Goshen College’s Beechy peace lecture to feature peacebuilder Mulanda Jimmy Juma

Mulanda Jimmy Juma, P.h.D., regional peace and advocacy coordinator for Southern Africa, Central Africa and Nigeria with Mennonite Central Committee, will speak at Goshen College at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Rieth Recital Hall in the Music Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Juma, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), previously served as MCC country representative for DRC and Angola and later for Rwanda and Burundi. For nine years he led the Africa Peacebuilding Institute, and he launched one of the first postgraduate peace studies programs in Africa at St. Augustine College of South Africa.

His peacebuilding work has taken him to more than 20 countries, including negotiation and mediation work in DRC and Colombia, from the grassroots to top leadership levels. He has worked with the African Union, the European Union and electoral management bodies on peace and security issues.

Juma holds a doctorate in politics, human rights and sustainability and a master’s degree in electoral policy and administration from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy. He also holds a master’s degree in peace studies and conflict resolution and a bachelor’s degree in peace studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He is the author of the 2023 book “L’eau du lac était rouge: Un bâtisseur de paix Congolais au cœur des guerres” (“The Water of the Lake Was Red: A Congolese Peacebuilder in the Heart of Wars”).

This event is part of the annual Atlee and Winifred Beechy Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Lecture which features a speaker knowledgeable and expert in peace, justice and reconciliation issues in current local, regional, national or international affairs. Recent speakers have included civil rights leader, lawyer and filmmaker Valarie Kaur, historian Ben Goossen and Wendsler Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.