The Eritrea Community-Based Theatre Project

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (52) ◽  
pp. 386-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Plastow
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The People ◽  
Freedom Fighters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rural Context ◽  
First Time

Following Jane Plastow's contextual history of Eritrean theatre in NTQ50, Paul Warwick gave an account in the following issue of its previously undocumented role during the thirty-year Eritrean struggle for independence, describing the efforts of the freedom fighters to create theatre for the first time in a rural context. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front not only deployed theatre as a propaganda weapon, but also recognized its value as an agent for educating the people in matters ranging from women's rights to the benefits of modern medicine and farming methods: and with victory came measures further to stimulate the growth and development of theatre as part of Eritrean culture. Jane Plastow, in this third and concluding article, takes up the story with the invitation issued by the new government to her and her colleagues to initiate the ‘Eritrea Community-Based Theatre Project’, in an attempt both to widen the perspectives of Eritrean actors and to draw upon all relevant traditions, African and European, in developing a popular but distinctive theatre for the people. In addition to her role as director of the project, Jane Plastow is a lecturer at Leeds University, having worked in theatre for some years in a number of other African nations.

Theatre and the Eritrean Struggle for Freedom: the Cultural Troupes of the People's Liberation Front

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (51) ◽  
pp. 221-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Warwick
Keyword(s):  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Previous Issue ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Rural Context ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
First Time

The thirty-year Eritrean struggle for independence – during which a small and poorly-armed guerrilla force eventually triumphed over a highly-equipped enemy, supported by foreign powers – is also the story of a social revolution in which the theatre played its part. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front not only employed theatre as a propaganda weapon, but also recognized its value as an agent for educating its people – concerning education and women's rights, and on the benefits of modern medicine and farming methods – and with victory came measures to stimulate the growth and development of theatre as part of Eritrean culture. Following Jane Plastow's contextual history of Eritrean theatre in our previous issue, Paul Warwick here makes the first attempt to reconstruct its undocumented role in the independence struggle, and the efforts of the rebels to create theatre for the first time in a rural context. A graduate of the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, Paul Warwick made this the subject of his research when he visited Eritrea in the summer of 1995 as part of the Eritrea Community Based Theatre Project. Since his return he has collaborated on a translation of The Other War by Alemseged Tesfai, written during the independence struggle, and given a reading at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in December 1996: this is due for publication later this year in an anthology of African drama from Methuen. Paul Warwick is currently Artistic Director of the Unlimited Theatre Company based in Leeds.

Education as Arikara Spiritual Renewal and Cultural Evolution

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
KuuNUx TeeRIt Kroupa
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Old People ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Universe

In May 2009, the Arikara returned to the land of their ancestors along the Missouri River in South Dakota. For the first time in more than a half century, a Medicine Lodge was built for ceremony. The lodge has returned from its dormant state to regain its permanent place in Arikara culture. This event will be remembered as a significant moment in the history of the Arikara because it symbolizes a new beginning and hope for the people. Following this historic event, Arikara spiritual leader Jasper Young Bear offered to share his experience and deep insight into Arikara thought: You have to know that the universe is the Creator's dream, the Creator's mind, everything from the stars all the way to the deepest part of the ocean, to the most microscopic particle of the creation, to the creation itself, on a macro level, on a micro level. You have to understand all of those aspects to understand what the lodge represents. The lodge is a fractal, a symbolic representation of the universe itself. How do we as human beings try to make sense of that? That understanding, of how the power in the universe flows, was gifted to us through millennia of prayer and cultural development… It is important for us to internalize our stories, internalize the star knowledge, internalize those things and make that your way, make that your belief, because we're going to play it out inside the lodge. It only lives by us guys interacting with it and praying with it and bringing it to life… We're going to play out the wise sayings of the old people… So you see that it's an Arikara worldview. A learning process of how the universe functions is what you're actually experiencing [inside the Medicine Lodge]. What the old people were describing was the functioning of how we believed the universe behaves. And we had a deep, deep understanding of what that meant and how it was for us. So that's what you're actually seeing in the Medicine Lodge.

scholarly journals CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE UNIFICATION OF LITHUANIAN ANTI-SOVIET PARTISANS DURING 1946-1949

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-55
Author(s):  
D. Juodis
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
State Building ◽  
World War ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
The People ◽  
Freedom Fighters ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unified Command

