Creating Safer Space Conference in Africa

The Creating Safer Space network held a three-day Final Regional Event for Africa and the Middle East in Nairobi, Kenya, from 24–26 January 2024. The event was hosted by Strathmore University’s Business School.

The aim of the event was to bring researchers, practitioners, artists, journalists, and policymakers together to share unique research methodologies, research findings, and their implications for violence prevention, protection, and peacebuilding initiatives.

From the many learnings about unarmed civilian protection (UCP) and community self-protection in Africa and the Middle East arising from the presentations and discussions, three overarching learnings stood out:

  1. UCP is embedded in, and emerges from, traditional and cultural practices. Findings across different projects are thereby fundamentally challenging and changing the literature on “who does UCP” away from international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to local people.
  2. UCP involves many more activities than had been acknowledged previously. This is because, in protecting people, communities start with what they have, be that signs and symbols, community media, or traditional mechanisms.
  3. Early Warning is understood and carried out in most places at risk, but Early Response can be further developed so that the community can choose to de-escalate, use relationships, or other mechanisms. There is a need for better support for developing early response and strategic de-escalation.

Other high-level themes arising from the discussions included, among others:

  • That lots of communities and grass-roots organisations do UCP, without calling it such or having heard of nonviolent protection;
  • The centrality of the collective and of solidarity in UCP/community self-protection;
  • The important role of women and youth;
  • The positive role the arts and artivism can play in UCP and community self-protection;
  • The growing importance of online media in civilian protection;
  • The role of UCP with regard to the looming threat of conflicts brought about or acerbated by climate change, which require early intervention to prevent them.

The event brought together over 60 participants from at least eight countries. Distinguished speakers included Prof. Jacqueline McGlade (Professor at Strathmore University and University College London, formerly Chief Scientist of the UN Environment Programme and Executive Director of the European Environment Agency), Ambassador Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga (Ambassador of Burundi; Senior Advisor for the AU Border Program and Regional Security Mechanisms in the Office of the Commissioner for Political Affairs and Peace and Security of the African Union Commission), Dr Caesar Mwangi (Executive Dean of Strathmore University Business School), Ms Rosemary Kabaki (Nonviolent Peaceforce Head of Mission, South Sudan) and Dr Vincent Ogutu (Vice Chancellor of Strathmore University).

Ambassador Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga

Each of the 10 Creating Safer Space projects in Africa and the Middle East sent at least two representatives to the event, which involved detailed presentations and discussions on research findings and synergies between projects:

  • Exploring Unarmed Civilian Self-Protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone Conflict (Gordon Crawford and Nancy Annan of Coventry University, UK, and Bernard Sakah of Big Steps Outreach Network, Cameroon)
  • Unarmed Civilian Protection Through Collective Impact: Learning from the Jos Stakeholders Centre for Peace (JSCP) for Enhanced Civilian Protection in Maiduguri, North-Eastern Nigeria (Sukanya Podder of King’s College London and Hamsatu Hajja Allamin of the Allamin Foundation for Peace & Development, Nigeria)
  • Gender-Just Landscapes: Gender Based Violence and Community Protection in Land, Natural Resource, and Climate Conflicts (Aliyu Salisu Barau and Zainab Nuhu of Bayero University Kano, Nigeria)
  • Strengthening Local Capacities for Unarmed Civilian Protection in Uasin Gishu, Kenya (Clinton Gwako and Emmanuel Birech of Rural Women Peace Link, Kenya)
  • Nonviolent Activism Against Police Brutality in Kenya (Martha Okumu and Rachel Akinyi of Peace Tree Network, Kenya, and Elias Opongo of Hekima University College, Kenya)
  • Strategies for Safety and Solidarity: Understanding Protection Through Creativity in South Sudan and Colombia (Kara Blackmore of London School of Economics and Political Science, José Fernando Serrano-Amaya of University of Los Andes, Colombia, and Rebecca Lorins, South Sudan)
  • Safety and Dignity: Enhancing Unarmed Civilian Protection Amongst Palestinian Communities in the South Hebron Hills (Marwan Darweish of Coventry University and Mahmoud Soliman of Coventry University and Al-Shmoh Cultural Centre, Palestine)
  • Visualising Early Warning and Preparedness in Civilian Protection: Investigating Local Vernaculars of Community Adaptations to Insecurity (Diria Vicky Thomas of Community Aid for Relief and Development, South Sudan, and Haji Elias Hillary of Lomore Development Organization, South Sudan)
  • Understanding Community-level Spontaneous Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP): A Comparative Study of Initiatives in South Sudan, Myanmar and Colombia (Luke Abbs of University of Winchester, UK, and Moses John and Flora Francis Bringi of Organization for Nonviolence and Development, South Sudan)

