By Wabwire Joseph Ian
Summary: In conflict regions throughout the world, artists, and cultural workers are facilitating processes required for peace: receptivity, creativity, imagination, compassion, and the ability to embrace paradox. In times of destruction and war, artists assert the power of creativity and counteract demonization of the enemy. They bear witness to suffering and draw the world’s attention to those whose rights have been abused. Cultural work and the arts offer resources for waging conflicts nonviolently, transforming relationships in the aftermath of violence and building the capacities required for peace.
The article will explore the distinctive contributions of community arts and culture (including festivals, theater, music, dance, and visual arts) to peacebuilding, drawing examples from artists, art collectives, and curators in East Africa. It focuses on case studies in the aftermath of the Rwanda Genocide, the 2007/2008 elections violence in Kenya, the Lord Resistance Army’s protracted violence in northern Uganda, and ongoing instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by armed rebel groups like M23.
Although artists and cultural workers are already having an impact in many conflict regions throughout the world, there is little recognition for their work among policy makers, funders, and peacebuilding practitioners. By focusing on East Africa, my article seeks to add legitimacy to their efforts by documenting and highlighting the role of artists in the region. I also intend to reflect on artists’ specific practices, making their learnings accessible to others in various networks of peacebuilders who work in more conventional modes like mediation and diplomacy.
Preface
East Africa persists as one of the most unstable regions in the world. This area is made up of diverse cultures and various conflict environments across countries like Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While some parts of the region are relatively peaceful today, significant portions of East Africa remain unable to break free of brutal and prolonged histories of armed conflicts, violent crime, extremism, communal violence, political instability, displacement, and human rights abuses. The pursuit of peaceful and nonviolent strategies to resolve the region’s most dire conflicts, which often result in war and genocide, is paramount for human coexistence and progress.
As the region’s peacebuilding efforts continue on a powerful upswing, gaining visibility and recognition internationally, peacebuilders in East Africa have increasingly implemented innovative methods of cultivating community arts and culture. This approach helps establish and strengthen conflict prevention mechanisms, but have also been successful in post-conflict reconciliation efforts. Defying all linguistic boundaries, art is considered a universal language that provides an avenue for ordinary citizens at all levels of society to engage in broader national civic participation.
Indeed, art and cultural activities provide spaces to creatively engage the trauma that comes with active conflict. They also offer accessible tools like dialogue, education, and awareness, which help address structural and cultural violence. Art and culture are a life force that allows individuals from opposing sides to come together—and especially to laugh and cry together. They facilitate powerful reflection and critical thinking. Most of all, they enable ordinary men, women, and children to imagine a different future, an alternate future, absent of all types of violence: one in which conflict can be resolved in nonviolent and empathetic ways.
Arts and cultural activities—including music, dance, theatre, film, and visual arts—have been used in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, the LRA rebel insurgency in Northern Uganda, and the 2007/2008 electoral violence in Kenya, among others contexts in East Africa. Creative peacebuilding programs have been devised at all stages of the conflict cycle, from prevention to post-conflict recovery, ranging from the local level to national initiatives. Most have been state-led, while others have been initiated by cultural relations organizations. Sometimes they have also been envisioned from the bottom-up by conflict-affected communities, with the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The success of these methods in East Africa demonstrate how this peacebuilding approach helps address wide-ranging issues of conflict and can potentially be applied to other regions and environments.
Rwanda
In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, Never Again Rwanda (a peacebuilding and social justice NGO) has been using film and theatre in communities affected by the genocide in a bid to encourage “creative, active, and critical thinking” in citizens through films, discussions, and group work. Sessions are facilitated by a trusted member of the community who understands the sensitivities of the local context. Activities include storytelling, group theater, poetry, and drama, and draw upon Rwandan culture and values. This learning approach aims to influence young people’s understanding of the dangers of conflict and the benefits of coexisting peacefully.
