Restorying:
The Art of Narrative as a Method for Restorative Peace-building
Sarah Dobbs, Master of Education, University of Toronto
It is the grass under the feet of
elephants that gets destroyed in the fight.
(Kenyan
Proverb)
In his book The Moral Imagination (2005),
John Paul Lederach points out that, even though we cannot change the past we
have choices in how we remember it and what we do with it. This notion of restorying
– of narrating experience and reflecting on
its impact on self, identity and community – can
provide a renewed sense of agency for victims of violence and can contribute to
peace-building and community healing. History is not memory but, rather,
divergent rememberings, shaped in culturally specific ways, created by
individual narratives (Dissanayake 1995; Lederach 2005;
Escobar 2001). When we
articulate our memory or our experiences in the way they hold truth for us – whether
through song, dance, orally, visually, or through the written word – we can
begin to rebuild our lives.
From January to April 2013 I met with and interviewed 675 women in
Kenya and Uganda, from the slums of Nairobi to rural women’s only villages in
Samburu, north of Nairobi past the Rift Valley, and to the south into the Maasai
Mara, exploring with them the notion of peace, the roles they played in
contributing to, and promoting, peace in their homes and communities, and the
idea of conflict. What
became evident is that these women’s involvement in peace-building
is their response to the struggles of their lives within specific contexts, and
in relation to others as part of their communities. Each of the 42 Kenyan tribes,
and remote communities in Uganda, has a distinct epistemological and ontological world-view that
contributes to its idea of self and its place within the homes, community and
country, and to the perception of peace (Lederach 2005; Ball 2009; Mohanty 2003;
Escobar 2001).
Relationships are central to Kenyan and Ugandan culture – relationships with one
another and with each person’s environment. Men and women support their extended
family and are quick to provide for others, seemingly with little concern for
providing properly for themselves.[1] They value friendships and work associates,
keeping in contact with them by mobile phone or through an arranged meeting
(rather than texting or emailing as is the way in Canada). However, in any
relationship there is divergence of varying degrees. From my observations and
discussions with the Kenyan women it became apparent that a number of conflicts,
ranging from those that are rooted in specific disagreements within
relationships to systemic violence, are perpetrated by family and government.[2]
Gender-based
violence is pervasive within Kenya and has been used as a weapon of war and
oppression to humiliate and to undermine women, through rape, sodomy and
defilement.[3] But gender-based violence does not simply become
manifest in the use of sexual violation but in any restrictive form of violence
towards women (Walker 2009). These include a lack of access to education, severe
poverty, discrimination based on ethnic and tribal identities, land ownership,
inheritance rights, an imbalance of household roles within a patriarchal
society, rituals such as female circumcision or female genital mutilation, and
many other forms of power that target women’s identity or social and cultural
roles (ibid). The presence of conflict and gender-based violence contributes to
a collapse of relationships, alienation, a loss of one’s sense of identity, and
interferes with connectedness with others (Mollica 2006; Niaz et al 2009; Skidmore
2003; Lederach 2003).
According
to Lederach (2005), when relationships collapse, so does the “center of social
change” (p.74). The transformation of relationships after violence is very much
like a spider’s web. When a strand of its web is severed or knocked down, the
spider rethinks its strategy and adapts to begin a renewal process of
recreation. By
being like spiders, or “smart flexible” (Lederach 2005, p. 84), we understand that
permanence is found only in adaptation and in our continuous response to ever-changing
situations. The women I met had a deep understanding of this concept.
Continually adjusting to their situations, they strived to maintain harmony at
home, to rebuild peace, and to help reconstruct their communities.
Rather than recounting the transformative experience of living among
these women (which was so culturally different from my privileged experience in
the Western World), I shall focus on two experiences and consider connections
between the women’s lives, communities and their acts of peace-building: Hellen
Nkuraiya’s narrative reflects the struggle of an individual woman who, through
restorying, is transforming her tribal community and helping to change cultural
traditions; I shall also review a peace-building and restorying workshop I conducted
with a group of seven women displaced to the Kibera slums in Nairobi as a
result of the violence after the 2007/08 general election. By participating in
the workshop, these women began to rethink their own narratives and, like
Lederach’s spider (2005), to reimagine their community in order to encourage
peace and healing. In each instance, the act of restorying contributed to their
sense of identity and their connectedness with one another.
