Becoming Friends with Her Torturers

In 1976 as a student in university, a newlywed, and a woman with a baby on the way, Stella Sabiiti was kidnapped from her dorm room by rebels in her native Uganda. They tortured her for hours, until she could take no more. She began to search for the only commonality she could find between the soldiers and herself. By the time the soldiers withdrew from campus, she had made friends with her torturers.

Today, Ms. Sabiiti is a mediator between high warring groups all around Africa. She has taken her skills in social psychology and used them to find the root of warring parties disagreements to come to a peaceful end to conflict. In January of 2011, she attended a Inclusive Security’s annual colloquium with other women mediators from around the globe and was able to share her story with them.

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