“It was from freedom to prison again.” That is how U of T student Khalid Ahmed described his feelings after the 1989 coup by the National Islamic Front, then called the Muslim Brotherhood, ended the burgeoning democratic experiment in his native Sudan. Ahmed had been part of the popular uprising in 1985 that overthrew dictator Jaafar Nimieri, and he had hoped democracy had finally come to his home.
Only three years later, that hope was destroyed.
The problem of establishing long-term peace in Africa was one of the main topics discussed in “Peacebuilding in Africa,” a seminar organized by Ahmed and the Peace and Conflict Students Association.
About 60 students attended the lecture, held at the Croft Chapter House in University College yesterday. Speaking were professors Robert Matthews and Dickson Eyoh, both of the Department of Political Science at U of T.
With the attention of the world focused on Iraq, little space has been given in the mainstream media to the ongoing problems the people of many countries in Africa face as they attempt to rebuild their nations in the aftermath of civil war. However, when talking about peacebuilding, the discussion inevitably turns to the role the international community should play, something that has been a hot topic with regard to Iraq as well.
Professor Matthews, co-editor of the forthcoming book Durable Peace: Challenges for Peacebuilding in Africa, found that the intervention of the international community can be one of the main obstacles to the process. He and fellow co-editor Dr. Taisier Ali began with the expectation that peacebuilding in Africa would be shown to have been successful. But after collecting essays on countries throughout the continent, they found the results disappointing.
“It is a very complex process,” Matthews told the audience. “It has to be domestically based and can’t be imposed from outside.” He said a short attention span, promises that aren’t honoured, and self-interest, as well as good intentions that motivate clumsy intervention, complicate foreign involvement in Africa.
So while the international community must definitely play a role, the problem is finding a middle ground so that intervention doesn’t do more harm than good. “The role for the international community should be a facilitative one rather than one of enforcement,” Matthews said after the seminar.
As for Ahmed, he wants people to understand that the people of Africa do not need the West to solve their problems for them, and that any outside help needs to be given carefully. “In the case of peacebuilding, you need awareness in the community.” This applies not only to Africa, but also to any possible rebuilding of a post-war Iraq. As Eyoh noted, “Nobody can build a legitimate state for you.”
