Alfiado Zunguza

Alfiado Zunguza is a Mozambican peace advocate and founder of the JustaPaz peacebuilding organization. Zunguza grew up in the midst of Mozambique’s 15-year civil war between the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and the Mozambique Resistance Movement (RENAMO) political parties. The violent civil war was responsible for a million deaths and five million people displaced. Although the war officially ended in 1992 it has been a long road to reconciliation between the various sides in Mozambique. Alfiado was left without a mother at the age of six and he grew up bouncing between relatives in a search for in an effort to find security and continue his education. In 1996, Alfiado met some volunteers from the Mennonite Central Committee who were working with a local church to perform conflict resolution and reconciliation in the area. As a result of his contact with the volunteers, Alfiado would go on to attend the Eastern Mennonite University Summer Peacebuilding Institute later that year.