Using
qualitative ethnographic and arts-based approaches, I conducted interviews, undertook
hands-on arts activities individually and in groups, and, as a researcher and
fellow human being, observed. Within
the 16 communities I visited, I consistently asked three questions: What words would you use to describe peace?
How do you know when there is peace in your homes/community? What do you do to
build peace in your homes/community? (see Appendix A). The use of arts helped to mediate the women’s
journey from one set of knowing to another, and assisted them in understanding each
other and facilitated a new restorative narrative (Barrett 2007; Knowles and
Cole 2008; Leavy 2009; Dissanayake 1995). I made
audio and video recordings of some interviews when it was appropriate, took
photographs, and kept a journal to document the various ways in which the women
began to rethink their past. In many instances the women were given tea,
lunch and a stipend to cover travel or expenses associated with their absence
from work.
The
practice of peace-building is broad. At its best, it involves diverse methods
that contribute to nurturing positive relationships, healing wounds,
reconciling differences, restoring self-esteem, renewing communities and
instilling feelings of security (Bell and O’Rourke 2007; Mazurana and McKay
2000; Ball 2009: Goodman et al 2002). An
important challenge lies in responding to the legacies of human rights abuses
and human suffering and examining memory and truth (Herbst 1992; Lederach 2005;
Schirch 2005; Goodman et al 2002). As previously mentioned, these abuses happen
at all levels of society, occur both within the home and the community and can
be perpetrated by individuals, groups or by the State itself. As I discovered,
so much of what these women accomplish in restoring peace in their communities is
simply seen as “just what women do” and is not highly prized (Goodman et al
2002; Herbst 1992; Mazurana and McKay 1999). Oftentimes, however, these acts
are more effective than the work carried out at a political level.
Case
Study I – Maasai Mara
Hellen
having purchased a goat for the widows, Tepesua
Hellen Nkuraiya is a Maasai, one of the 42 tribes
in Kenya.[4]
As was customary, when she was nine years old she was ritually circumcised,
also referred to as female genital mutilation. When she spoke to me in February
2013, she told me that, as a girl, she was unaware that this was about to
happen. In this ritual, pre-pubescent girls are taken into a circle of women
and held down. Their labia, and in many cases, their clitoris, are then
severed from their bodies with a razor blade. This is a traditional rite of
passage that symbolizes the transition from girlhood to womanhood and, although
the medical complications that arise from the mutilation can be complex, the
practice continues today.[5]
When Hellen was eleven years old, she married a sixty-year-old man by
arrangement with her father, in exchange for the traditional dowry of two cows.
She was sent to another village where she became part of an extended family of
wives and children. She says the experience was terrifying and lonely. The
other wives considered her to be a flight risk (as are so many of these young
brides) and so Hellen was kept under a tight watch. When she was about fourteen
she managed to run back to her family home. However, because she had not returned
with her dowry, she was not allowed to stay and was seen to be an embarrassment
to her family and to the Maasai community. Homeless, Hellen was lucky enough to
meet some nuns who were willing to educate her, and she was sponsored to attend
high school and vocational college, from where she became a teacher.
Hellen is now forty-two years old.[6] She was
so traumatized by the experience of circumcision and her early marriage, she
vowed to save as many young girls as she could. She opened a “rescue centre”,
or school, for girls, where she boards them, secures sponsorships and ensures that
they are educated. The centre is set within the Maasai community of Maji Moto
in the Loita Hills, about an hour outside of the entrance to the Mara National Reserve,
two hours from Narok. When it first opened, Hellen received death threats because
what she was doing was seen to be against the Maasai community’s traditional
ways. However, she continued her work and, after some time was supported by the
chief and accepted into the community.
Some
eight- to ten-year-old girls, saved from female circumcision, boarding in Maji
Moto.[7]
In collaboration with the chief and other members of the community,
Hellen also created a village for widows. Owing to the custom of early marriages,
many Maasai women become widows when still young and, since there are no
inheritance rights for women, they are often left homeless.[8] These widows have no education and are
therefore left with no means to support their families. Frequently they go into
the sex trade to provide for their children. Hellen says she wants her people
to “hold culture in one hand and education in the other”, seeking a balance so
that young girls, rather than being married young with no education, are given
the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills.
