James Wuye

James Wuye is an Assemblies of God Pastor and co-director with Imam Muhammad Ashafa of the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue in the Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria.

He is the son a soldier who fought the Biafra War. During the 1980s and 1990s, James Wuye got involved in Christian activism, and for eight years he served as Secretary General of the Kaduna State chapter for the Youth Christian Association of Nigeria (YCAN), an organization representing all Christian groups in the country.

During a confrontation between Christians and Muslims in Zongon Kataf, James Wuye lost his right arm, while Muslim Youth Councils Secretary General Muhammad Ashafa lost two cousins and his spiritual mentor. In 1995, the two former opponents decided to work together and build bridges between their respective communities.

With this aim in view, they launched the Interfaith Mediation Center of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue, an organization with over 10,000 members providing interfaith training to young people in schools and universities, to women, religious leaders and politicians. The center has thus contributed to defusing tensions in the 2002 and 2004 clashes in Kaduna and Yelwa.

Documentary Films

Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye have been the subject of two documentary films:

• The Imam and the Pastor (2006) (Watch on YouTube).
• An African Answer (2010).

Honors

Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa have received the Breme Peace Award in 2005, the Prize for Conflict Prevention awarded by the Fondation Chirac in 2009 and the Deutsche Afrika-Preis awarded by the German Africa Foundation in 2013.