A Peace of Africa
He describes interesting cultural
differences. For example, in the U.S. we have women’s rights, but not children’s
rights. In Kenya children are given the right to make their own decisions from
birth. Gladys’ niece Gloria was six when she decided she wanted to stay with
Gladys and David, rather than her own parents. After one week her mother
visited and asked if she wanted to return home and she said, “No,” until a few
days later when she felt like returning home.
Zarembka debunks two stereotypes
of Africans as “simple, happy, over-sexed, singing/dancing person” or “a
superstitious, violent savage full of tribal hatreds”. He shows how the international
media uses these underlying, unconscious beliefs of Americans to sensationalize
their stories, which gives the impression that Africa’s problems are “based on
flawed human characteristics … immune to improvement … reinforcing rather than
solving the problems that do exist.”
One big issue in Africa is that
when problems occur, only the emergency situation is resolved, not the underlying
causes that continue to fester. When one group that has experienced oppression
becomes the ruling group, they might use the same oppressive tactics. Both
individuals and societies need healing work to recover from trauma. In the U.S.
only the individual recovery is dealt with, but the community must heal as well
and this only happens gradually over a long period of time.
The African Great Lakes Initiative
has conducted trauma healing work in Burundi and Rwanda after the genocide that
occurred in 1993. A team was trained at the Quaker Peace Center in South Africa
where they had experience with the struggle to overcome apartheid and the truth
and reconciliation work that followed. From that background, they developed the
Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities workshops that use the conflict
resolution techniques of the Alternatives to Violence Projects (AVP), but found
that the deep emotion trauma was more complex than just conflict resolution.
The workshops are based upon the Quaker concept that there is good in everyone,
that both the victims and the perpetrators of violence experience trauma and
need healing, that healing from trauma requires that everyone’s inner good and
wisdom be shared with others, and that trauma recovery in individuals and
building peace in a community are connected, so both must be done simultaneously.
Peace-making happens when revenge is supplanted with forgiveness, and
forgiveness is something granted by the victim, whether the perpetrator asks
for it or not.
I recommend this book highly
because this perspective on peace-making can be applied everywhere. The
examples given are heart-warming and inspiring, great lessons for all of us. The
book is available at Quakerbooks, Friends United Press, and <davidzarembka.com>.