In Hellen’s case, her narrative was broken when she
was circumcised and she became separated through her marriage from her family,
friends and community. Although this trauma is not an unusual experience for Maasai
girls, Hellen sought change as peace-builder. She has a strong sense of self and
her identity is closely linked to her tribe. Rather than remaining a victim,
she reflected on her broken narrative, or spider’s web, and reconstructed the
links to begin to build peace. Restorying is
a means of trying to restore a sense of self and place. By considering her past and embracing it
creatively into the future, she reimagined her narrative into one that encourages
peaceful co-existence. Imaginative narrative goes beyond the simple
recounting of an experience or story, but rather encourages imagining what the
events mean both locally and globally (Lederach 2005; Winslade and Homer 2001;
Freedman and Coombs 1996) and how this act of reimagining shifts our acuities
and sense of identity and role in a specific conflict. As Lederach (2005) says: “embracing the paradox of
relationship in the present, the capacity to restory imagines both the past and
the future and provides space for the narrative voice to create” (p. 149). Through
Hellen’s efforts, the ritual of female circumcision in her community is now
practised through a symbolic cutting of the inside of the girls’ thighs and is
far less traumatizing or physically damaging to them.
The logo for Hellen’s centre in Maji Moto.
The
lack of opportunity for girls to receive an education can provoke conflict.
Within the Maasai community, this is largely as a result of the traditional
practice of marrying and having children at a very young age. Education leads
to knowledge, which in turn inculcates a tolerance of differences and societal
norms, rather than the fear and ignorance that can perpetuate discrimination
(Lederach 2005; Bar-On 2002; Brookfield and Holst 2010; Friere 1970; Harman
1997). In the above image we see the logo that is painted on the outside of
Hellen’s rescue centre, or school. This visual narrative depicts a Maasai
Warrior on the left and a young Maasai female on the right, both traditionally
clad. The warrior looks directly at the young woman, who gazes down in
deference, reflecting respect. However, the female wears a ring of red beads
around her neck, telling the viewer that she is uncircumcised, and she is
holding a book. In the centre, in front of a rendering of the land, houses and
cattle (a sign of wealth), is a book, symbolizing knowledge. A mortarboard
crowns the top of the image as an indication of a completed education, while
the circle that surrounds the images is a symbol of unity and wholeness.
According
to Knowles and Cole (2008), images rendered artistically can generate empathy that
makes action possible. Strategically
using the visual arts as a tool for mediation, critical thought[9]
and dialogue helped to create social change by shifting preconceptions, prejudices
and patterns (Bohm 1996; Redekop 2002; Lederach 2005). Although the ratio of girls to boys is six times
greater in Kenya, girls are rarely educated (interviews with young widows in
Tepesua, Maasai Mara, February 2013). Within Hellen’s community, many of the
girls now receive an education. For those who do not go on to secondary school,
Hellen has created a small vocational training centre where sewing and
entrepreneurial skills are taught. Village elders also teach the Maasai language to the children to ensure that
cultural traditions are sustained. So, although challenging some traditional
rituals and practices, Hellen Nkuraiya is embracing others.
Case Study II: The Slums of
Kibera
Kibera
is two-kilometre square slum in Nairobi in which two million people live; there
is no electricity, sewage or roads in Kibera. In fact, if there is a house
fire, or a flood, there is no way aid can reach most of the people who live
there. Toilets are outhouses and water is retrieved from boreholes located
throughout the community. There is a railway track that runs through the slum
and, when a train comes, stalls selling food scatter and people who have been
using the track as a thoroughfare also make themselves scarce.
Two weeks after
I arrived in East Africa, I ran a day-long workshop for women in Kibera (11 February
2013). The seven women were all from different tribes and were displaced
victims of the 2007/08 post-election violence. Since another general election
(4 March 2013) was getting near, the women were apprehensive, experiencing an
increase in tribal discrimination. All were mothers of varying ages and they
had never met one another. I devised a workshop in which I used the arts as a means
of engaging in conversations that otherwise could not take place, and as a
visual tool through which the women could reflect on their lives and reimagine
a future where difference was embraced. I know from experience that community-based participatory art methodologies have the
potential to benefit those who are suffering conflict by stimulating personal
and communal change through reflection and empowerment (Gray et al 2010). The
social support that comes through the collaborative artistic
process, which by its very nature is subjective, would bring the women together,
thus enabling them to discover each other’s personal narratives. This social
support is critical to rebuilding and transforming the community toward
sustainable peace (Lederach 2005; Staub et al 2006; McNiff 1992; Schirch,
Spring 2008).
