Berkley Center

James Wuye is Co-director of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Kaduna, Nigeria. An Assemblies of God Pastor, he is the son of a soldier who served in the Biafran War. During the 1980s and 1990s he was involved in militant Christian activities and for eight years served as Secretary General of the Kaduna State chapter of the Youth Christian Association of Nigeria, an umbrella organization for all Nigeria’s Christian groups. After a mutual friend brought him together with Imam Muhammad Ashafa, the two men decided to work together to bridge the divides between their communities. In 1995, Ashafa and Wuye formed the Interfaith Mediation Center, a religious grassroots organization that, with over 10.000 members today, reaches into the militias and trains the country’s youth, women, and other leaders to become civic peace activists. Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye are the subject of the documentary The Imam and the Pastor, a story of forgiveness and a case-study of a successful grass-roots initiative to rebuild communities torn apart by conflict.