It was the same 2004 atrocity between Muslims and Christians that made the town so famous and eventually led then President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency on Plateau State. Nine years later, the town is bubbling with renewed activities all thanks to the Inter-Faith Peace Committee comprising of both Christian and Muslim leaders aimed at mending fences with aggrieved individuals and building bridges of trust and peace in the community.
The three checkpoints mounted a few meters before entering Yelwa community in Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State with at least eight young men standing guard, is an assurance that the people of Yelwa remain vigilant to visitors who may wish to enter their community. The young men in maroon uniforms call themselves members of peace vigilante group, Yelwa-Shendam, which comprises of both Muslims and Christians. The group is saddled with the responsibility and commitment to ensuring that there is no breakdown of law and order in Yelwa and also serves as a moral compass for other communities in Plateau State of how Muslim and Christian youths can work together.
Obviously, the people of Yelwa seem to have learnt a hard lesson from the 2004 crisis that rocked the community and resulted in the death of over 1,000 people. The 15 mass graves of 630 Muslims including women and children are there, glaring for anyone to see in the late Chief of Yelwa’s compound. The Christian mass grave at the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in the community also serves as a reminder of the kind of atrocity that once took place in Yelwa and also a lesson the people claim must never be allowed to repeat itself.
Yelwa-Shendam had made its mark as an important commercial centre and was often described as a market town, roughly 20 kilometres away from Shendam town, the headquarters of Shendam Local Government Area. With a majority of Jarawa, Jukun, Goemai, Hausa and Fulani tribes, the two major religious outbreaks that led to the death of many had crippled the town as an economic hub in southern Plateau. The February 24, crisis had a devastating impact on Christians living in the community while that of May 2nd and 3rd was seen as a more coordinated attack by mainly outsiders from surrounding communities on the town leaving mostly Muslims as the victims. Nevertheless, both Muslims and Christians in the community suffered the brunt of the religious upheavals.
What many described in 2004 as a bloodbath was ironically what launched Yelwa-Shendam to the world and made the community internationally notorious. Now nine years after the bloodbath, it seems the community has made tremendous progress in rebuilding tolerance among the two major religions and the different ethnic groups.
The journey to what is presently seen as a leap in trust and mutual respect between Muslims and Christians in Yelwa had taken great efforts, but the results seem to be rewarding. A demonstration of support by the two religions was evident during the confirmation of 127 Christians at the St. Stephen’s Parish in Yelwa on August 31, 2013 when Muslims as well the Chief Imam and other Imams in Yelwa gathered at the parish to celebrate the confirmation of the Christians. The Muslims didn’t only attend the confirmation, but also observed their prayers at the church premise, ate and exchanged banters with their Christian counterparts. The age long tradition of celebrating Sallah and Christmas by both faiths in Yelwa having been suspended after the crisis has also been revived and the joint vigilante group, according to the Yelwa Youth Development Association, “has drastically decreased criminal activities and immorality in the community.”
Certainly the Yelwa of today is not the ghost town of 2004. The Chairman of the Inter-Faith Peace Committee, Reverend Father Michael Kelong’s vision for a tolerant and peaceful Yelwa has emanated when he was transferred to St. Stephen’s Parish from Bauchi State after the 2004 massacre. “We saw the gravity of the 2004 crisis and we realized we must do something about it. We all sat together, all the pastors and Imams and they appointed me to be their Chairman of peace and the process began. If there is anything happening in the town, neighbouring communities or in Jos today, we are on the streets with other pastors and the Imams going round, preaching peace and calming our people,” he said.
The Muslim community in Yelwa through the Deputy Chairman, Inter-Faith Peace Committee, Abdullahi Danbaba had said the “clear success of the Peace Committee has been the establishment of the peace vigilante group which has helped the community sail through the part of peaceful and prosperous co-existence.
The level of tolerance built radiated when Ladan Mohammed, a Muslim taxi driver in Yelwa expressed enthusiasm at the level of mutual respect so far achieved in the community. Mohammed explained that “you see this Father Kelong, he goes round with the vigilante at night ensuring that there is no breakdown of law and order, that is why both Muslims and Christians respect him in Yelwa because he loves peace.”
Just as Yelwa once made a name as a commercial centre in Plateau State, then blemished into a notorious ‘butchery’, Danbaba says the hope of the Inter-Faith Peace Committee presently is for Yelwa to earn a name as an indisputable safe haven for both Muslims and Christians from all over the country.