As
the day for the workshop approached, my apprehension grew and I asked myself
“how can I give voice to those who are quietly engaging in peace-building on a
daily basis within their own homes through communal ritual. I come from Canada
where we have what we need. I don’t understand this new culture and am scared
of imposing my own ideas” (8 February 2013). As scholars and practitioners in
the field of peace-building agree, it is so often the mistake of the peace-builder
to be parachuted into a community and impose what we think is needed, rather
than allowing the inhabitants to lead the way (Lederach 2003; Ball 2009;
Escobar 2001; Mazurana & McKay 2000; van Tongeren 1999). I hoped to listen
and to learn and to avoid making this mistake. In my journal I wrote: “In a
country where there are 42 tribes, it seems to me that, rather than embracing
all the diverse tribal cultures and people, there is a deeply rooted fear of
difference and of change which has contributed to the violence” (12 February
2013).
Women participating in an arts-based
workshop, Kibera
The
day began with introductions and some tea and the ritual prayer which starts
and closes most community meetings in Kenya. We then sat outside and, using a
tape recorder, I asked the women the three questions (Appendix A) and recorded
their answers. Each time one of them spoke, they held a ball of yarn, which
they passed along to the next person who wanted to speak while holding some of
the yarn in their hands. In this way, we created a web (symbolic of Lederach’s spider’s
web) so we could visualize our connections to one another.[10]
After sharing stories, the women gathered in a circle, held hands and sang a
prayer. We then washed our hands and ate lunch together.
After lunch I
introduced an arts-based activity that would engage the women in a collective
project for three hours. The women were invited to consider together how to
divide a large sheet of paper into sections that would reflect their perception
of their communities. The sections would symbolize what they agreed it was like
(a) before the violence, (b) during the violence and (c) after the violence.
They were invited to decide on the significance of the time of each section and
allocate it space – so something more significant would have a larger
allocation. They were asked also to choose a fourth area on the paper where
they would visually represent their hopes and dreams for the future after the
general election. The first hour we spent exploring the idea of community and
their various communities of these women were before the post-election violence
of 2007/08. Together they discussed the elements in their communities which
made them feel at peace – schools were open, hospitals looked after them when
they were ill, transportation ran smoothly, flowers grew and children played.
All was calm.
They then
talked about the challenges and violence they had had to endure (no matter
where they lived) and how they had come to live in Kibera. They spoke of
defilement, rape, killings, the destruction of property and a more pervasive
poverty and worsening fear. They made markings on the paper, using words and
images to reflect what they had witnessed. During this activity, the women spoke
about their apprehension of the forthcoming elections and the violence that
might occur afterwards if the outcome was not popular or if the politicians or
press encouraged protests. The women reflected on how their community was
different now that the election was imminent. They marked the paper and spoke
of the renewed tribalism that was prevalent at the time of our meeting.
The section of
paper these women had chosen to represent their hopes and dreams for the future
was large and they drew images of more schools, better transportation, toilets and
hospitals. They envisioned a peaceful community in which they could get enough
food and where their important relationships were restored. They articulated
that, through the experiences they had witnessed and now embodied, they could begin
to see a bright future and move forward. This arts-based activity was reflective
and encouraged the women to think about how their experience had contributed to
their view of their community. They pondered their self-image and discussed how
they related to one another and how the violence they had experienced had
become a part of their identity.
After tea, I
invited them individually to create an image that represented peace to them.
Most women used the image and components of the flag of Kenya – “peace is the
unity of the people of Kenya” (one workshop participant).
After
the workshop
Because of the
memory of violence and the apprehension of it recurring, personal narratives
have been broken and several of these women, at the outset of the workshop, saw
themselves as victims. They continued to be angry towards those who had been perpetrators
of the violence – even if their anger was not directed at an individual but toward
a particular tribe. During the workshop, however, through story-telling and
shared narratives and by listening attentively to one another’s stories, they
became witnesses of each other’s trauma and were able to begin to embrace (rather
than fear) their experience and to re-imagine their lives. They agreed, as they
were drawing and talking, that they would work together to promote peace and
that, through example, they believed they could change people’s attitudes
towards tribalism. As Lederach (2003) asserts: by
looking at our past and “acknowledging its value and its impact on us [we can
find] a way of incorporating that past of remembered and lived history, to recent
events to the present and into the future” (p.141). This is the “past that lies
before us” and reflects an African world-view – so different from a view from
the West.
