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Within the first 15 minutes, five safari vans of sun-kissed tourists came down the avenue in front of the library. Each spacious van was equipped with an open-hatch sunroof that allowed the occupants to stand up while peering at the “exhibits.” I had not realized that the safari began in the city of Nairobi. The first van caught my eye because a man inside was capturing every magical moment with his video camcorder. People inside the vans were snapping photographs of market stalls, legless beggars, the mosque, and any other item of interest which could be described as uniquely Kenyan. I watched the video camera lens as it swept across those of us sitting on the library steps. Was I the observer or the observed? Was I a spectator of the “exhibit”? Or part of the “exhibit”?
Let us say that these tourists were not “dwelling deep.”
In 1763 during the French and Indian War John Woolman visited the Delaware, or Lenni Lenape, Indians. How did he view his visit?
Love was the first motion, and then a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the spirit they live in, if haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they be in any degree helped forward by my following the leadings of Truth amongst them.
Because of his more long-term involvement with slavery, Woolman’s journey to visit the Indians is frequently overlooked, but it was a most important peacemaking activity. Remember that fighting between the Indians and whites was ongoing. Many influential Quakers advised Woolman not to go—including a late night meeting the day before he was to set out. The journey took three weeks, was two hundred miles each way during rainy weather over trails, and was solely to be present with those afflicted by the war.
In 1998 I was the Baltimore Yearly Meeting representative to the Friends Peace Teams and we were discussing the latest crisis in the Balkans. I said something like, “Why are we always taking about the Balkans. Some of the worst wars in the world are happening in Africa and moreover they involve substantial Quaker communities and we never think about them?” Mary Lord then spoke up and said, “What do you want to do about that?”
I proposed that Friends Peace Teams send a delegation to visit Friends and others in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi for the following purposes:
1. To find out how the various wars and genocide were affecting the Friends
2. To find out what peacemaking activities they were doing
3. To see if there were ways to partner with the African Quakers in their peacemaking work.
After I received approval, I wrote to all the African Yearly Meetings plus any other peacemaker that I could find. Many immediate replies came back. We sent a delegation of seven people. I went to Rwanda and Burundi. In Burundi I had an experience which mirrors Woolman’s visit to the Indians.
There is a saying in Kirundi (the language of Burundi) “A real friend comes in a time of need.” I visited Musama Friends Church. It was up-country perhaps five miles off the main road on a very rugged, gutted dirt road. We went to visit this church because the youth of the church—meaning those under 35 years of age—had identified 97 vulnerable families in the community—the elderly, the blind, women without husbands. They rebuilt their houses when they were destroyed in the fighting. We stopped at the house of a blind man whose home had been rebuilt by the group four times. This was all done without outside support belying the common belief here in America that things only happen in Africa when funds are pumped in by us from the wealthy countries. They showed me their church and the clinic which was no more than a few poles and some plastic sheeting and spoke of their hopes for a better future.
But the important point was that they were so pleased that someone from the outside had come to visit them! They felt that someone recognized and remembered them. This gave them hope. I myself never did so little—all I did was look around, ask a few questions, shake hands with lots of people, and show some interest in their existence and well-being. The lesson here is that when there are conflicts in the world, we must be real Friends (capital “F”) and visit in the time of need.