“No one is born a terrorist”

Achaleke says that the peace work he leads in Cameroon “has not started yet”, but they have already set up a vocational training programme for young prisoners and the Salam school, so that minors can learn to read and write. He also insists that “young Africans are not asleep”, that they are providers of peace solutions and not troublemakers. And he puts all this forward from his personal experience, after having succeeded in making violence no longer direct his life.

Who is Achaleke Christian Leke?

I was born in Fiango Kumba, a city in my country, Cameroon, known for violence. Growing up there was a challenge because you live in a mafia-like system. It was a way of life, how we survived, the way of thinking of any young person. But then I was able to get involved in making peace, and for the past 13 years I have worked as a volunteer in various communities. I have a degree in History from the University of Buea (Cameroon) and a Master in Conflict, Security and Development from the University of Birmingham. Currently I coordinate the work of the Local Youth Corner (LYC), where I began to collaborate as an actor as a child, dealing with community problems. That's how I developed the desire to become an activist. I am a self-made peace builder. I use my experience, the violence in which I lost close friends and acquaintances, watching houses being burned and lives destroyed. Peace is possible, that's why I work with young people.

How would you describe your relationship with violence when you were young?

Violence was part of my life and my community was stigmatized by the problems it generated. When I said I was born in Fiango, people were afraid and didn't trust me. It was group violence, gangs... You start with a group of friends, we protect each other, and when they attack you, the rest respond. I had friends who were thieves, others who stole weapons... We never played a soccer game without ending up fighting. That's how we solved our problems, we didn't know how to do it otherwise, there was no such thing as reconciliation. I remember one day in school, in 2007. We were called in because one of our colleagues had been set on fire in the street. I saw him burning, and the people around him were humiliating him instead of helping him. This is the reality I lived with, but I knew I could be different.

So you were part of one of these gangs?

Yes, it was the usual thing. My group was the one from my neighborhood. We were friends, we defended each other. Some of them had been expelled from school. We had our parents, but that way of life got us into trouble and they didn't know anything about it. They tried to control us, we went to church on Sundays, but that didn't affect our way of life, what we saw. When a friend had a problem, we would organize ourselves and solve it. It was something communal, familiar. Each one defended the other, sometimes we fought with sticks, sometimes with machetes…

From there it went to guns?

There wasn't much access to them, the ones that circulated were mostly soft weapons... But, yes, some people in more dangerous groups also had weapons.

What were the consequences of going through that childhood and adolescence for your friends?

Some of them are in jail. That's what inspired me to work in prisons. When I started to visit them, I realized that many of the prisoners were my friends, were involved in robberies, murders, and that I could talk to them because I understood their reality. Some have died, others have joined armed groups. My mission is to prevent other young people from falling into violence, or to bring out those who are already in it. Violence is a process: you start at the lowest level and work your way up. No one is born a terrorist.

When do you feel the click, the change in your mind?

When I saw the boy, who had been set on fire, I was 15 years old. A few days later, a family lost their house in an intentional fire because they had been linked to the death of a member of a Muslim group. My parents decided to take me out of the city and send me to a residence. That's when that click inside me occurred. There was a process, because while this was happening, I was acting in the school, doing theater, and I realized that the parents of other students appreciated me because I was doing something good. I started to be aware of what happens when you do good, using my interpretative skills to communicate certain values. I went to the institute in another city, and during the first week, I lost my wallet. Someone picked it up and returned it to me. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before: all my money was there, there was nothing missing. In school, when there was a sudden upsurge of violence among the older students, I tried to fight them, but I was left alone, no one wanted to fight me. So, I asked myself: what's going on? I found out that things could be done differently, I continued to do theater, I became popular, people loved me.

And now, when you return as “ambassador of peace”, what reactions do you find?

In 2013, it was difficult because people didn't believe me, didn't understand that a young man was a volunteer or worked for the development of peace. My friends told me I had gone crazy. But now it's different, when I go, everyone wants to talk to me, to be near me, some parents send me their children to talk to them, many children write to me on Facebook, tell me they have hope and feel better. They have realized that violence leads nowhere. Even with the conflict we are experiencing at present in my country, only a few of them have taken up arms and joined armed groups.

Are you in danger when you try to convince them?

I've been threatened several times. There are people who believe that what I say is not correct. But I insist that we need peace. I've received calls asking me for money. My family members have been kidnapped, I've lost my family members, but as peacemakers, we must be prepared to face these difficult times, and this cannot stop me from talking about peace. I want to make them say no to violence.

How are you protecting your family?

I'm apolitical. I know that even the fighters want peace and they know I'm committed. I listen to them, I promote dialogue, I train the youth, I never go alone. I transmit our work to them, I let them know that they are not bad people, that it is the circumstances that have made them be there, and that I will always help them to be better. My parents emigrated to the United States in 2016: if they had stayed, they would have been kidnapped or attacked. I keep my message clear, and I don't speak on behalf of the government, the citizens or Boko Haram: peace is possible, we all need peace, and violence won't solve the problem. And not only do I speak, I also act by providing school fees, by promoting social justice. Through this work, I have managed to keep myself safe. I know that someday I'll be kidnapped, arrested for my messages, but I'm not afraid.

