Reflections on our contributions to ethnic diversity

One evening, reflecting on the violence which has happened in the country following the disputed presidential general election, three of us, Giang, Teresa and I (Sia), sat together and had an informal conversation. Early that afternoon I had listened to a friend of ours speak live on Radio “Waumini”, a Catholic radio station here in Kenya (Waumini is the swahili word for believers) addressing the topic of Reconciliation and Healing of the nation. He said that “the conflict in Kenya is like a gas canister which has been left on for such a long time and it was waiting for just a spark to light it.” Reflecting on this statement in the light of the violence which broke out in the country after the announcement of the election results, we see clearly that the election in this situation acts as that spark. There must be some historical underlying issues for this conflict to exist. One of the issues we have seen and heard since we arrived here in August 2006 is the ethnic identity. As in other parts of Africa, there is a strong tribal identity in Kenya. This goes back even before the colonial era. The colonialists stressed tribal differences as a tactic of divide and rule. Some ethnic groups feel other groups are more favored than themselves in terms of social, political and economic opportunities. One example is the issue of land and settlements. Until last year, Kenya didn’t have a proper law regarding ownership of land. This has brought a lot of disputes and confusion in some parts of the country in terms of who has the title deed to this land and who has lived in this land for a long time. People have been living with this tension since they gained independence 44 years ago. Some of our Kenyan friends have acknowledged that there is tribalism here in Kenya. Others have denied that and said people live together peacefully as brothers and sisters, but that the politicians are the ones who fuel the tribalism for their own interests. The politicians take advantage of the ethnic difference to manipulate people of their own ethnic groups to vote for them. This has shown clearly in this past general election.

As outsiders, we listen to what our friends are telling us in terms of their social situations, but it is confusing when what we hear is different from what we see or experience. We have seen clearly that tribalism is present here and just underneath the surface. For instance, Burnt Forest is a town where there have been historical clashes between different tribes. News reports of current violence showed dead bodies and abandoned crops where others have moved in to harvest these fields. The people who have been chased out are Kikuyu people (the same tribe as Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent president). We passed by this town last year and heard about the history of this town from the parish priest. We have talked about coming back to work here where tribal differences have been a main factor in violent outbreaks.

When we started our work and community, we intentionally chose to live with diversity. We are now four women from four different tribes/countries, races. How are we called to be in this situation? How can our lives be shared in this situation? What can we learn from this situation so that we can be more committed to nonviolence of any kind, to value diversity, to share power among ourselves, to lift up one another’s gifts? We continue to work to do this within our small community of four people, four different tribes and races. We need to work on this aspect of our life more intentionally for ourselves and for our world. Maybe the lessons we learn from inside our home will be somehow used to help in situations such as this.

In light of our conversation, we felt we can offer our learnings to the Kenyan people in terms of living with diversity. The four of us from four different nationalities living and working together is a witness that it is possible to live together in peace in spite of our differences. We are beginning a new project, convening conversations for social change. We will reorganize our thoughts on the project to focus on ethnic identity, with a group of Kenyans from different ethnic groups. The idea is to provide a space where they can start talking about their feelings and experiences around the issue of ethnicity. Hopeful this will help deepening the understanding of the beliefs, norms and values of each group. At the end of the day they may see their differences clearly as well as their commonalities and they may choose how to live with diversity in harmony.