Thinking Out of the Box: Quakers Contending with Peace, Justice & Security in Eastern Africa

In this First Monday Lecture, Dr. Esther Mombo will consider how Quaker approaches to peace, justice, and security relate to the ongoing violence in Eastern Africa. This region, home to the largest Quaker population in the world, is also challenged by several tragic conflicts. 

 Esther will discuss ways of boosting peace and security in the region beyond military reactions and peacekeeping forces. In particular, she will explore the role of different Quaker approaches to peace, such as the Alternatives to Violence Project. What are the lessons we can learn from Quakers, as well as other groups like African women theologians, about a holistic approach to peace and security? This “holistic approach,” drawing from indigenous, Quaker, and other peace-building methods and practices, leads to a peace and security where human beings flourish in the context that God has placed them.

If you would like to join to a meal before or after the program, please sign up using the link in your confirmation email, no later than 11:59 pm ET the Tuesday before your program begins.     

 This and our other First Monday Lectures are streamed live and available as recordings on our YouTube channel. 

Thanks to the generous support of the Friends Foundation for the Aging, we’re able to make this and other free, online programs accessible to f/Friends of all ages.

Leader

Dr. Esther Mombo is an academic with many years of experience in teaching and research on issues of religion and community. She is currently a Professor in the School of Theology at St. Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya. She has an interest in theological education, teaching courses in World Christianity and theology from the perspective of women. Her doctoral studies focused on African Quaker women and the establishment of Quakerism in East Africa, an area she has continued to work on. 

Esther is the author of Peace Grounded in Prayer: The Case of “Women in White” in Postcolonial Quakerism in Kenya, 1938–2018 and editor of Mother Earth, Postcolonial and Liberation Theologies, among others. 

She is a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and a founding member of the Tamar Campaign in Kenya. She has and continues to serve on the boards and governance bodies of several Quaker and ecumenical organizations, such as FWCC, AFSC, and the Commission of Education and Ecumenical Formation of the World Council of Churches.

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