The Académie des Professeurs pour la Paix Mondiale (Professors’ Academy for World Peace) had initially planned to hold in March 2020 at the West African Research Center (WARC) an international symposium on religions and their contribution to peace in the world. With the turn of events and the worldwide freezing of people’s movements and large gatherings because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was postponed. To better prepare the future holding of the activity, a virtual pre-symposium was held with the participation of eminent academics who discussed various religion-related issues with the Director of WARC moderating the debates.

Professor Louis Mendy of University Cheikh Anta Diop opened the floor with a paper on the unicity of God in so-called african traditional religions emphasizing the fact that in all those creeds there was only one name for the Supreme Being, Ro’og among the Sereer, Emitai among the Diolas in Senegal, Obatala among the Yoruba in Nigeria and Murung’u among the Gikuyu in Kenya etc…..He also insisted on the fundamentally peaceful essence and orientation of those religions in which « live and let live » seems to be a universal motto as testifed to by the deep respect for the environment and the quest for natural harmony, among other things.

While Professor Babacar Samb (Department of Arabic, University Cheikh Anta Diop) dwelt on the unifying features in the three written religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) although noting a few differences, Abdoulaye Wone and Dr Idris Kone engaged in an overview of the new dispensation called Unificationism , which strives to unify all religious creeds in a universal spiritual rainbow.

Other speakers contributed to the exchanges insisting on the powerful potential contribution of religions to world peace.

The event was presented as a Zoom session on Thursday, March 28th from 3 to 5pm.