Featuring Tecla Namachanja Wanjala, Kenyan Peace Advocate; Renowned Consultant on Transitional Justice, Conflict Transformation, Social Healing, and Reconciliation
Inter-communal armed conflicts usually affect people physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. The violence leaves the affected people with bitter memories and anger or rage. During campaigns for general elections, politicians can incite communities against one another other by invoking the memories of the past violence and feeding on such anger. This behavior has left some communities in Kenya stuck in circles of violence through revenge attacks.
Through Spaces for Trauma Awareness and Healing (STAH) and drawing on traditional African methods, Namachanja Wanjala and her team have been creating, holding, and transforming trusted and safe spaces for affected people—including ex-milita members, ex-convicts, and elders—to start the journey of healing and reconciliation.
During her talk, Namachanja Wanjala will share how these spaces are leading to healing, restoring hope, repairing relationships, and transforming conflict among some community members. The program targets the most affected people thus: the ex-militia men, the ex-convicts, the elders and the widows.
The Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace, which began in 1999, were established through a gift to the Kroc Institute from Mrs. Anne Marie Yoder and her family. Each year, the Kroc Institute invites a leading thinker, writer, scholar, and/or peace advocate to deliver a lecture related to nonviolence, religion, and peace. Following the lecture, audience members join in informal dialogue and discussion with the speaker and with each other.
You can attend the event in person or register to attend via Zoom livestream.
A reception will follow the lecture for those attending in person.
Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.