Chandra Johnson
Assistant to the President,
University of Notre Dame

My participation in the conference “Religion in African Conflicts and Peacebuilding Initiatives” marked my third trip to Uganda. This time, however, I went less as a tourist and more as a critical observer-activist. The gathering of scholars, social service and ministerial representatives provided a setting in which perspectives on Africa’s political, religious and social structures could be openly expressed and critically discussed. For me — someone educated in the West as a Roman Catholic — this exposure to the strivings of the African and, in some cases, non-African educated elite, has deepened my reverence for education.

I am convinced more than ever that, if people are given the chance to develop a world view that supports the development of an equitable national identity, peacebuilding becomes an exercise in solidarity for the common good. This ideology becomes pervasive when education is used as a means of converging positive self- and national identity.

With this in mind, I returned from the conference with an idea for an initiative to assist in the ongoing educational development under way in the primary and secondary schools administrated by the Congregation of Holy Cross-Indiana Province in East Africa. The focus of the project is twofold: 1) To gather and expand the collective world view of the African-Americans who have graduated from the University of Notre Dame, to include East Africa and the richness inherent in her people and culture; and 2) to assist through fund raising the Holy Cross Mission Center in its efforts to ensure access to higher education for generation after generation of East Africans.

This summer, I return to Jinja with two videographers and a recent African-American Notre Dame graduate in an attempt to capture the essence of teaching, training and residential life that takes place in these schools. An informational DVD will be produced and sent to Notre Dame African-American alumni, most particularly those with whom I have become acquainted within the past eight years. The trip is being paid for by the Holy Cross Mission Center, University of Notre Dame and outside sources.

The project will invite alumni into a sustained dialogue about the effects of education on the religious and socio-political ideologies of Africans. Not only will this reunite African-American graduates from the University of Notre Dame from across the country in a dialogue of solidarity, it will extend this fraternal spirit to brothers and sisters across the Atlantic. This, I believe, is where peacebuilding begins.

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