Keeping a Cultural Perspective in Reconciliation Work

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Introduction 2 What is culture? 3 Conflict and culture 4 The use of local resources to promote peace 5 The erosion of culture 6 The use of culturally appropriate interventions 7 Conclusion 8 Source

Introduction

In the section 3.1, Planning a Reconciliation Programme, emphasis is placed on the importance of researching and using culturally appropriate interventions in reconciliation and conflict resolution. With the increase in internal conflicts around the world there is a new urgency to conflict resolution and a new emphasis has been given to the importance of cultural awareness in the process of resolving conflict. Research in this area began in the early 1980s and, of course, much earlier in the field of anthropology but is still far from complete. As Caritas workers, we must be sensitive to the cultural dimensions of conflict and conflict resolution and also be aware of culturally informed intervention strategies.

What is culture?

Culture may appear a simple construct but is, in fact, an enormously complex variable. It is the result of a set of beliefs and behaviours, both implicit and explicit, developed over time by a society which are fundamental to its existence and organisation. These learned attributes, through which experience is interpreted, are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society through a process of inculturation.

When we think of culture, we often think of elements like language, dress, food, art and literature, symbols, and other customs and habits. We must also understand that values, beliefs and attitudes are an integral part of culture (e.g. individual autonomy or collective community, competition or co-operation), as well as the social rules and moral obligations which dictate a group’s behaviour. In addition, the political structure (institutions of power and authority) and economic organisation (the way people gain and use their livelihood) of a particular society, its social rules and relationships including kinship, marriage and gender obligations and its religious inheritance all combine to form a society’s culture.

Culture shapes the way people who identify with a given group perceive the world and represents the explanations and predictions about the course of human behaviour. Culture is central to who we are and, therefore, central to understanding and interpreting how we do everything, from working to playing, even to how we approach conflict and conflict resolution.

Conflict and culture

Conflict exists in all societies and, consequently, has a cultural dimension. This dimension reveals the values, attitudes and ideologies which underpin conflict and the regulation of conflict in any society.

While we recognise the fact that culture and cultural differences can undoubtedly be sources of conflict, our particular emphasis here is to focus on how differences reflect the ways in which conflicts are acted out and resolved.

In analysing a conflict it is important to take into account the various cultural factors that influence the parties’ conflict behaviours. Our purpose here is to highlight the need to understand the cultural conceptions of conflict and develop culturally appropriate strategies for reconciliation.

Every society has developed techniques and procedures by which disputes are regulated and settled. Mechanisms vary greatly from one culture to another, depending on how people see their relationships with each other. This worldview includes how conflict and its resolution are perceived.

Conflict resolution in Western societies is generally a formal affair with legally binding agreements being reached through an impartial third party. In many other societies conflict resolution and control of conflict are not always identified or supported by formal institutions but are, nonetheless, binding in their own cultural way. In other words, the need for social harmony determines the way in which disputes are managed and the extent to which conflict resolution is legally, morally, or culturally binding.

The use of local resources to promote peace

Much international attention is focused on the destruction caused by war and the devastation of peoples who require food, shelter and health services. The appeal for outside agencies and resources to respond to the need to alleviate suffering is common to all conflict areas.

This appeal to outside agencies often includes an appeal for peacemaking and peacebuilding. We forget, however, that the greatest resource for building peace and sustaining peace in the long term is always rooted in the people and their culture. The most important aspect in the development of a framework for sustaining reconciliation is the building of a peace constituency using the resources within the community, including traditional leaders and community representatives and traditional methods for resolving conflict and reconciling communities. People with a vision for peace often emerge from within a community representing an invaluable and irreplaceable resource for moving towards reconciliation and sustaining solutions to the conflict.

In order to develop and support a peace constituency, there is a need to focus attention on discovering and eliciting the resources, modalities, and mechanisms for building peace that exist within a community’s cultural setting.

The erosion of culture

We should, however, keep in mind that there are several factors which have a negative impact on culture and lead to the erosion of traditional cultural authority, cultural values and ways of life, and which may reduce the impact of traditional means of dealing with conflict.

• Western influenced modernisation has many negative effects on traditional cultures. The emphasis placed on western education, for example, has moved many away from traditional and cultural forms of education. It has led to a large migration of young people from their homes in order to attend school. Those who wish to continue education at a higher level move to the larger urban areas where they are further distanced from traditional practices and values. Many of those who cannot achieve their educational goals find themselves in a cultural no man’s land where they do not want to go back, and are unable to move forward. They gravitate towards the more cosmopolitan cities and towns in the hope of eking out an existence. Along the way many cultural values are eroded.

