Peace Pavilion for Bangui
They are stories from a distant world. Stories of war, the longing for peace or simply the wish for an undisturbed play with the children from the neighborhood, whether Muslim or Christian. When Marie-Thèrese Boubandé talks about what moves the children in their home country, the Central African Republic, the students in that temporary pavilion close to the church St. Marien in Berlin listen attentively. For a long time they look at pictures painted by their peers. Again and again they show tanks or men with submachine guns, pictures that the German children only know from movies or news. For the children in the Central African Republic, however, they are part of everyday life.
Marie-Thérèse Boubandé works as an educator in Bangui, the Central African capital. She brought the children's drawings to Berlin. Every day of the past two weeks, the 49-year-old spent several hours in the pavillion answering questions of school groups about her homeland, but also of every interested passer-by. Boubandé belongs to the "Inter-religious Platform of Central Africa", an organization in which Catholics, Protestants and Muslims have come together to oppose the instrumentalization of their faith by the regional warlords. "It's not a religious conflict in Central Africa," says Boubandé, "it's a battle for diamonds, tropical timber and power."
Boubandé came to Berlin with her fellow campaigners Gabriel Ngouamidou, an architect, and Papolin Balène, also from the peace platform, to promote their "House of Peace" for support. Similar to the House of One in Berlin, religious leaders and the peace platform plan to build a home for all three monotheistic religions practiced in Central Africa. It should be a place of remembrance of past atrocities and at the same time a place of interreligious encounter with a view to the future. A symbolic foundation was laid two years ago in the presence of Rev. Gregor Hohberg of the House of One in Bangui. The founder of the peace platform, Catholic Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga and the Imam Kobine Layam, who is also Project Ambassador of the House of One, have been awarded the Aachen Peace Prize in 2015 for their tireless dedication to tolerance and understanding. For more than ten years now, the clergy have resisted the instrumentalization of their religions by the parties involved in the conflict.
In Berlin, the peace ambassadors from Africa have found open ears. Not only among the students, but among politicians of the German Parliament as well as in the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Help is more than welcome. Next year, there will be an architectural competition for the "House of Peace" before it goes on the construction.
The pavilion closes its doors, the real work though is just beginning. Disassembled into pieces, the construction will be sent on a journey to Bangui to be rebuilt as a placeholder for the "House of Peace". "If God wants, we will succeed," says Boubandé goodbye.