The third edition of the “Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace” took place in Angola from November 22 to 24. Malawi’s former president Joyce Banda attended the Biennale of Luanda.
She praised the peacebuilding experience of hosts Angola among other African countries.
“I feel that they have the authority therfore to be able to host such events because they know better than we do. We are bound to benefit from their experience. Because where we are heading to we are morally obliged to maintain peace on the continent of Africa. But the people who must lead that crusade must be those that have gone through conflict. I told President Lourenço that I am trully sanding by him and that Africa stands by him. You saw yourselve what happened in the conference this time.
Angola is involved in mediating conflicts on the continent. President Joao Lourenço hosted last year talks between the leaders of the DR Congo and Rwanda.
Joyce Banda insisted the African Union must play a key role in ensuring peace and stability.
“All African leaders be it sitting or former must stand united because we have worked extremely hard to build our democracies in our countries,” she said.
“In some countries they are very fragile. We must not lose that and we must guard that. At the same time, we want our institutiona like African Union to be watchful and capture and arrest all issues that frustate us that might cause us to divert from the same democracies. I don’t know if I am making sense. What I am saying is that if there are issues that they must intervene and help us and support us so that we might not be frustrated and walk away from the democracies that we have built.”
The Biennale of Luanda –is organized by the Government of Angola, the UNESCO and the AU.
This year’s main theme was “Education, culture of peace and African citizenship as tools for the sustainable development of the continent”.
Additional sources • UNICEF
