Photo by African Peace Journal’s Pascal Bashombana
The African Peace Journal launched its first prototype concept of an “Ubuntu Room” in the Congo this year, 2016. In the following video, which was filmed by African Peace Journal’s Filmmaker/Photographer-in-Residence, Pascal Bashombana, Pascal interviews a veteran Congolese journalist who describes his future hopes and aspirations for peace in the Congo through the format of peaceful discussions within an Ubuntu Room.
The journalist explains that in recent history, Congo was destabilized by a rapid influx of Rwandan refugees during the genocide in Rwanda two decades ago. He goes on to explain that his primary hope lies in the potential of Congo to provide jobs for youth in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy, since the country continues to hold rich natural and mineral resources.
One challenge he foresees is to persuade the youth, many of which continue to enlist in militias and rebel groups, to lay down their weapons and turn their machetes into ploughshares.
A progressive momentum toward a positive peace in the Congo gives the journalist much hope, and in particular he cites the value added of the UN Peace-Keeping Forces in recent years in the Congo. The value added of maintaining and expanding this momentum would be well served by an active and thriving Ubuntu Room, a pioneering initiative of the African Peace Journal.
Karim Ajania
Editor-in-Chief