During the annual Mother Ursula Lecture on Thursday, March 4, the Cabrini community gained insight into peacekeeping and diplomacy through a virtual discussion with Catholic Relief Services’ Jean-Baptiste Talla, who serves as technical advisor for peacebuilding and justice in Africa. Each year, the Mother Ursula Lecture celebrates the life of Cabrini’s founder and first president, Sister Ursula Infante, and recognizes the work of leading faith-based scholars and advocates.
In an introduction to Talla’s talk, Ray Ward, PhD, Director, Wolfington Center, virtually honored him with the Cor Jesu Award, presented each year to a scholar or practitioner who embodies the Cabrinian legacy of making God visible through active social justice work.
“The work that Jean-Baptiste and CRS have done in peacebuilding around the world is nothing less than a series of small miracles,” Ward said. “Working across differences that have been the source of bloody conflict, they help people rebuild trust and community. We are so glad to celebrate the work that Jean Baptiste and others have done to transform enmity to friendship across the world, and hope that we can learn to bring these small miracles to our own communities.”
Talla said his peacebuilding journey began when he was in college in his native Cameroon. His roommate was from a different Cameroonian ethnic group—one Talla’s father had told him never to trust. He soon learned that his new roommate’s father had told his son to be wary of Talla’s people, too. This ethnic rift had been the source of violence in their country before, and it wasn’t until the two young men were forced to live together that they learned their fears of each other were unfounded, Talla said.
“Our differences are manipulated to keep us divided,” he added.
Early in his career, Talla became a Regional Advisor of Education in Cameroon and coordinator for the Justice and Peace Commission of the Association of Episcopal Conferences in the Central Africa Region. Soon, he moved on to the CRS, where on assignment in 2013 in Central African Republic, Talla was among a group of individuals working to mend relations between members of two warring militias—one Christian and one Muslim.
“Conflict is natural and normal,” Talla said, noting that peacebuilding is an ongoing process. “Conflict can become an opportunity to strengthen relationships between people.”
In order to engage the conflicted militias in mutual peace talks, he relied on a process that started with one-on-one conversations within each group before bringing the opposing groups together. The aim was to “overcome what prevents us from giving ourselves,” he said, adding a sentiment he attributed to Pope Francis, that narcissism, victimhood, and pessimism lead people to become angry with the world without ever trying to change anything.
“We must get away from stereotypes because they make one story become the only story,” said Talla, whose work, ‘The Ties that Bind: Strengthening Social Cohesion in Divided Communities,’ functions as an integral peacebuilding tool for CRS.
By “reconstructing” individuals within each militia group, Talla said some men chose forgiveness and vowed to work for peace.
“You need key people from each group coming together and thinking differently,” he said.
Talla insists that the peacebuilding framework he employs can work to overcome fundamental divisions found in societies across the world, even when those divisions manifest in many forms.
“When you go through this process, most people start seeing through different lenses,” he said. “And, this begins to build trust.”