The Clan of the Mothers

For a long time, I have held my peace,
I have kept sill and restrained myself;
Now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
I will gasp and pant

Isaiah 42:14

Calm and resolute, 8 women face the world emboldened by an interior knowledge. It is often only maternal strength that empowers women to act in ways that are heroic and daring, and cross the dividing line of clan, culture and religion to demand an end to the senseless violence that has robbed them of their families. All around the world, women continue to work for peace, doing the hard work of reconciliation, while rarely being invited to the negotiating table. In the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, mothers risked their lives confronting the brutal junta, demanding to know what happened to their children who had been abducted. In Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea the women of the Mano's River Union Women's network for Peace helped to broker the peace among the warring factions. In Somalia the women presented themselves as a sixth clan to insist on an end to conflict. "We knew that peace in our country would come from cross-clan reconciliation, not official negotiations among warlords and faction leaders," one woman said. "So we cared for the wounded and built schools in communities regardless of clan, ethnic and political affiliations". Steadfast and faithful, the clan of the mother is threaded together by common experience and concern. We must listen to them for they hold the fabric of community in their hands.

Hondi Duncan Brasco