Peace in Africa

Peace in Africa: Keynote Address to the Third West African Peace Initiative Conference Pedro Verona Pires (bio) EDITOR’S NOTE: This briefing is adapted from the keynote address of President Pedro Verona Pires at the December 2011 West African Peace Initiative conference in Praia, Cape Verde, “Narratives, Facts, and History: Documenting Peace and Conflict in West Africa.” The speech was delivered in Portuguese. Transcript of the speech was translated into English by EME–Marketing & Eventos, Lda, Praia, Cape Verde. The constant search for lasting peace in Africa is a pressing sociopolitical issue, both for this region and for the continent as a whole, but the search is not only peace in a narrow sense. It is necessary to search for and integrate the ingredients of peace: political stability, security, and national and social cohesion. I begin with a question: what path can lead us to achieving this desired goal, both for us and for all peoples of the world? In delving into the long history of humanity, over millennia, I note an ever-present factor in human, interpersonal, intersocietal and interstate relations. The use of violence is very often disproportionate to the interests of individuals, people, and states. This comprises the [End Page 77] excessive and unconstrained use of force, over and above what is indispensable or expected, to attain certain goals. This aggressive human behavior permeates the autonomy, physical or psychological integrity, and even the lives of others. In such circumstances, a pertinent and complicated question has to be answered as to where to start in order to guarantee, permanently and safely, peace among individuals, peace among social classes, peace among peoples and ethnic groups, peace among religions and cultures, and peace among states. Deep down, I believe that the quest for peace is a utopia that we can strive for without ever fully bringing it about, but it is a quest that we cannot give up and whose ideal culmination would entail the building of the so desired universal peace. Another pertinent question is whether the “man is a wolf to man” saying is really true. What are the reasons behind humanity’s violent tendencies in living and relating to one another? Does it come down, perhaps, to ignorance and the denial of rights and the human condition of the other, the different? Or maybe the fear that others may think in the same selfish and Machiavellian manner, and seek to betray and harm us? Or does it come down to the merely selfish and possessive feeling of wanting everything for oneself, denying the same rights or desires of others? Or is it simply a question of denying the principle of equality among individuals and between peoples and societies? We know that throughout the long and painful paths of history, crimes have remained concealed, cultures have been destroyed, and innocent people, who were militarily and technologically weaker, have been crushed, usually on unjustifiable grounds. Could it be that the differences between humans drive each one of us to deem ourselves a superior being, with more rights, more benefits, more capacity, and better answers to the world’s major challenges than other mortals? The physical, cultural, and religious diversity of humankind is a source of strength and cannot be viewed as a reason in itself to destroy others, no matter who, or to condemn others to the condition of subordination. Likewise, diversity cannot be confused with opposing interests or as a factor of personal or collective antagonism. Knowing all this, should we not look within ourselves and ask, on this planet that belongs to all of us, whether we can or cannot find common interests and objectives or at least converging ones that we can all faithfully cooperate towards? Perhaps, as such, one can find a broad field of pacific cooperation that would replace the simplistic and imperial temptation of systematically turning to confrontation and violence. [End Page 78] Moreover, I believe that the solutions achieved through violent means are neither lasting nor consistent. Apart from everything else, the practice of unconstrained violence is tainted by a morally perverse evil that is the dehumanization, both of its actors, who usually cannot be held responsible, and of its victims, who

Autonomy · Cape verde · Ethnology · Human rights · Humanity · Narrative · Peacekeeping · Political science · Politics · Portuguese · Sociology · Gender Studies · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · International Development and Aid · Law

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