, and thus OREC later became an independent NGO, in 1999. (It was determined that due to the fact that LINK had some limitations OREC should become its own independent NGO.) We now go beyond the initial project. We do more than capacity building. We are now independent and do research at a community level on the causes and types of conflict that exist in Mozambique. We especially look at how one can deal with conflict using endogenous methods. We work in all the provinces, but our original research was only done in six provinces. We publish many reports on our work. Recently we have even had some doctoral students write their theses using our research reports. We also do intervention using mediation.
What was the role of religious actors before the civil war in Mozambique?
The role of religion was very crucial because there were many churches who helped resolve the conflict. They brought the two sides into dialogue and they created the cease-fire. They are also responsible for the reconciliation that we have seen. Also, ourselves, we have a quasi-church approach. We train church leaders and members and traditional leaders in conflict resolution and conflict management mechanisms. They have such a central role in the community, and thus we must make use of their influence. They have much legitimacy, respect, and credibility.
What was the role of religious actors during the civil war in Mozambique?
During the conflict the two sides were polarized in their views. However, because the church had credibility it could do a lot. Church leaders convinced each party to come together as one and created a dialogue. Soon after independence FRELIMO did not like the church because during the colonial rule the church has been used as a legitimization tool and had helped the Portuguese rule. Thus, immediately after independence the church was seen as an enemy. The colonial rule was Catholic, and the church was used to help them. It had a moralizing role, and it made people obedient to the state. It made people more loyal.
What was the role of religious actors during the transition period in Mozambique?
The Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) were the ones who got most involved. They showed that they had no political agenda and just wanted peace; they were crucial in making the dialogue happen. It is not easy for anyone to convince the parties that they must talk, and it took a lot of work. But because of the credibility of the church they managed it even if it was a very long process.
You mentioned the CCM, but was there much interfaith work at this time?
The Muslims did help the CCM but they did not do as much as the CCM.
In OREC’s work how important are religious actors?
They are very important. They are our partners. We involve them in our training. First we identify communities that we wish to work with and where there is a potential for conflict. Then we contact the local authorities. We recruit the traditional and church leaders and meet them for a period of five days in which we train them. We train them in conflict resolution and management skills. After we have done this we leave them to their work, but we conduct follow up work to ensure that the work is successful. These leaders have always had a conflict resolution role throughout their history, but we just train them and ensure they can do their job better.
Specifically what training do you give these leaders?
We mostly teach them the basic concepts of conflict management. The best approaches in conflict resolution. We teach them negotiation, mediation, facilitation etc we also deal with cross-cutting issues such as gender and conflict, HIV/AIDS, and conflict and leadership skills. However, our main area of focus is with the conflict itself, but we do deal with many cross-cutting issues.
Do you feel that the transition is over in Mozambique?
The war is over, but the country is still transitioning. There is no armed conflict now, but there are still many problems. We have peace, but we do not have everything we want. We have freedom of speech, and we can now do whatever we want. But there are still many problems like poverty and illiteracy. We must still battle with these problems. Once these are over only then will the transition be over completely. For the time being we are still facing these problems. There is no longer any space for armed struggle to erupt again. Also the issue of the decommissioning of arms is important. The CCM has done much work with this. They have turned arms into sculptures and put them in museums. However, the criminals also prevent society from moving on. They negatively affect the stability of the society. The high crime levels come from many problems such as unemployment, poverty, and urbanization.
What was the role of religious actors in the consolidation of democracy?
The process is still running. The churches are involved in many campaigns. They work to combat HIV/AIDS and poverty for example. Whenever celebrations of the peace accords the church is used to create meetings and facilitate the celebrations. Moreover, the church educates its members in the ways of peace and tells them to respect one another. Peace starts from each person, and the church helps with that. The other way that they do this is through the schools. The schools are very important in teaching the youth. Some of our schools are run by churches. They use these institutions to educate people in peace.
What is the current relationship between the church and the state?
It is very good. Indeed, the president goes to church. In fact he goes to many. Sometimes he goes to the Muslim mosque, and sometimes he goes to the Christian churches. The government uses the church to promote peace. When there are elections the government asks the church to encourage people to vote. It does not ask them to tell the people who to vote for, and largely the church does not do this, but it encourages people to exercise their civic duty to vote. Party leaders also often speak at churches. But the government does not use the church to spread its political agenda.
What is OREC's interaction with religious actors?
We mainly work in training, research, mediation, and advocacy. Our training consists of designing and training people on conflict resolution and mediation issues. In negotiation and conflict management with gender issues etc Sometimes we also do interventions. Often people go to legal bodies for intervention but sometimes, where compromise is needed, these organizations refer people to us. We can then mediate their conflict and try and find the best possible solution. Our research is mainly in the field. We go to communities and assess the cause of conflict. Then we assess how they can best be resolved and what the most frequent types of conflict are. We also lobby and have an advocacy role. We do this both when we go for training and also when we find a problem that is not in our specific area. We try and make the problem known, and we try and see if we can get people to deal with it. We also have information services so that where people are interested in learning about conflict resolution they can find out more about what is going on.
What do you think of the fact that there were no prosecutions from the civil war?
Myself? I think it was a good thing in this context. Maybe this would not be the case in other places, but for us this was the best option. We must not find out how people are guilty or who did what. This could make people want vengeance. We need reconciliation. We must forgive. Also it is often easier to forgive if one does not know who killed their son or father than if we have the full truth and know who did it. This often makes forgiveness harder. The peace process was very successful. We have had a process of forgiveness. There were local mechanisms which were used too. We did not have a TRC as in South Africa. In our context the people in the communities have their own rituals. Often in our case two brothers would have fought on different sides—one for FRELIMO and one for RENAMO. In this case the people in the community would bring them together. The local, traditional mechanisms were very useful in Mozambique. In Sofala they call these rituals magamba. However, in different places they are named different things. I have given presentations in South Africa and at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation on this. It has several denominations in different places. It is both for the living and for the dead (for the spirits). The churches were not really involved in these, but they have their own mechanisms.
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