The event also involved a Roundtable on Reporting on Civilian Protection. Speakers included Arthur Okwemba and Ruth Omukhango (African Women and Child Feature Service, Kenya), Philip Muhatia (Pamoja FM), Alex Chamwada (ChamsMedia) and Abjata Khalif (Journalist, Northeastern Kenya). They shared experiences of peace reporting in Kenya, through vernacular community media, especially local radio stations, the strong role of women in this alternative media reporting, and how it contributed to unarmed civilian protection and conflict prevention in different settings and situations.

Participants also visited the Creating Safer Space exhibition. The exhibition brings together objects, images, and voices emerging from the network’s projects to show how civilians around the world harness the power of nonviolence to create safer spaces for a dignified life

Recordings of the event are available here:

Keynote Speech, Prof. Jacqueline McGlade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbWjZbavpw

Livestreaming of Day 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIThcfsg7zg&t=2216s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZfX1ZYdMMk

Livestreaming of Day 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVR3jHedVPg&t=11903s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd8zujysQgA&t=195s

Livestreaming of Day 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbWjZbavpw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynty4sHKCJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DL2HyN13eo

This is the first of our three final events. The final event for Asia will take place in Thailand in February, and the final event for Latin America will take place in Colombia in June.


Arddangosfa Creu Man Diogelach yn Aberystwyth

Please see this weblink for information in English

Beth sy’n digwydd pan fydd sifiliaid yn dewis gweithredu heb arfau i amddiffyn eu hunain rhag trais? Pa mor rymusol yw ymwrthod â thrais wrth lunio presennol a dyfodol pobl?

Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth, 11 – 28 Mawrth 2024
DIGWYDDIAD AGORIADOL: 6pm ddydd Gwener 22 Mawrth

Mae’r arddangosfa CREU MAN DIOGELACH yn ymdrin â grym annisgwyl dulliau di-drais wrth amddiffyn sifiliaid sy’n byw yng nghanol trais. Mae’n dangos sut mae pobl gyffredin yn meddwl am amddiffyniad ac yn ei ymarfer heb ddefnyddio arfau, a pha ffyrdd trawsnewidiol o ddychmygu, gwneud, a byw y mae’n eu galluogi, ond hefyd beth yw ei gyfyngiadau.

Gyda’r mwyafrif o farwolaethau mewn rhyfeloedd ymhlith sifiliaid, a’r lefel uchaf erioed o dros 110 miliwn o bobl wedi’u dadleoli drwy rym ledled y byd, mae amddiffyn sifiliaid rhag niwed rhyfel, trais ac erledigaeth ymhlith materion pwysicaf ein hoes. Ond mae’r atebion a ddychmygir yn bennaf yn cynnwys defnyddio arfau i amddiffyn rhag trais, neu gymorth dyngarol i amddiffyn pobl yn gyfreithiol ac yn economaidd-gymdeithasol. Mewn cyferbyniad, mae’r bobl sy’n cael sylw yn yr arddangosfa hon yn dangos i ni bod dewisiadau di-drais, sifil o amddiffyn rhag trais corfforol yn gweithio, a sut maent yn gweithio.

