Despite challenges including the lengthy processes required to gain permission for data collection in fieldwork sites, increasing costs of fuel and food, and a deteriorating security situation, the research team on the ‘Visual Early Warning and Preparedness in Civilian Protection’ project have this month commenced fieldwork.

Researchers Haji and Doria from the partner organisation CARD (Community Aid for Relief and Development) carried out research in the village of Kakuwa, Juba region throughout April 2023.

They conducted interviews with civilians in the village who explained Early Warning processes which are used in preparation for possible eruptions of violence, as well as in periods of open violence. In their conversations about Early Warning Early Response mechanisms, researchers were told:

“Our community is headed by a Sultan, and Chiefs who act as councilmen. […] We have three ways for preparing for attacks and the last option is normally to run away.

The community prepares for attacks according to the kind of insecurity or danger that’s about to happen. We ask, is the insecurity affecting livestock, plantations or is it an attack from another community? Depending on the danger we prepare accordingly. As a community when news of an impending insecurity is rumoured, normally a messenger/ community member runs to inform the Sultan. 

Once news of insecurity reaches him, it is spread by messengers to the people around to either pack and run, or gather at the sultan’s house for the information to be shared and a way forward is known.This information is also passed by using a local instrument called telure/owi , this instrument is blown and the bearer climbs up a high tree to observe the movement of the enemy and blow the instrument accordingly. This person acts an observer and as an alert system. 

The other way of passing this information is normally through drumming. Now drumming is used for different reasons depending on the beats of the drum. A certain way indicates death, and the other indicates gathering and lastly danger etc. The drummer normally shouts or speaks as well to communicate what the drumming intends to communicate. These systems alert the community members and makes them aware of what is happening within the community and act accordingly.”

In addition to these operational mechanisms to convey early warning information and prepare for possible attack, researchers also found such culturally-specific practices enhance community solidarity and collective identity. This increases community cohesion for at-risk villages and tribes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such practices have become more widespread in the last few years, not less as a result of repeated attack and continued insecurity. 

Creating Safer Space is aware of the sensitivities connected with UCP/A and how traditional methods of evaluation are often top-down or output-focused, and therefore risk missing important nuances connected with civilian protection efforts. Over the past few months, a group of practitioners and scholars have discussed good practice approaches to evaluation and developed principles that should inform evaluation design.

We welcome applications for pilot projects of participatory evaluation and learning related to Unarmed Civilian Protection and Accompaniment (UCP/A). We offer two types of funding.

• Type 1: We will fund up to three small projects that meet the criterial set out in the Call for Applications and are led by an organisation that is registered in a Low and Middle Income Country (LMIC) or which has a country/field office in an LMIC (CfA for eligibility details). Grants per project range from £3,000 to max. £4,500 GBP.
• Type 2: We will fund one small project that meets the criteria set out in the Caff for Applications whose Lead Organisation is as US 501 (c) (3) non-profit organisation that can receive funding from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF).

The application deadline is 12 June 2023. Please see Call for Applications and Application Form linked below for further details, and contact creating-safer-space@aber.ac.uk with any enquiries.

On Wednesday, May 10, thanks to the funding provided by the Creating Safer Space Network to the project ‘”Ritualising” Protection in Conflict’, the elders of the Nasa people of the Indigenous Territory of Huellas were able to meet in the Tulpa intermedio. During this meeting, the spiritual knowers shared their main concerns regarding the care of seeds and plants, the need to strengthen spirituality within the family and in the territory, and the importance of passing on the knowledge of traditional medicine.

In a context where the Indigenous population finds itself ever more in the midst of the violence between armed groups, threats against spiritual knowers have increased. The Tulpas, sacred sites for the Nasa people, are currently the target of some armed groups, who want to weaken the Nasa culture, for being considered places for the exercise of self-education and self-government. One of the conclusions of this meeting is the importance of strengthening the spiritual knowledge of the Nasa people as a measure of self-protection against armed groups and to ensure the Nasa’s pervivencia (survival) in their territory.

Conversa de mayores y mayoras en la Tulpa intermedio, Caloto- Cauca 

El día miércoles 10 de mayo se realizó un encuentro entre mayoras y mayores del pueblo Nasa del Resguardo Indígena de Huellas, gracias a la financiación proporcionada por la Red Creando un Espacio Más Seguro para el proyecto ‘“Ritualizando” la protección en conflicto’. En esta juntanza los sabedores espirituales compartieron sus principales preocupaciones respecto al cuidado de las  semillas y plantas, la necesidad de fortalecer el tema espiritual en la familia y los territorios, y la relevancia de compartir los conocimientos de la medicina tradicional.

En un contexto donde la avanzada de los grupos armados pone en medio a la población indígena, las amenazas hacia sabedores espirituales han aumentado. Las Tulpas, sitios sagrados para el pueblo Nasa, son en estos momentos objetivo de algunos grupos armados que quieren debilitar la cultura Nasa por ser considerados lugares para el ejercicio de la educación propia y el gobierno propio. Una de las conclusiones de este espacio es la importancia de fortalecer el conocimiento espiritual del pueblo Nasa como medida de autoprotección contra los grupos armados y la pervivencia en los territorios.

El próximo 17 de mayo tendremos el estreno de la obra de teatro titulada La Fiesta, bajo la dramaturgia y direccion del maestro Oscar Zuluaga Uribe. La obra se deriva del proyecto de investigación “Arte que protege“, que explora aportes de iniciativas artístico-culturales a las estrategias de autoprotección de jóvenes y mujeres en el contexto del conflicto urbano en la ciudad de Medellín.

Lugar: Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe , Medellin, Colombia.