Findings/Analysis
The conflicts within East Africa are
complex. Tribal patriarchal attitudes
towards women have been overlaid with colonial practices of exploiting tribalism.[11]
Historically women were not allowed to own land[12] and are frequently
uneducated, and so, if widowed, they are left with few skills to support their
families. In many instances, women described to me how, after their husband’s
death, they had been banished from their homes and had no place to live. In
order to combat this, people like Hellen created women-only villages for widows
or young girls escaping early marriage and female genital mutilation. Together,
the women in these villages are striving to change the attitudes in their
communities, restorying their lives through supporting one another, and gaining
financial independence. It is a struggle, but they have had a modicum of
success.
With my privileged
eyes I had conceptualized the notion of peace
in a united global context, where people and nations get along together. I
imagined the desire for global peace that we hear beauty pageant candidates articulating. What I discovered through my discussions,
observations and documentation was that the concept of peace is intrinsically
different and more personal than I had imagined. For many of the women with
whom I spent time, peace was a highly intimate experience that often meant
security: security of home, finances, family, nutrition, education and
friendships. Many told me that they envision “peace as harmony and balance
within their home and within their hearts” (women in internal displacement
camp, Lezeria Prison, Kampala, Uganda, 8 March 2013). As a result of the
extreme poverty, trauma and internal displacement they have suffered and
witnessed, they have feelings of alienation, their individual identity has been
ruptured and these women desire to be connected with the community from which
they have been separated.
It
is generally believed that narratives can be both personal and communal since
individual stories and rememberings contribute to group identity (Lederach
2005; Winslade and Homer 2001; Freedman and Coombs 1996). What I discovered is something
so foreign to my own personal experience: that the narratives I listened to are
embedded in tribal identity.[13]
All the women I met sought to maintain their tribal identities. However, they
frequently marry into other tribes, and their tribal loyalty can be questioned
when conflict arises. It is within this paradox that, although potentially
difficult to navigate, these Kenyan women can find the balance that embraces
their communities’ traditions while simultaneously contriving to introduce
change. In the words of one research participant: “We can heal our community
and build peace by telling people that peace is the only way. Through sharing
our stories, we can weave together our lives before and after violence to
create something new” (in conversation 18 March 2013).
Once on the ground in Kenya and Uganda, I became
very aware of my place as a privileged white female. Frequently, I was asked to
tell the women what they should do if they were talking about a conflict in
their homes or community. Perhaps their husbands were drinking and beating
them. Maybe their children were starving. Perhaps they wanted money to educate
a family member. However my role was not to offer solutions but to find ways to
facilitate reconnections to their community and to encourage self-advocacy.
Through the use of arts-as-method, these women were able to re-imagine their
lives and traumas. Fear of tribal difference and gender roles was replaced with
a curiosity about the patterns within their
communities, the cycles of violence, and the women became alert to a “story
that repeats itself” (Lederach 2005, p. 148). I found that they began to
trust one another, and me, and to view themselves and the others in a new
light.
Appendix A – Interview
Process
Interviews
were conducted either individually or in a group setting. In most cases, an
audio recorder was passed around the group and the women would speak of their
experiences – this was done after guidelines set by a community-building workshop
group were created for each meeting in order to establish confidentiality. In
cases where the women did not speak English, an interpreter was present.[14] In some instances, after private
interviews, I would transcribe what the women had said through annotations in
my journal.
Throughout
my time in Kenya and Uganda, I asked each woman the same three questions:
1) What words would you use
to describe peace?
The
response to this question evoked words such as community, harmony, coexistence,
cooperation, and caring for each other. The three sentences below reflect the
sentiment of those who were interviewed.
“Peace
is understanding your neighbour and accepting all tribes.”
“Peace
is when you have enough to eat and when you are together calmly.”
“Peace
comes when we love each other, even though we are different.”
2) How do you know when
there is peace in your homes/community?
Many
of those with whom I spoke talked freely and clearly about their immediate
situation and community. Words and phrases that were used frequently were
calmness, togetherness, free speech, enough food and sleep.
