December 18, 2007

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Amazingly, eighty-year-old George Maiangwa walked for 11 days straight, starting before dawn and continuing until nightfall each day, often holding a banner that read, "The church says no to violence, yes to peace."

Maiangwa is the oldest of 137 participants, most aged 16 to 60, in an historic and successful first anniversary celebration of the November 28, 2006, Takum Peace Agreement in South-central Nigeria. The walkers sang and danced their way across 200 miles of dangerous roadways and farm fields, and fording rivers to promote peace in their war-torn communities.

ChiChi Nwachukwu, an organizer for the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (www.crwrc.org) and coordinator of a solidarity walk in the Nigerian capitol, Jos, says, "It wasn't an easy decision for the women here to leave their homes and families for eleven days to participate in this walk. Their absence affects their husbands and children because they are a essential part of their family's daily income and nutrition. But the women also know that when conflict arises, their fragile lives can be easily fractured, so they are here with us today for the sake of peace and life in their homes and communities."

Coordinated by the Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Committee (PJRC) of the Reformed Ecumenical Council of Nigeria (RECON) and traditional leaders from several area ethnic groups, the Peace Walk, held November 19-29, 2007, commemorates the 2006 agreement as an important step in ending a destabilizing land dispute that festered in the area for years. Violent disagreements often broke out into open fighting and resulted displacement, destruction, and death.

Nwachukwu and other local organizers will begin planning a reunion and encourage similar walks across Africa and around the world in 2008 to begin to build a legacy of peace for their children.

This year's walkers traveled in groups, at times accompanied by musicians, stopping at churches each evening to eat together and promote peaceful co-existence among the people in the communities they visited. Walkers translated into local dialects as they went. In every village, representatives from each major ethnic group involved in earlier disputes – Tiv, Jukun, Kuteb, and Chamba – prayed for peace among the tribal groups represented.

In the past, the government of Nigeria has intervened during intermittent violence, seizing public structures and existing public services, including schools and hospitals.

In coming years, organizers hope to create both public awareness and incentive within the Nigerian government to return the land deed to one of these schools, Mbiya Government Secondary School, to the Reformed churches in Nigeria. The school, one of the best in Taraba State before it was destroyed, was founded by missionaries of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America.

The Nigerian churches hope to rebuild Mbiya School, creating a symbol of reconciliation and a source of hope for a legacy of peace among their people.

The Takum Peace Process, begun in the 1990s and culminating in the 2006 Peace Agreement, was supported by five mission organizations related to the Reformed Ecumenical Council and the CRC-North America.

For more information about Mbiya School, contact Dale Dieleman, Africa Field Director for Worldwide Christian Schools at 1-800-886-9000. For more information about the Nigeria Peace Walk, call Beth DeGraff, Media Contact CRWRC-US at 1-800-55-CRWRC or 616-648-7821.

Christian Reformed Church in North America