In 2019 comes the 70th anniversary of the founding of LLKS – the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters (Lietuvos Laisvės Kovos Sąjūdi). This underground organization had been founded in February of 1949. It united the people, who had been fighting against the Soviet power in Lithuania. Heads of the LLKS were active partisans and they called themselves freedom fighters. In the same time, other people called partisans ‘forest men’, ‘greens’ etc. The main purpose of this article – to consider the process of unification of the forces of Lithuanian partisans under unified command and to highlight the main circumstances of this process. The article is based on the archival materials and modern research writings. So far, very few research papers about Lithuanian anti-Soviet struggle have been published outside Lithuania. That’s why one of the goals of the author – to provide the information about this episode of the modern history of Lithuania to Ukrainian readers. Perhaps, the similarity with Ukrainian national insurgent movement during the 2nd World War will be found. The final ambition of the armed struggle of Lithuanian partisans was the creation of free democratic Lithuania. Partisans considered the mistakes of Lithuanian state-building during the interwar period, such as authoritarian regime and weak social politics. Freedom fighters hoped to get help from the West countries – Great Britain of the USA – through the mediation of Lithuanian emigrants. The unification of partisans was difficult because of the activity of infiltrated Soviet security agents. The chronological framework of the article covers the period of 1946-1949, when where held the main events of the unification of partisans. Active partisan struggle against the Soviet in Lithuania power lasted to 1953.

scholarly journals REVIEW: Old abortion law still holds sway

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Sue Kedgley
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
History Of

Fighting to Choose is a fascinating, meticulously researched history of the struggle to liberalise New Zealand’s abortion laws. It examines why there is still no right to have an abortion in a progressive country like New Zealand, which has a strong record of promoting women’s rights, and why it is that an unsatisfactory abortion law, that was passed 35 years ago, is still on the statute books.

2. Feminist and Activist Approaches to Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ackerly Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Political History ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores the theoretical and political history of human rights that emerges out of the struggles that have been waged by feminists and other non-elites. It first considers the bases for the moral legitimacy of human rights and challenges to those arguments before discussing three aspects of feminist approaches to human rights: their criticism of some aspects of the theory and practice of human rights, their rights claims, and their conceptual contributions to a theory of human rights. It then examines the ways in which feminists and other activists for marginalized groups have used human rights in their struggles and how such struggles have in turn shaped human rights theory. It also analyses theoretical and historical objections to the universality of human rights based on cultural relativism. Finally, it shows that women’s rights advocates want rights enjoyment and not merely entitlements.

scholarly journals COMPETING NARRATIVES: HISTORIES OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN IRAQ, 1910–58

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 466a-466a
Author(s):  
Noga Efrati
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women’S History

The history of the women's movement in Iraq before 1958 has received little attention in contemporary scholarly literature published in English. Moreover, when surveying the brief accounts in secondary sources, one is struck by their inconsistency. Upon closer examination, two historiographical approaches emerge. One primarily follows the development of women's activities sanctioned by the regime, focusing on organizations and activists associated with the Iraqi Women's Union, established in 1945. The second approach traces developments and organizations linked with the underground League for the Defense of Women's Rights, founded in 1952. This essay argues that members of the rival union and league constructed two competing narratives in presenting the history of the women's movement in pre-1958 Iraq. The article unpacks these two different narratives as they were originally articulated by activists in order to piece together a more elaborate portrayal of the evolution of the early Iraqi women's movement. The essay also explores how scholars have reproduced these narratives, arguing that both activists and researchers were active participants in a “war of narratives” that left women's history the unfortunate casualty

Women in Burundi

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Saiget
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Women's Organizations ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women’S Organizations

The history of women is characterized by nonlinear and gendered social, political and economic processes. In particular, the history of Burundian women’s collective actions has been embedded in the contested and violent trajectory of the Burundian state. Burundian women’s collective actions refer to a broad range of interactions: from protest, and social mobilizations to institutionalized actions. These interactions have been shaped by both global and local social structures, and by complex conflictive and cooperative relations between the Burundian state, political parties, women’s organizations and movements, and external actors (colonial powers, international organizations, non-governmental organizations). Women’s experiences in Burundi’s pre-colonial patriarchal society are little known, with the exception of the glorified Queen-mothers. German and Belgian colonial policies (1886–1962) reinforced and rigidified pre-colonial social constructions of ethnic and gendered social identities and roles, assigning ordinary women to the domestic sphere and sanctioning their social inferior status along with ethnic lines (Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa). After Burundi’s independence, the one-party military regime organized and supervised the first forms of women’s political participation through the Union des femmes burundaises (1962–1980s). The democratic transition of the early 1990s led to the creation of autonomous women’s organizations and networks, which were extended during the civil war (1993–2005). Burundian women actively contributed to national and grassroots peace processes. In particular, a delegation of seven Burundian women participated in the negotiations held in Arusha (1998–2000), with observer status. Post-conflict struggles for women’s rights posed the central issue of women’s political representation, with the adoption of gender quotas from 2005, but left aside other issues after 2010, such as women’s right to inherit land. In Spring 2015, Burundian women were present in protests against the president’s third mandate; with the women’s march being the first to reach the city center in March 2015. Women’s organizations kept mobilizing towards women’s rights after the electoral crisis, in exile or within Burundi, though facing important financial constraints and political repression.

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