By Soraya Semmar Alami
Peace is not a performance, but on July 27, it had a stage, a spotlight, and a voice that made thousands fall silent.
That voice belonged to Maryam Bukar Hassan, known as Alhanislam, a Nigerian spoken word poet whose words carry the weight of war and the hope of healing. She is the first person to be named United Nations Global Advocate for Peace. In July 2025, she stepped into the role not with ceremony, but with poetry.
At New York’s SummerStage 2025, in front of more than 3,000 people, she performed “Peace is a Verb”, a powerful reflection on what peace truly demands from those who seek it.
“Let us not forget the women
whose hands mend what war has torn.
Who rebuild homes from memory,
raise children between checkpoints,
and hold their families like nations.”
Ms. Hassan’s words don't soften reality. Her work speaks of mothers choosing dignity in the face of survival, of children flinching in their sleep, of the strength it takes to forgive without ever forgetting. She tells these stories not as an observer, but as someone shaped by the world she writes about.
Her new role with the UN builds on what she has always done, lifting the voices of African youth and women and bringing their stories into spaces where they are rarely heard. This is also what drives SIA-Africa: giving a platform to African voices, supporting women in leadership, and promoting solutions shaped by our own communities. Through her words, Ms. Hassan reminds us that lasting peace starts when people, especially women and young people, can share their own stories and help shape their future.
“So today, I speak peace into the bones of this world… Because if war teaches us how to shatter, then peace must teach us how to stay.”
Maryam Bukar Hassan is not just a voice for peace. She is proof that peace and hope can be spoken, carried, and rebuilt from the ground up.