“When
everyone is talking, no matter what tribe they are from, there is free
interaction.”
“Peace
is knowing that I will not be circumcised and can go to school.”
“I
have a place to live where my children are safe.”
3) What do you do to build
peace in your homes/community?
Most
women spoke of friendship, helping one another, sharing the little we have,
talking to neighbours about peace, and rituals such as dancing.
“We
work together to earn enough money to feed our community.”
“I speak up for education so children can
contribute to their families’ well-being.”
“We
hold cultural traditions close to us but do not encourage tribalism.”
Appendix B: List of Workshops and Interview groups
Appendix B: List of Workshops and Interview groups
KENYA RURAL
|
Tepesua,
Maasai Mara
|
13
|
Maji Moto,
Maasai Mara
|
23
|
|
Umoja, Samburu
|
30
|
|
Unity village,
Samburu
|
20
|
|
KENYA URBAN
|
Kibera Slum
Interchange
Kenya*
|
8
|
Mathare Slum
Japan Centre
for Conflict Prevention*
|
40
|
|
Haruma Slum
|
8
|
|
Ngara
Life Bloom
Service*
|
70
|
|
Maai Mahui
Life Bloom
Services*
|
120
|
|
Nakuru
|
100
|
|
University of
Nairobi
Student Peace
Club*
|
40
|
|
UGANDA RURAL
|
Lutengo
Interchange
Uganda*
|
20
|
Lutengo
Rhomu Care*
|
20
|
|
Budhuumba
Initiative to
Support Needy Communities*
|
53
|
|
UGANDA URBAN
KAMPALA
|
Kayonga
Women’s Development Association*
|
25
|
Lezeria
Prison: Northern Ugandan Resettlement Project*
|
45
|
|
Lezeria Prison
Prison
Fellowship Uganda*
|
4
|
|
KENYA AND UGANDA
|
Individual
Interviews
|
36
|
TOTAL INTERVIEWS
|
675
|
*Host Organization/Partners/Mobilizers
Bibliography
Aharoni, A.
(2001) Woman: Creating a World Beyond War and Violence. Haifa: New Horizon
Ball, J. (2009) In
Their Own Voices: Learning from Women Peacebuilders in Uganda. Doctoral
Thesis. University of Guelph, Ontario
Bar-On, D. (2002) ‘Conciliation Through Storytelling: Beyond
Victimhood’. In: Salomon, G. and B. Nevo (eds.) Peace Education: The
Concept, Principles, and Practices Around the World. New Jersey: Lawrence
Earlbaum Associates
Barrett, E. (2007) Practices as Research Approaches to
Creative Arts Enquiry. New York: I.B. Tauris
Bell, C. and O’Rourke, C. (2007) ‘Does Feminism Need a Theory
of Transitional Justice? An Introductory Essay’. In: International Journal
of Transitional Justice. Vol. 1, pp.
23 - 44
Bohm, D. (1996) On Creativity. New York: Routledge
Classics
Boutros-Gali, B.
(1992) An Agenda for Peace. New York:
United Nations
Bresler, L.
(2006) ‘Embodied Narrative Inquiry: A Methodology of Connection’. In: Research Studies in Music Education Nov.
26, 2006
Brookfield, S. and Holst, J.D. (2010) Aesthetic Dimensions of Learning in Radicalizing Learning: Adult
Education for a Just World. San
Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass
Clarke, M.E. (1993) ‘Symptoms of Cultural Pathologies: A Hypothesis’.
In: Sandole, D. (ed.) Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice: Integration
and Application. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press
Clifford, J. (1998) Mappings. Princeton, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press
Dissanayake, E. (1995) Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes
From and Why. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press
Dobbs, S. (April 2005) ‘On Phoenix’ Wings’. The Society for the Arts in Healthcare
International Conference. Edmonton, Alberta
Escobar,
A. (2001) ‘Culture Sits In Places: Reflections on Globalism and Subaltern
Strategies of Localization’ In: Political
Geography 20, pp. 139 – 174
Espinoza, A. E. (2004) ‘Trials and Tribulations for Social Justice’.