• The worldwide trend towards urbanisation caused by industrialisation has affected most countries. This impacts on traditional cultures as the hope of better economic futures attracts large numbers of people to the urban areas and continues the cycle of cultural erosion.

• The impact of war itself has disrupted the traditional life that communities have enjoyed for centuries. The massive displacement of peoples caused by modern wars has led to the abandonment (or, at least, neglect), of many cultural practices and institutions, many of which may be specific to the locality that has to be forcibly abandoned. The development of coping mechanisms to ensure survival takes precedence over everything else.

• One of the weapons of modern warfare is the deliberate targeting and destruction of cultural institutions which connect people to their traditions, their history and their way of being. This can be done by destroying the physical institutions of the community: houses of worship and sacred shrines or by eliminating respected leaders or the cultural authority within the community.

The use of culturally appropriate interventions

It may be an important part of the work of Caritas agencies to help re-establish the cultural structures which have been destroyed by war and which could play a vital role in post-conflict reconciliation. It is part of the process of providing space wherein people can reconcile among themselves and with others.

• One example would be helping people bury their dead. Relatives, friends and community members die during the conflict. Some will have died indirectly as a result of violence or because of illness, neglect or hardship. Some will have disappeared during the course of the conflict, executed by the regime or a faction. Some will have died violently, their deaths unrecorded and the circumstances unknown to their families. Enabling those who have lost loved ones to grieve and bury their dead in a culturally appropriate manner is an important part of reconciliation.

• Another activity of post-conflict resolution is the restoration of the cultural structures that support reconciliation in the community. Where there are such structures, there are traditional reconcilers or people in the community who are recognised as mediators or whose responsibility it is to maintain harmony in the community. The skills that these people employ are designed to resolve normal and everyday conflicts that occur in the community and which threaten, to a greater or lesser degree, the stability of that community. These skills may not be adequate to deal with the kinds of conflicts that will inevitably arise as a result of war. Reconciliation work may include the strengthening of the skills of these traditional reconcilers, which would enable them to deal more effectively with post-war conflict in the community.

• Closely allied to the above is enabling people to gain access to justice. The state judicial system is considerably weakened as a result of war with personnel fleeing or being discredited and institutions (such as courts and court records) being damaged or destroyed. Besides, people returning to their communities after war-induced displacement do not have the resources to pursue genuine grievances through the state legal system which, at best, is time consuming and costly. Many traditional societies have their own legal system, not recognised by the state but, nonetheless, having authority within the community. It may be important to help re-establish these traditional courts and promote their recognition by the state. Conflicts resulting in various ways from war should be solved as locally as possible, as quickly as possible and in a culturally-appropriate manner. This is an important peacebuilding process.

• One very disturbing statistic in modern warfare is the increase in the number of civilian casualties, in some cases up to 95% of all casualties, indicating that the civilian populations in internal conflicts are deliberately targeted as victims. This, in turn, has led to an increase in the demand for psychosocial programmes designed to help traumatised people cope with the consequences of war and the impact of violence on their lives. In helping victims of violence cope with trauma, it is essential to use culturally appropriate strategies rather than imported western techniques. A simple example is the fact that western psychosocial rehabilitation is very much on an individual basis whereas many other cultures are more community focused, whereby healing takes place within the context of the community and of interdependent relationships.

• Another example might be the way in which child victims of trauma are treated. In the west the approach may be to institutionalise children under specialised care. Other cultures would see it as a priority to reunite the child with his/her family (or other community members) and allow healing to take place in this context. Helping families and communities to recognise symptoms of trauma and enabling them to help the victims of trauma in a culturally sensitive manner is essential.

• One of the most important tasks that Caritas can perform is the creation of space in a community whereby healing may take place. Each victim of violence has a story to tell which may best be told, not to an individual counsellor, but in the context of an empathetic and understanding community.

• The provision of training in conflict resolution (so long as it supplements and enhances traditional conflict resolution and does not replace it) for social workers, primary health care workers, development workers, teachers and other people involved in community type work would also be an invaluable contribution to post war healing.

Conclusion

It is important for each Caritas agency to examine carefully the various cultural influences that might impact on its own reconciliation work. This may involve an investigation of the cultural realities that have had a bearing on the conflict itself or in determining culturally appropriate interventions that may help the reconciliation process. Keep a culturally informed perspective on all aspects of reconciliation work.

Source

Starken, B. (ed.), et al., Working for Reconciliation: A Caritas Handbook, Vatican City: Caritas Internationalis, 1999.