Time for an African Rotary Peace Fellows Conference

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

The iconic music diva Onyeka Onwenu in her song ‘Bia Nulu’ invites the Lord to come hear our voice ‘Nna, bia nulu anyi o’. And so my visit to the Rotary Peace Center, Makerere University, Uganda on 11 September 2025 was like a visionary voice resonating with a physical presence. As a Peace Fellow at the Rotary Peace Center Chulalongkorn, Bangkok, Thailand of Class 18, 2015, I had, on one of our weekly website posts, made this declaration; “It is therefore incumbent on all past Rotary Peace Fellows to sustain the Alumni feedback by deepening the contents of the Alumni newsletter and also for especially past African Rotary Peace Fellows to search common communication channels to distil positive peace patterns from their respective countries. That is why I strongly suggest that the Rotary Foundation hosts another Rotary Peace Center on Professional Development in sub-Saharan Africa not necessarily for Africans alone but for global citizens in search of watering the seeds of intercultural dialogue sown in Chula and widening the narrative space to include the African story. This way Africa’s next Independence journey of collaborative Governance may be shaped by new foot soldiers of positive peace holding the Chula peace template as their oracle of inspiration”. The choice in the sub-saharan Africa fell on Uganda-the Pearl of Africa.

Origin of Rotary Peace Centers

The idea of instituting Rotary Peace Centers was mooted in 2002 by Paul Harris and expanded by the Rotary Foundation’s Trustees. The first Peace Fellows began their studies in 2003 at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia. Since then Rotary Peace Centers around the world have trained more than 1800 Peace Fellows who are leading peace and development initiatives in over 140 countries. Rotary Peace Centers are universally-based centers that provide training in Peace and conflict resolution through Master’s degree programs and Professional Development Certificate programs. The aim of the centers is to train leaders with a strong commitment to promoting peace and to fostering international cooperation. Eligible candidates are experienced professionals who apply through their local Rotary districts and are selected for Fellowship to advance their careers in peacebuilding. For the record I am the first Cameroonian to have been selected having been endorsed by the Rotary Club of Limbe, Cameroon, District 9150. My three months Professional Development program at the University of Chula, Bangkok was solely sponsored by the ‘the King of hearts’ Nigerian billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Sir Dr Chief Chairman Emeka Offor.

Rotary Peace Center, Makerere University

 So on that 11^th September 2025, I had barely checked into my Casa Miltu hotel in Ntinda when I pleaded with my driver Julius to veer me first to Makerere University which is hosting the Rotary Peace Center. I had a warm welcome from a professional Administrative personnel par excellence by name Richard Kasangaki. For close to four hours Richard immersed me into a scholarly journey of history, memory and diversity, after which I donated my recent book ‘Protecting Minority Language Rights’ and other books to the Center’s Resource unit. This center is the first Rotary Peace Center on the African continent and the seventh in the world. It was announced in January 2020 but welcomed its first cohort of about 17 Peace fellows in 2021. Hosted by one of Africa’s oldest and most prestigious Universities, the center ‘gives fellows a chance to interact in the direct aftermath of conflicts or as clashes unfold in real time’. The center had its baptism of financial fire from Sir Emeka Offor who made an initial seed donation of $250,000.

Sir Emeka Offor, the philanthropist

Anyone familiar with Sir Emeka Offor’s track record largesse to budding initiatives and to vulnerable communities cannot be surprised. A multiple recipient of honoris causa from four Universities including Nile University, Abuja, University of Nsukka, Nnamdi  Azikiwe University, Sir Emeka Offor, Chairman of Chrome Group and a member of Rotary Club Oraifite District 9142, Nigeria, contributed more than $4 million to polio eradication efforts in Nigeria, making him the largest individual donor to this cause in Africa. A few years ago he committed $5 million to Rotary’s maternal child health programme. He donated $10 million to accelerate Jimmy Carter’s efforts to help eliminate river blindness in Nigeria; endowed 50 million Naira to the Faculty of Social Sciences at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka; offered a consignment of five 40-foot shipping container full of books to the Gambia; bought over 1 million books, computers and school supplies to Nigeria and other West African nations. In February 2024 Sir Emeka celebrated his 65^th birthday with the theme of giving back to his community. Through the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF), he donated 400,000 bags of 50 kg long grain rice to widows and indigents people in 179 communities of Anambra state. He also presented books in various disciplines to 200 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria. To grace this birthday he extended a fully sponsored invite to five Peace Fellows that were under his benevolence in the tenure of their fellowship. Coordinated by “one of the five Rotary women leading the fight to end polio” and the 2024-2028 appointed member of the board of Trustees of Rotary International, Mrs Ijeoma Pearl Okoro, these five Peace Fellows to wit Jane Wanbui Wanjuru (Kenya), Dr Adewale Adeboye (Nigeria/UK), Sam Ajiye (Nigeria), Hope Tichaenzana Chicaya (Zimbabwe) and George Ngwane (Cameroon) were virtually accorded celebrity status at the birthday event. May Sir Emeka Offor’s sunshine of philanthropy continue to shine all over the world and the Lord’s blessings be showered on him and his Foundation.

The African Conference

The challenge of Rotary Peace Fellows from Africa remains problematic. How can we African Rotary Peace Fellows forge peace even in our micro communities; how can we transform the shared goals of our peace studies into a shared reality of peacebuilding in a continent where conflict has gained international notoriety; how can we mitigate Africa’s vexing metaphor of being what Tony Blair called ‘the scar on the conscience of the world’. As more Peace Centers get created we African Rotary Peace Fellows must ponder over the magic words delivered by the 2024-2025 Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick during a Peace Symposium at Makerere University on 10 January 2025. She said ‘the Peace Center (Uganda) will equip a new generation of leaders with the knowledge, skills and networks they need to address the root causes of conflict and to build sustainable peace in their communities and beyond’. These words need to be our Peace pilgrim staff as we climb the stiff and slippery slope of a conflict-prone continent. It was therefore time Africans who have benefitted from the Rotary Peace programs congregated around a physical platform that would engender discussions aimed at building a nexus between our Ubuntu traditional wisdom and the Rotary Peace conventional knowledge. And what can be a better time and under an enabling clime than under the leadership of the 2026-2027 Rotary International President Olayinka Hakeem Babalola.

*Rotary Peace Fellow, Cameroon. gngwane1960@gmail.com