What do you think is stopping them from ending the violence?

They are not listened to, there has been no dialogue with those who promote violence, so my current mission is to train young people to become mediators who talk to them. Some have been abandoned by their parents because of poverty, no one has cared for their education, whether they eat or not... Our work is to show them love no matter what they have done, because they are human, love is what can help them. Becoming someone better is what is making them give up their weapons.

Cameroon held legislative and municipal elections in February. 43% of the population is under 15 years old. What are they like and what do young people want?

The role of young people in politics has undergone a great change because they now know that it matters whether they vote or not, although the leadership will not change: our president has won the elections several times. Violence is expected during the voting - the interview took place a few days before the elections - so we have a programme with Unesco where we have trained young people all over the country to prevent violence before, during and after the elections. More than 1,000 young people have understood the importance of going to vote.

What’s the origin of violence in your country?

We have two big conflicts and some small ones. There is something common to all the problems, because what leads people to conflict is related to personal identity. There are also factors like poverty, unemployment, the weak justice system. People feel that they are not being respected, that they are not being provided with the services they need. In the English-speaking area the same problems are multiplying. In the communities, people get involved in violence because they have no work, nobody believes in them. They feel that their identity is threatened, that it has been stolen. Young people struggle to get decent jobs. I haven't seen any young person with a good job, trained in morals and ethics, carrying a weapon.

Should efforts be concentrated on education?

Yes, civic education. In Cameroon 70% of the population is young, and only 5% of them are involved in some kind of violence, which means that there is hope for peace, for change. If our government, our families, our society, the international community and the Western world support us in sustainable development, we will succeed.

What do you think of the way in which the international community is or is not helping to end the violence?

It helps in some ways, but we have to act so that we don't have to wait for our people to suffer before they intervene. In my country, the international community provides food and shelter on the ground, they are helping to fight Boko Haram. These efforts are visible, but there are problems inherited from the colonial era. We mustn’t make the same mistakes.

Are we doing it?

Some have repeated themselves, there are governments that have been manipulated by foreign forces, leaderships that have been manipulated, in the same way that part of the development has not been adequately carried out by foreign powers.

What should be the role of this foreign aid?

They should be very objective. Try to stay out of the country's manipulative politics and focus on the challenges we face in education, unemployment, climate change, health... We must work with young people as partners, not leave them out because they are the voice of the continent. There must be more collaboration, loans granted directly, we want to see sincerity and love in the treatment, because when we have problems, the West also suffers, there are more people who are forced to emigrate.

Are we being treated equally in the way you propose?

Yes, I think we have reached that equal relationship because you have the technological advances, but we have the market to sell, in addition to the raw material.

The 'prison-entrepreneurs', a play on words in French that could be translated as "business prisoners", with whom you work, are in six regions of the country. In three years, we have reached 300 direct beneficiaries and 5,000 people in 8 prisons are participating. What has the creation of the 'Creative Skills' meant?

We train them, we buy the materials, we provide them with something to live on... but we cannot pay them a salary because we lack resources. We teach them about ethics, morals, civics, peace, and after a few months we provide them with some funds to start producing. What is taken from the sales is reinvested in other prisoners. We maintain the hope that when they get out of prison they will be able to fend for themselves.

How is life in a Cameroon prison?

The government doesn't have the resources that we have in Europe, there are problems with food, hygiene... But why not turn the prison into a place where you can earn an income instead of just investing in it? The process is slow, but we already have a pottery, a garden, a henhouse, we have a sports tournament. Prison has become a more visible place. There are two percent women in Cameroon's prisons, and in our program there are 30 prison-entrepreneurs, but in the other programs there are 200.

When will the work of Local Youth Corner be completed?

When we work in all the prisons and we have a program outside the prison where we can receive them when they get out. Besides, I hope that in my country, the disarmament and rehabilitation of former combatants from Ambazonia and Boko Haram who have not gone to prison will be managed. We are doing this to learn and prepare ourselves, to work with an even more complex group of young people.

LEONARD

“When I was sent to prison, I thought my life and my family were over. I thought there was no room for hope until the 'Creative Skills' programme appeared at Bamenda Central Prison. I joined the farm and the greenhouse, where I was trained in innovative agriculture. It was what saved my life. Now that I am out of jail I am very happy because LYC has included me in the program as an educator to help other young people. This way I can share with my community a message of peace and feel part of it again”.

VALERY

“Today I was able to prove to myself that anyone can learn skills in prison and become productive. You just need to have the determination to want that change. I feel useful when I am asked, along with my sister, to type for a research project. The joy is greatest when I hand it over to her to finish organizing, editing and printing it. I can feel the gratitude in her words when she embraces me warmly, which moves me. Sometimes we even cry together, because we are able to share a work that fills us”.

JAMES

“I never thought I'd be able to produce anything with my bear hands. Why should I go back to violence when I've learned in prison how to make sandals? All this time we have recycled car wheels into decorated sandals. We give a second life to those materials, turning them into useful objects that are being used again and are allowing us to earn a little money. For the moment, we are giving these benefits to the project, but when I get out of prison I will be able to integrate into society by making my products”.