In: Ibanez-Carrasco, F. and E. Meiners (eds.) Public Acts and Desires: Curriculum
and Social Change. Florence, Kentucky: Routledge
Ethiopia. African
Women and Peace Support Group. (2004) ‘Liberian Women Peacemakers’. Trenton,
New Jersey; Asmara, Ethiopia: Africa World Press
Freedman, J. and
Coombs, G. (1996) Narrative Therapy: The
Social Construction of Preferred Realities. New York: Norton
Friere, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New
York: Continuum International Publishing
Goodman, A., Klein,
E. and Wallace, R. (2002) ‘Inter-Cultural Community-Based Peacebuilding: A Comparative
Pilot Study’. Research paper prepared for the Canadian Centre for Foreign
Policy Development
Gray, N., Ore de Bohm, C., Fansworth, A. and Wolf, D. (2010)
‘Integration of Creative Expression into Community-based Participatory Research
and Health Promotion with Native American’. In: Family Community Health,
Vol. 33, No., 3, pp. 186-192
Hammersley, M. (1990) Reading Ethnographic Research: A
Critical Guide. London: Longman
Harman, J. (1997)
Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic
Books
Herbst, P.K.R. (1992) ‘From Helpless Victim to Empowered
Survivor: Oral History as a Treatment for Survivors of Torture’. In: Women
and Therapy. Vol. 13(1-2), pp.141-
154
Hinton, A.L. and
O’Neill, K.L. (eds.) (2009) Genocide:
Truth, Memory, and Representation. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Ibanez-Carrasco, F. (2004) ‘Desire and Betrayal in
Community-Based Research’. In: Ibanez-Carrasco, F. and Meiners, E. (eds.), Public
Acts and Desires: Curriculum and Social Change. Florence, Kentucky:
Routledge. pp. 35 - 56
Kenya.
Government of Kenya. (2010) Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Retrieved from http://www.tjrckenya.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=518&Itemid=41
Kenya. (2010)
Kenyan Truth Justice and Reconciliation Act of 2008 (revised edition 2010)
Kenya. Nairobi
Peace Initiative and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (2002) ‘Strategic
and Responsive Evaluation of Peace-building’.
Nairobi: Nairobi Peace Initiative
Knowles, G. and Cole, A. (2008) Handbook of Arts in
Qualitative Research. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Leavy, P. (2009) Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research
Practice. New York: Guildford Press
Lederach, J.P. (2005) The Moral Imagination: The Art and
Soul of Building Peace. New York: Oxford University Press
-----------(2003)
The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Intercourse, Pennsylvania:
Good Books
Mazurana, D. and
McKay, S. (2000) Women and Peacebuilding.
Montreal: International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development,
2000
------- (1999) ‘Women
and Peacebulding’. In: International Centre for Human Rights and
Democratic Development. pp. 1 – 39, 91 – 95
McNiff, S. (1992) Arts
as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination. Boston, Massachusetts:
Shambhala Publications
Mohanty, C. T. (2003) ‘Under Western Eyes Revisited:
Feminist Solidarity through Anti-capitalist Struggles’. In: Chicago Journal.
University of Chicago Press. Vol.
28. (2). pp. 499-535
Mollica, R.
(2006) Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to
Hope and Recovery in a Violent World. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Books
Niaz, U., Chandra, P.S., Herman, H., Fisher, J., Kastrup,
M., Rondon, M.B. and Okasha, A. (2009) ‘Women and Disasters’. In: Contemporary
Topics in Women's Mental Health: Global Perspectives in a Changing Society.
pp. 369-386
Orbinski, J.
(2008) An Imperfect Offering. Toronto,
Ontario: Doubleday
Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (2008) The Sage Handbook of
Action Research: Participatory Inquiry and Practice. London: Sage
Publications
Redekop, V. N.
(2002) From Violence to Blessing. Ottawa,
Ontario: Novalis
Schirch, L.
