The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out

Summary

A New Architecture for Peace

Our world desperately needs new ways to support community transformation. In The Answers Are There, Libby Hoffman shows us what is possible when outside aid animates, rather than obstructs, local leadership and recognizes and honors community wisdom, priorities, and resources.

This book shares stories of individual and communal transformation in Sierra Leone, where the culture of community was nearly destroyed by civil war. But the unique approach of Fambul Tok (“family talk”)—anchoring reconciliation in indigenous traditions of communal truth-telling, apology, and forgiveness—restored that culture and unleashed a powerful resource for national healing. Fambul Tok’s core conviction—that ordinary people have the creativity, capacity, and determination to transform their communities according to their own needs and desires—changed a country, and with it, international peace and development.

Hoffman shares her learning journey as a peacebuilder and as Fambul Tok’s co-founder, funder, and program partner. Her diligent, compassionate reflection on tending to community, to systemic failures, and to her own heart invites readers into “building peace from the inside out.” The Answers Are There masterfully blends lived experience, thought leadership, and actionable techniques, inspiring and equipping readers to grow whole, healthy systems in the world.