Round Four, Saturday, April 7, 3:00 – 4:00
David Zarembka
(Summary Notes by Elizabeth DuVerlie)
David started out by saying, "I am often asked: What we are doing in Africa: is it appropriate? Is it what we should be doing? These are condescending questions, because it assumes Africans are incapable of deciding what they want from us. We can only go to Africa with what we have to offer, and they can choose what makes sense for them."
History of the Alternatives to Violence Program in this area—very different from the justice issues just discussed in Helena Cobban’s workshop. Initially, 3 people from Uganda got the basic (3 stages) AVP training in England.
Jan. 1999, first delegation, went to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya
Feb. 2000, a larger delegation got more training in AVP in Uganda. Now the country has 8 people doing AVP in various key parts of the country. So far, they have done a lot. (And moreover, through Bob Barnes, who was doing the training, the Lutherans are now involved, as a result of their having expressed an interest in it.)
For Rwanda, a different kind of training was needed. In Feb-Mar 2001, they sent a team of 7 to Rwanda for AVP training there: 3 Ugandans, 3 Americans, 1 British. It involved both Hutus and Tutsis who survived the genocide and Tutsis who had come back from outside (mostly from Tanzania, and who are now the present leaders of the country). Two Burundians and two Congolese also came to attend the training (the full set of three workshops). They trained 28 facilitators.
The current plan is to put together another 10 AVP workshops in the coming months or even 25 in the coming year. The goal is to go into Rwandan prisons—there are 112,000 prisoners being held, accused of involvement in the genocide. Those who survive prison will eventually get out, and will tend to want to be violent. This training, by the way, is entirely voluntary for them.
The AVP style of training is completely participatory, with no "right answers." Despite the background in the country/culture of didactic teaching and hierarchical society, this is very well received. Also, it strikes at the root of the genocide. The genocide had worked so well because it was completely planned and carried out through the hierarchical structure. (It was part of the communal "work" structure!) The government wanted to implicate every single Hutu in the country. (If you didn’t obey, you would be killed.)
And then the Tutsi government told the int’l community, "These are just long-standing ethnic hatreds." AVP abandons the hierarchical structure and is totally based on having a choice about what you do. "The thugs rise to the top" phenomenon is the kind of cycle they’re trying to break through the AVP process.
Q&R (Question/Comment and Response)
Q. Does the government find this non-authoritarian approach threatening?
R. So far, not yet.
Q. Could anything have been done to prevent the genocide?
R. Oh, yes, plenty. David then gave details.
Q. Is there a way of doing AVP through non-Quakers?
R. In Burundi they asked for trauma healing work. Did we have the capability? It is not something Quakers have traditionally done. A team of 3 did three workshops: a German Quaker, a Mennonite from South Africa, and David. Predominantly women participated, because women were going to bear the brunt of the healing work in their country.
Summer 1999, it began with the Kamenge Reconciliation and Reconstruction Project, to rebuild a guesthouse. But they also requested a Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Center. This was begun in October 2000 and is ongoing. Training is coming out of the Quaker Peace Center in South Africa.
If you don’t start with trauma, you will never be able to move on to peacemaking work. The current generation of 18 year olds was only 11 during the genocide, so their whole adolescence has been affected by this period, and their healing will be key to their adulthood.
David recommended reading Alison DesForges, Let None Live to Tell the Story to learn all you could want to know about the Rwandan genocide.