The Importance of Storytelling for Peace-

Building in Post-Conflict States

Jan Stewart, University of WinnipegMarc Kuly, Winnipeg School Division

In a fractured age, where cynicism is god, here is a possible heresy: We live by stories; we also live in them…

We live stories that either give our life meaning or negate it with meaninglessness.

If we change the stories we live by, quite possibly we change our lives.

Ben Okri, in Thomas King’s Truth about Stories, 2003

Children and Conflict

The Context of Uganda

Research Purposes

Collaborate with researchers in Uganda to develop best practices and teaching resources to support children who have been affected by war.

Explore the common needs between our North American and African contexts.

Research Questions

1. What are the major needs of war-affected children in northern Uganda?

2. What are challenges to the educational community in addressing these needs?

3. How might educators more effectively respond to the psychosocial and educational needs of children who have been affected by war?

Figure 1. Bioecological Model

THE INDIVIDUAL

(age, sex, health)

MESOSYSTEM

EXOSYSTEM

CHRONOSYSTEM changes to the person or the environment over time

teachers

place of worship

family peers

community members

relatives

social agencies

school board

legal services

refugee centres

extended family

mass media

health services

friends of family employment

centres

workplace

after school programs

Non-government organizations

MACROSYSTEM

MICROSYSTEM

Research Design, Method, & Analysis

Individual interviews and focus group interviews

240 participants from northern Uganda

Interviews were intended to capture how the participants defined their experiences and constructed their post-war reality

Data was analyzed for themes and trends, coded and interpreted within the context of its collection

Findings and Discussion: Storytelling

Story emerged as an overarching and connecting theme in the data

Storytelling – in a variety of forms and contexts – was a means to:

connect the communityeducate children sustain culture heal from the effects of trauma

Forms and Contexts

Expressive Cultural Arts

Mass Media

Traditional Culture

Healing, Therapy, and Personal Counselling

Storytelling: Expressive Cultural Arts

Storytelling: Expressive Cultural Arts

Storytelling: Expressive Cultural Arts

Includes Music, Dance, Drama, & Visual Arts

Occur in school and NGO settings

Redevelop children’s understanding of cultural connection, community connection and friendship

Storytelling: Expressive Cultural Arts

Dance and Story

And normally all our different dances have their, their what? - their meanings attached, and there is something very particular that, you know, normally you gain insight, you know….So it's a way of helping people come back to their normal routine, look at themselves still positively, and still discover something they are able to do.

Storytelling: Mass Media

Storytelling: Mass Media

Radio is a powerful and pervasive medium

Affordable and Accessible

Storytelling included Radio Wang-Oo’s, Talk Shows and Come Home Shows

Anonymity of the medium allows children to ask questions they might not in person

Virtual community acted as a first step towards reunifying communities

Storytelling: Mass Media

It was so good. People were so attentive. We used to give them a call back. “Can you advise these children?” And people used to say, now that you have come home please don’t think of going back.” They hear what they had been through.

The children would say, “No I don’t want to go back, I want to be sent to school, to technical school” and that sort of thing….These people who came from outside wanted assurance. They would not be mocked, mishandled, they would not be mistreated.

So when we invited call back people, they were calling back telling, there is no problem, we have forgotten all the problems.

Storytelling: Traditional Culture

The wang – Oo

You know in our culture here, storytelling is something very accepted and practiced. Almost in every family, everyone will always sing and tell stories. We used to be there together around the fire before the war. But then the war made everyone not have one, because of insecurity. But now it is coming back, at late in the dusk, by around seven o’clock everyone gathers, the old ones of the family come and tell stories to their children and everyone listens till the end. They pose a question to the audience and then they try to get answers for themselves. There is a lesson in this story.

Storytelling: Healing, Therapy, & Personal Counselling

Storytelling: Healing, Therapy, & Personal

Counselling

Storytelling: Healing, Therapy, & Personal

Counselling“Pictorial Presentations”

“Disassociation”

Well, to me, when somebody talks about the bad experience, then he or she reaches some point where it becomes easy then that person has healed. If it is not easy then he is still in the process of healing. When the child reaches that level of confidence, when they can speak freely, and they don’t become uneasy, uneasy means they have not reached a high level of healing.

Conclusions

Stories use empathy to communicate culture and knowledge through cognitive and affective domains

Stories foster an invitation to create new meanings where old ideas have kept people down and apart

Stories can create spaces wherein people are welcome to share similarities and acknowledge differences.

Storytelling is a key means by which people come to adjust or alter their understanding of themselves in relation to their ecological systems and therefore find a path to healing.