Kenya
In Kenya, the bulk of the post-election violence of 2007/2008 took place in the slums. In response, the Amani People’s Theatre (which was founded in 1994) brought together a group of young volunteer artists committed to utilizing their talents and skills in drama and theater to fashion a story of peace with communities. Their work continues to deal with the recurring issues and challenges related to the violence that follows every election cycle, as well as the experiences of “drug abuse, unemployment, violent extremism and poverty” faced by vulnerable and at-risk youth living in the slums of Nairobi. While working with rural and urban communities, they use interactive and immersive peacebuilding training workshops.
Uganda
Between 1994 and 2002, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebels’ brutal insurgency displaced nearly two million people in large areas of northern Uganda. Communities used performing arts—such as music, dance and drama—to appeal to the rebels to return home and accept amnesty, to be part of the peace talks and seek reconciliation. Local artist networks, like Music For Peace, captured popular sentiments and were listened to by all parties to the conflict, including those abducted by the LRA and forced to work as soldiers, porters, and sex slaves.
In their bid to use music as a tool for peacebuilding, Music For Peace organizes an annual “Peace Music Competition” and exchange visits by artists and musicians from across the continent. Their work also includes conducting peace music parades and workshops. With a fully functional music recording studio, this organization has been able to provide recording space for peace songs to promote positive social change. Creative processes (such as performance art therapy and dance) have the potential to overcome verbal barriers, thereby communicating and reaching hidden emotions and feelings that everyday language is unable to bring to life.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
In response to the escalating conflicts and instability caused by M23 and over 100 other rebel armed groups based in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Goma Amani Festival offers a flagship music and dance event for thousands of peace lovers seeking to end the violence by discouraging young people from joining the rebel outfits. Amani in swahili means “peace.” The festival, which was initiated by the trainers and members of the Goma Cultural Centre, especially seeks to promote peace, culture, and the nonviolent coexistence of citizens of the Great Lakes region. This event is hosted annually and consists of artistic performances, concerts, dialogues, and masterclasses with influential peace activists from the Great Lakes region.
Conclusion
Post-conflict activities—such as commemorative events, art, and cultural festivals—prompt collaboration, facilitate discussion, inspire curiosity, and enhance cross-cultural fluency and understanding. These activities shift beyond the dichotomy of self and other, victim and perpetrator, to contribute to positive identity formation, while also building trust and mutual respect among diverse individuals. In post-conflict societies struggling to rebuild a national identity, art and cultural activities can provide the foundation that marks the end of a culture of violence and division, and provides inspiration for a future based on peace and harmony. These examples from across East Africa offer a new creative pathway towards promoting peace.
About the Author
Wabwire Joseph Ian is a Culture Producer, Creative Economy consultant, and Arts writer working at the intersection of creative arts and civic engagement. He has worked in the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) for over 10 years supporting artists, creatives, and arts organizations in Uganda and East Africa to develop and strengthen their opportunities and growth.
Currently he is the full-time Founder and Cultural Producer at KQ Hub Africa, a Ugandan based non-profit media, culture and arts organization + creative studio. At KQ, he works across visual, digital, and performing arts to produce meaningful culture programs, facilitate capacity building, and create platforms for skills and knowledge sharing. He also offers monthly networking opportunities, as well as knowledge sharing experiential and imaginative events like artist exhibitions, workshops, concerts, film labs + screenings, fashion and design incubators etc. KQ focuses on social issues around climate action, peacebuilding, democracy, immigration, gender equality, among other themes.
As a Creative Economy consultant, Wabwire Joseph Ian draws upon his wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary arts practices and networks to provide specialist advice, in addition to participating directly in project design, implementation, research, and evaluation. He has worked on projects together with The Open Society Foundation, British Council, European Union, UN Women, Arts Council England, Nesta UK, among other organizations.
As an arts writer, he works as a Visual Arts liaison with Artsy and ArtNews, contributing articles featuring Africa’s talents in the visual arts scene. His writing focuses on how African creatives are changing the narrative of a continent often misrepresented, producing powerful art and displaying hand dexterity.
References
Photo Credits: Mohammed Kanchu for KQ Hub Africa