Schooling for conflict transformation: a case study from northern Uganda

AbstractThis paper explores the means by which social institutions located in African communities that are deeply and violently polarized along ethnic-related lines, navigate the institutional role and identity within such a local environment. Utilizing a case study of ethno-political conflict in the Ile-Ife and Modakeke communities of South Western Nigeria, the paper investigates how the local academy has sought to survive as a zone of diversities located in host cit(ies) with rigidly structured mythicohistories and conflicting geopolitical claims. Through this exploration of the paradox of the uneasy cohabitation of contested realities and the quest for postwar healing and rehabilitation, the paper unveils the unusual local interpretation, rejection and reconstruction of the concept of neutrality, and highlights the challenges, both philosophical and concrete, which confront the academy. The findings of the study suggest a need to cautiously, but decidedly, resituate the university as a civically engaged arena for the creative re-envisioning of diversity and cultural pluralism and ultimately for local and national conflict transformation in Nigeria.

Download Full-text

Education for Building Bridges and Strengthening Physical Infrastructural Linkages in South Asia: A Case Study of South Asian University

Global Regional Review ◽

10.31703/.2020(v-i).28 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol V (I) ◽

pp. 255-261

Author(s):

Salma malik ◽

Shabana Fayyaz

Keyword(s):

South Asian ◽

Education Institution ◽

Conflict Transformation ◽

Peace Building ◽

Equitable Access ◽

Regional Politics ◽

Regional Center ◽

South Asian Community ◽

Common Vision

Multi-track diplomacy provides an effective theoretical model, which considers education as an important track integral in ushering peace, building bridges, creating the necessary infrastructure, changing mindsets and ultimately enabling a transformation from conflict prone to peace-oriented societies. Thus, giving rise to the idea of a regional higher education institution, primarily to build a regional center of excellence, with a shared common vision, that would help create a South Asian community and provide equitable access to students from all over the region. However, functioning for a decade now, the South Asian University has not been able to achieve many of the aims associated with it, largely due to the inherent hurdles and regional politics. This study will highlight the impediments faced within the region for utilizing education as an effective bridge builder and agent for positive conflict transformation & further examine the SAU’s ability to transcend the deeply entrenched conflict narrative.

Download Full-text

Children born of conflict-related sexual violence within armed groups: a case study of northern Uganda

Research Handbook on Child Soldiers ◽

10.4337/9781788114486.00021 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 240-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Myriam Denov

Keyword(s):

Sexual Violence ◽

Northern Uganda ◽

Armed Groups

Download Full-text

Being Normal: Stigmatization of Lord’s Resistance Army Returnees as ‘Moral Experience’ in Post-war Northern Uganda

Journal of Refugee Studies ◽

10.1093/jrs/fez117 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna Macdonald ◽

Raphael Kerali

Keyword(s):

Social Control ◽

Social Exclusion ◽

Moral Experience ◽

Northern Uganda ◽

Ethnographic Methods ◽

Multiple Functions ◽

Lord's Resistance Army ◽

Post War ◽

Lord’S Resistance Army

Abstract The literature on Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) returnees in Acholiland, northern Uganda tells us that those who returned from the rebel group are likely to experience stigma and social exclusion. While the term is deployed frequently, ‘stigma’ is not a well-developed concept and most of the evidence we have comes from accounts of returnees themselves. Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers’, this article theorizes stigmatization as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair. Through interview-based and ethnographic methods, it finds that stigmatization of LRA returnees takes many forms and serves multiple functions, calling into question whether this catch-all term actually obscures more than it illuminates. While stigmatization is usually practised as a form of ‘social control’, its function can be ‘reintegrative’ rather than purely exclusionary. Through the northern Uganda case study, this article seeks to advance conceptual and empirical understanding of the manifestations and functions of stigmatization in spaces of return, challenging the logic underpinning those interventions that seek to reduce it.

Download Full-text