“For me, this is truly a life-saving engagement for which I would like to thank the CPS Network. Our lives have been under serious threat by the activities of the cattle rearers, with little or nothing to do about it because we are poor and powerless”, emphasised Marie Bangura, a peasant farmer.
Over the past few years, serious tensions have been brewing between farmers and cattle rearers over land-use – cattle destroying plantations, and farmers also reacting to the discontent of cattle owners. Accusations and counter accusations of wrong doing have repeatedly been hurled at each other, sometimes resulting in the interventions of the Sierra Leone Police and other government bodies. As a result of the seeming unsatisfactory manner in which cases were reportedly handled in the past by such bodies, including local chiefs, the problems have largely been left unresolved with tensions building every other day among the parties.
In a view to understanding the context, the Civil Peace Service (CPS) Network partners in Sierra Leone, with support from Bread for the World (BftW), undertook a situational context analysis where all parties were brought together at the Yainkasa community barray and the Rorinka community school hall on August 29 and 30, 2022 respectively in Makarie chiefdom, Bombali district. Makarie chiefdom is one of the operational locations of two of the network member organisations (Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) and Future in Our Hands (FIOH)). One of the key recommendations of the assessment proffered by most participants was to have the network intervene through mediation efforts to try to resolve the issues identified. The network, therefore, started a pilot mediation exercise at Yainkasa community to put into practice the mediation skills received from the BftW Support Team and help communities forge a lasting settlement to the situation.
On 2nd May 2023, a team of mediation experts from the BftW-CPS Network – Sierra Leone commenced what has been described by many as probably the first ever professional mediation engagement in Sierra Leone. The two-day exercise, led by Pious Mannah of Young Men’s Christians Association (YMCA) and John Brima Kargbo of SiLNoRF, brought together four critical parties (farmers, cattle rearers, landowning families and local chiefs/community heads) that were identified as having a stake in the problems. Before the exercise started, the facilitators clearly explained the rationale of the engagement to the assembly, stating that, they were only in their midst to facilitate the process that would allow the forge lasting solutions to the problems that had adulterated their relationship in the various communities. He emphasised that, the engagement was not a court proceeding, but rather a measure to find sustainable settlement to the existing problems among them. He helped the groups develop some ground rules to guide their behaviour throughout the process.
To understand and document all the issues (major and minor), the facilitators requested the individual members of the respective groups to freely explain what they regarded as the thorny issues causing the feud among them in their communities.
In a bid to generate solutions to resolve the most important and critical issues selected from the lot enumerated, the various groups worked work exclusively (in their respective clusters) and proffered key 13 key recommendations that they believed would bring lasting peace and social cohesion among them. The most prominent among them were the control of the cattle through fencing, the establishment of a committee to ensure the full implementation and adherence of the recommendations and signing of a memorandum of understanding by key players.
The engagement was hugely successful as all parties were visibly seen to be ready and willing to forge a lasting solution to the perennial impasse that has plagued their communities over the past years. The BftW-CPS National Coordinator 1, Dr. Sheku Kamara, thanked all present for being very cooperative to the mediation exercise. “The CPS Network will continue to provide the required support towards to helping you secure sustainable peace and social cohesion. This is only possible if there is continued visible commitment from all of you present here”, Dr. Sheku Kamara encouraged participants.