(2004) The little book of conflict transformation. Intercourse,
Pennsylvania: Good Books
------- (2005) Ritual
and Symbol in Peacebuilding. Bloomfield, Connecticut: Kumarian Press
------- (2002) ‘Women Transforming Patriarchy: Feminist
Ritual as Peace-building’. In: Canadian Woman Studies. 22(2), pp.142-147
------- (Spring 2008) ‘Strategic Peacbuilding: State of the
Field’. In: Peace Prints; South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding. Vol. 1, No 1
Schirch, L.
and Sewak, M. (2005) Issue Paper: ‘The Role of Women in Peacebuilding’. Global Partnership for the Prevention of
Armed Conflict. Retrieved from
Shank, M. and Schirch, L. (April 1998) ‘Strategic Arts-Based
Peacebuilding’. In: Peace and Change Peace History Society and Peace and
Justice Studies Association. Vol. 33,
(2)
Skidmore, M. (2003) ‘Midnight Fear, Vulnerability and
Terror-making in Urban Burma (Myanmar)’. In: American Ethnologist. Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 5-21
Spivak, G.C. (1996) ‘Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography
(1995)’. In: Landry, D. and MacLean, G. (eds.) The Spivak Reader: Selected
works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York: Routledge
Staub, E., Pearlmann, A. and Balali. B. (2006) ‘Psychological
Recovery, Reconciliation and the Prevention of New Violence: An Approach and
its uses in Rwanda’. In: Hart, B. (ed.) Peacebuilding in Traumatized
Societies. New York: University of America Press
van Tongeren, P. (1999) ‘Reflections on
Peacebuilding’. In: European
Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation. People Building Peace. Utrecht, The Netherlands: European Platform
for Conflict Prevention and Transformation. pp. 124-127
Walker, M.U. (2009) ‘Gender and Violence in Focus: A Background
for Gender Justice’. In: Reparations.
Marquette University. pp. 18- 62 Retrieved from
http://epublications.marquette.edu/phil_fac/145/
Winslade, J. and
Homer, G. (2001) Narrative Meditation: A
New Approach to Conflict Resolution. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass
[1] Almost every person I met
in the three months I was in East Africa either housed, educated, or
financially contributed to extended family members or children orphaned by
political or tribal violence or by HIV/AIDS.
[2] The human rights violations perpetrated
by government are being redressed through Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
Commissions in over 39 countries worldwide.
[3] “Defilement” is a term used when a virgin
child has been raped and it is regarded as more serious than rape. In Kenya, it
is very difficult to prove rape when a woman is sexually active because the
responsibility falls to her to prove lack of consent (Kenyan Truth, Justice and
Reconciliation Commission 2010, transcripts).
[4] The Maasai (also spelled Masai) are part
of the Nolita ethnic group of tribes, which includes the Samburu, Turkana,
Kalenjin and Luo. They are traditionally pastoralists and
semi-nomadic people who live in Kenya and northern Tanzania.
[5] Although this cultural ritual is illegal in
Kenya, and banned by the World Health Organization, it is the women who want to
preserve it because it was done to them. They fear that their daughters and
grand-daughters will not be acceptable to marry if the procedure is not carried
out.
[6] It is thought that this is her age because
Maasai do not keep birth records but rather make reference to when someone was
born by event (for instance, they may say “she was born during the rains when
the mzungu, or foreigner, with the
lion hair visited”). Doctors examined Hellen and by, looking at her physical
health in conjunction with her school records, they were able to estimate her
age.
[7] The children wear traditional Maasai
clothing three days a week and a school uniform two days a week, thereby
embracing the traditional rituals of the tribe.
[8] In the 2010 revised Kenyan Constitution,
however, these laws have been changed, and women now have inheritance rights. In
spite of this, law and practice are two different things and it takes a while
for people to become knowledgeable of their rights.
[9] By critical thought, Bohm (1996) refers
to both our conscious intellect and our feelings, desires, emotions and
intentions, or our “active response of memory in every phase of life”.
[10] For details about this, please see http://interchange4peace.org/?p=309.
[11] For instance, the bible was translated
into Kikuyu before any other tribal language in Kenya. In addition, when the
colonials left, much of the land that had historically belonged to another
tribe, was given to the Kikuyu. This has compounded the tribal hostilities.
[12] This has
changed with the new Constitution of 2010 (which mandates equity between the
sexes) but the cultural practice has yet to catch up with the new legislation.
[13] Unlike men, women have more complex
relationships with their tribes. Frequently women are married into a tribe that
is not their own. Although this is not the case with Maasai in general, it does
occur in most tribes in Kenya.
[14]
In larger group
settings where there were time constraints, and in view of the number of
participants, I would ask the three specified questions and each woman was
given a piece of paper on which to write her response. They were asked to write
it in the language they were most comfortable with and if illiterate were
invited, if they wished, to have someone transcribe their words.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment will be published once it has been moderated