Mae’r arddangosfa Creu Man Diogelach yn ymdrin â grym annisgwyl dulliau di-drais wrth amddiffyn sifiliaid sy’n byw yng nghanol trais. Mae Creu Man Diogelach yn tynnu ar brofiadau o Gamerŵn, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestina, Ynysoedd y Philipinau, De Swdan, a Gwlad Thai, lle mae sifiliaid yn harneisio grym dulliau di-drais i greu mannau mwy diogel ac yn gweithio tuag at bresennol a dyfodol amgen. Mae’r gwrthrychau, y delweddau a’r lleisiau yn deillio o ddetholiad o 26 o brosiectau ymchwil a gynhaliwyd ar y cyd rhwng academyddion, cymunedau hunanamddiffynol a hebryngwyr sifil di-drais, a oedd yn ymdrin â sut mae amddiffyn sifiliaid heb drais yn gweithio. Mae’r profiadau y maent wedi’u casglu yn ein gwahodd i fyfyrio ar ein rhagfarnau a’n syniadau ein hunain o ran pwy all amddiffyn a sut i wneud hynny.

Mae’r arddangosfa CREU MAN DIOGELACH yn herio ei hymwelwyr i ailystyried credoau cyffredin am fregusrwydd, cyfryngu, a dewisiadau mewn rhyfel. Mae’n ein gwahodd i ddychmygu posibiliadau ar gyfer amddiffyn sifiliaid yn wahanol, ac mae’n ein hysbrydoli i weithredu a chyfrannu at y newid hwn.

DIGWYDDIAD AGORIADOL
6pm ddydd Gwener 22 Mawrth

Ymunwch â ni ar gyfer gwin, bwyd, cerddoriaeth ac i ddysgu mwy am yr arddangosfa. Sylwadau agoriadol gan:

  • yr Athro Angela Hatton, Dirprwy Is-ganghellor (Ymchwil, Cyfnewid Gwybodaeth ac Arloesi)]
  • Dr Patrick Finney (Pennaeth yr Adran Gwleidyddiaeth Ryngwladol)
  • Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Prif Ymchwilydd y Rhwydwaith Ymchwil Creu Man Diogelach).


Creating Safer Space Exhibition in Aberystwyth

Gweler y ddolen we hon am wybodaeth yn Gymraeg

What happens when civilians choose unarmed action to protect themselves from violence? How empowering is nonviolence in shaping peoples’ presents and futures?

Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 11 – 28 March 2024
OPENING EVENT: 6 pm on Friday 22 March

The exhibition CREATING SAFER SPACE explores the unexpected power of nonviolence in the protection of civilians living in the midst of violence. It shows how protection is being thought of and practised by ordinary people without the use of weapons, and what transformative ways of imagining, doing, and living it enables, but also what its limits are.

With most deaths in wars sustained among civilians and a record high of over 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, the protection of civilians from the harms of war, violence and persecution is a pressing issue of our time. But answers are still mostly imagined as either armed protection from violence or as humanitarian assistance to protect people legally and socioeconomically. By contrast, the people featured in this exhibition show us that and how nonviolent, civilian alternatives of protection from physical violence work.

CREATING SAFER SPACE draws on unarmed civilian protection experiences from Cameroon, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Thailand, where civilians are harnessing the power of nonviolence to create safer spaces and work towards alternative presents and futures. The objects, images, and voices originate from a selection of 26 research projects conducted in collaboration between academics, self-protecting communities and nonviolent civilian accompaniers, that explored how nonviolent civilian protection works. The experiences they have captured invite us to reflect on our own ideas and biases of who can protect and how.

CREATING SAFER SPACE challenges its visitors to undo commonly held beliefs about vulnerability, agency, and choices in war. It invites us to imagine possibilities for the protection of civilians differently. And it inspires us to take action and contribute to this change.

OPENING EVENT

6 pm on Friday 22 March

Join us for wine, food, music and to learn more about the exhibition. Opening remarks by:

  • Prof. Angela Hatton (Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation)
  • Dr Patrick Finney (Head of Department, International Politics)
  • Prof. Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Principal Investigator of the Creating Safer Space Research Network)