Highlights from Religions for Peace-Guinea
The Role of Religious Leaders in the Search for Reconciliation, Peace and National Unity throughout the Various Crises Experienced by Guinea
By Madame Cissé Hadja Mariama Sow
The Republic of Guinea is located in the southwest of West Africa with an area of 245,857 km². It shares borders with six countries: Guinea Bissau to the west, Senegal and Mali to the north, Côte d’Ivoire to the east, Liberia and Sierra Leone to the south. It is a coastal country with 300 km of maritime coastline on the Atlantic. With an area of 245,857 km², it has an estimated population of 11,233,034 inhabitants in 2016.
In Guinea, interfaith groups have always played a leading role in resolving crises and restoring peace, in particular by getting involved in the various national reconciliation mechanisms. When President Lansana Conté died on December 22, 2008, power was managed by a military junta. For this reason, a transitional body, the National Transitional Council (CNT) was set up.
The National Transitional Council was Guinea’s legislative body, replacing the National Assembly dissolved when the military seized power. The governing body of the CNT was made up of representatives from civil society, political parties, the National Council for Democracy and Development and the Religious Council, as well as resource persons. The National Transitional Council was led by Hadja Rabiatou Serah Diallo, president of a national trade union centre. Monsignor Albert David Gomez of the Anglican Church, member of the Interreligious Council of Guinea was appointed as First Vice-President of the CNT and El Hadj Mamadou Saliou Sylla, former Secretary General of Religious Affairs, Second Vice-President. It is partly thanks to the CNT that Guinea had peaceful and accepted elections.
The National Council of the Transition was made up of several commissions, including the one in charge of national reconciliation, solidarity and human rights. This commission was chaired by the president of the Muslim Women of Guinea, Hadja Maimouna Sow.
Following the recommendations of this commission adopted by the CNT, a day of forgiveness and reconciliation was organized under the chairmanship of General Sekouba Konaté, president of the transition. This was a day in which General Konaté called for national reconciliation and asked for forgiveness from the Guinean people, in his name and in the name of all his predecessors. A flame symbolizing peace was lit, followed by the release of a dove, another symbol of peace.
After his election on November 15, 2010, President Alpha Condé set up a commission in charge of preparing the national reconciliation process in order to preserve social peace and tranquility in the country.
This process of national reconciliation is the culmination of the arduous work of a provisional commission of reflection on reconciliation. This process began in 2011 with the establishment of the provisional reflection committee. This provisional commission of reflection, whose main mission was to propose solutions to reach an agreement between the Guinean populations, was to carry out consultation and survey meetings with the grassroots populations, in order to collect their opinions and their expectations vis-à-vis the Guinean populations. This Provisional Commission for Reflection on National Reconciliation was co-chaired by El Hadj Mamadou Saliou Camara, first imam of the Fayçal Grand Mosque in Conakry and Monsignor Vincent Koulibaly, Archbishop of Conakry.
These two co-presidents set up a sub-commission in order to carry out consultations which focused on knowledge of the historical facts of the conflicts in Guinea, the partisan phenomenon, ethnic instrumentalization for political ends and the traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution.
At the end of the collection and processing of data, recommendations were made on the basis of the real concerns expressed by the populations, anxious for an imminent resolution of conflicts, in particular community, inter-ethnic and religious. Among other recommendations, the Provisional National Reconciliation Commission recommended to the Guinean government and its partners the establishment of a truth commission and a transitional justice institution to deal with all criminal cases and foresee mechanisms for repair. Similarly, the commission had recommended organizing a day of repentance and the construction of stelae to pay tribute to all the victims that the country. It was also recommended in the report of the Provisional Commission of National Reflection to introduce the teaching of the general history of Guinea to young Guineans, in order to avoid any distortion of contemporary national history.
The official delivery of the report took place in 2016 in the hands of the Guinean President, Professor Alpha Condé. Anticipating reaction from the Head of State, the coup took place on 5 September 2021. Three months after taking power, on 31 December 2021, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, president of the transition, announced the holding of the National Assizes.
These national foundations have the same prerogatives as the national reconciliation commission established under President Condé. The process started on 22 March in Conakry and was to last six weeks 29 until April 2022.
These meetings aimed to build a new institutional framework in the country in order to relaunch the process of reconciliation within the Guinean population. The National Assizes Committee included thirty one people chosen from among jurists, journalists, historians, sociologists, religious figures as well as personalities from the world of culture.
Once again, the co-presidency of these national meetings was entrusted to the first Imam of the great Fayçal Mosque of Conakry, Elhadj Mamadou Saliou Camara and to the Archbishop of Conakry, Monsignor Vincent Coulibaly. Among the thirty one members of this commission, Hadja Mariama Sow was designated as a nun. This shows the role that religious leaders play in any process of national reconciliation in Guinea.
On the occasion of their inaugural session, the National Conferences were presented by the president of the transition as a “historic” opportunity to heal the wounds of a troubled past.