Over fifty young Cameroonians from different religious and cultural backgrounds, have been trained by Afrogiveness movement, on interfaith harmony , fight against hate speech, and mediation. The young participants were fortified and certified in a fraternity and capacity-building workshop for Cameroon youth peace-building advocates, organized in Yaoundé on Thursday February 2, 2023. The workshop which marked the beginning of Afrogiveness’ activities for the celebration of World Interfaith Harmony week, was an opportunity for participants to be drilled on the great commandments of: “love for the Almighty God” and “love for humanity”, which were emphasized as the key to interfaith harmony and peaceful coexistence. Participants also received training on combatting hate and dangerous speech online or offline. Fighting hate speech online, the trainer on this subject, Elomo Jemea Mokwe who is also the Executive Director of Center for Humanitarian Action and Development, CHAD, implored trainees to embark on campaigns through hashtags, and reporting contents that spread hate on social media. According to her, “youths have a lot of potentials and when you fill them with the right knowledge, they can do great things for the community”. For this reason, she called on the youths to involve in advocacy against hate speech, by carrying out sensitisation in communities, and amplifying the voices of advocates against hate speech.
Participants were also called to settle disputes and conflicts, by way of mediation.
Speaking to this reporter on the necessity and context of the workshop , the President of Afrogiveness movement, Franca Na-ih Sulem Yong stressed that “it’s very imperative now to organize workshops to train people on interfaith harmony, hate speech and mediation. We live in an era where religion and different ideas have triggered unnecessary conflicts; conflicts which should have been breached if we just learned how to communicate and understood another person’s point of view. This workshop is necessary to puncture the myths that breed division, bigotry, and inter-faith conflict”. On the choice of young people as priority target for the workshop, Franca Ma-ih Sulem Yong justified that “we seek to build a new generation of people. With the youths, we hope to create a new world where there is going to be inter-faith understanding, cooperation and exchange. We are also looking forward to a world where people’s right to exercise their faiths will not breed unnecessary conflicts given that we’re created by one Almighty Father. Also, this is World Interfaith Harmony week, and very soon we are gliding into the International Day of Human Fraternity. It is important more than ever for youth to understand that we are all human beings. If they understand that we are all human beings created by the same God, we will shall not be killing each other, fighting against each other, or insulting each other”.
At the end of the workshop, participants submitted Commitment notes on how they are going to use the knowledge of the training. The President of Afrogiveness, “hopes that they(participants) are not going to keep the knowledge to themselves. They are going to spread it to their nearest neighbours. Christians will start talking to Muslims, and actually conversing about religion without ending in a fight. We equally expect to see Muslims talk to christians without any fight at the end”.
As a follow-up strategy, the organization will be bringing together, in a WhatsApp group, all the participants to ensure that they meet up to their commitments.
One of the workshop participants, Che Electa, sharing with us her remarks and commitment after the event, said “it was a great encounter. As it is said, learning never ends. It was interesting because I learned so much ranging from hate speech, interfaith harmony, and mediation. Going home, I’m very equiped to go and be and advocate against hate speech. I’m going to mobilise and create awareness by printing t-shirts with hashtags on it , and that can go a long way sensitizing people on the insights I learned”.
Echu Solange, another participant told us “this workshop was really an amazing one. I am inspired to be a peace advocate. I have learned that we have to share love, and be tolerant in order to live together in harmony. I am going home with skills to fight hate speech and misinformation, as we look forward to successfully build a society where love leads .”
The World Interfaith Harmony Week celebrated every year from February 1, to 7 , provides a platform for all interfaith groups and other groups of goodwill, to celebrate and showcase peaceful coexistence and livingtogether.
Afrogiveness Movement was launched in 2018
(regigered in 2021) to provide mental health and psychosocial care to refugees and Internally
Displaced Persons(IDPs). Its mission has been to help mentally traumatized survivors of conflict and
intolerance, heal through forgiveness and release through arts, thereby transforming trauma to
treasure.
Participants holding out certificates
Participants at Conference Hall of Afrogiveness
By Beng Humphrey Fang