Fecha: miercoles 17 de mayo / Hora: 6pm

Entrada libre – todxs bienvenidxs!

On 17 May, we will premier the play La Fiesta, written and directed by Oscar Zuluaga Uribe.

The play derives from the Creating Safer Space research project “Art That Protects”, which explores contributions of artistic-cultural initiatives to the self-protection strategies of young people and women in the context of urban conflict in the city of Medellín.

Where: Theatre Pablo Tobón Uribe, Medellín, Colombia

When: Wednesday 17 May 2023 at 6pm

Free admission – all welcome!

The aim of the Creating Safer Space Café is to enable people in different parts of the world to exchange knowledge and to help build a community of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) researchers and practitioners.

This month, Dr Kara Blackmore (LSE), PI on the Network+ Project ‘Strategies for Safety and Solidarity: Understanding Protection through Creativity in South Sudan and Colombia’ shared her insights into designing and preparing visual policy briefs, as well as using arts-based methods to map UCP practices.

See the recording of this even on our YouTube Channel

In February, the team of researchers working on the project: ‘Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict’ undertook successful data collection in Cameroon. They used Arts-based methods entailed drawing workshops, poetry workshops and storytelling workshops with local civilians affected by the conflict. Based on a prior mapping exercise, residents from conflict ‘hot spots’ were identified and transported to safe locations where the workshops were undertaken.  

Although some participants were a little anxious  at first about their abilities to draw or compose poems, we found that everyone relaxed into the task and produced very good accounts of their experiences by means of drawings or poems. Some participants stated afterwards that it had been beneficial to  express traumatic experiences through drawing or writing poems.  One-to-one interviews were  also undertaken with selected community organisers, including leaders of women’s and youth groups, and NGO workers. Such fieldwork in the midst of armed conflict can be complicated, and unexpected challenges can arise, as they experienced. 

As they began their fieldwork, scores of boys and young men from one small town in the Southwest region were arbitrarily rounded up and detained by the Cameroonian military, and were unjustifiably accused of being separatist supporters.  This was the same small town from which many workshop participants had been invited.  

This abuse of power by the military, terrible in itself, also disrupted the researchers’ plans as local people were clearly preoccupied in seeking the release of their young men. On the morning of the planned workshops, the mothers of the captured boys and young men led a women’s peace march to demand the release of their sons and family members. This involved several hundred women walking 17 km from their town to the prison where the young men were being held.  

The women marched holding peace plants as a symbol of their non-violence.  The outcome was really gratifying – the women’s interactions with the authorities were largely successful, and the release of most of the detained boys and young men was secured.  This was, perhaps, an example of unarmed civilian protection in itself. The workshops also went ahead  thanks to the amazing efforts of the Cameroonian team members who organised alternative workshop participants at short notice. The researchers’ also had the added bonus that two of the women on the peace march made a detour to attend the workshop and provided everyone with a first-hand account of their experiences.

Between November and December 2022, Luisa María Colonia Zúñiga, Gustavo Suárez Ríos and Italia Agüado Urmendiz conducted field research in the Llano Verde neighbourhood, located in the east of the Colombian city of Cali.

Through focus-groups and semi-structured interviews, the researchers collected information related to perceived threats faced by women. They obtained testimonies from women victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, with the aim of turning their memories of conflict into instruments of building peace and protection. This protection comes in the form of resistance practices against police intimidation and the multiple forms of violence that the women face on a daily basis.

During this fieldwork, the team also interviewed attorneys who have collaborated with the community in developing community advocacy tools.

The researchers are currently analysing the material collected during the field visits and in the archives of the organization Masterpeace Cali, and combining the results with documentary matrix prepared in January 2023 where they collected important information related to their research. This research and analysis has since been published in the media and reports of civil society organizations.

Among the interesting insights they have identified so far is the central use of community cohesion as a mechanism for peaceful civilian self-protection of populations relocated to urban areas due to cultural diversity and the high rate of unmet basic needs. Memories of violence are a shared experience that enables peaceful group action.

Inicio del trabajo de campo en Cali, Colombia.

Durante los meses de noviembre y diciembre de 2022, Luisa María Colonia Zúñiga, Gustavo Suárez Ríos e Italia Agüado Urmendiz llevaron a cabo la investigación de campo en el barrio Llano Verde ubicado al oriente de la ciudad de Cali.

El grupo de investigadores recolectó información relevante relacionada con las amenazas que se perciben en el entorno de las mujeres que participan de la investigación, a través del ejercicio de grupos focales y entrevistas semi direccionadas. Asimismo, obtuvieron testimonios de mujeres víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia donde se evidencia el uso de las memorias por parte de ellas para resignificar el pasado en las acciones pacíficas de protección que llevan a cabo en el presente a modo de resistencia frente a políticas de miedo y la exacerbación de múltiples violencias que se han convertido en cotidianas.

Adicionalmente, durante el trabajo de campo también entrevistamos a abogados que han colaborado con la comunidad en el desarrollo de herramientas de abogacía comunitaria.

En este momento, estamos comprometidos en el análisis del material recolectado en las visitas de campo y en los archivos de la organización Masterpeace Cali. Asimismo, estamos analizando la matriz documental elaborada en el mes de enero de 2023 donde recabamos información fundamental relacionada con la temática de la investigación, que ha sido publicada en medios de comunicación e informes de organizaciones de la sociedad civil. 

Entre las perspectivas interesantes que hemos identificado hasta el momento, se tiene que se presentan limitaciones en la cohesión comunitaria como mecanismo para la autoprotección civil pacífica de poblaciones reubicadas en zonas urbanas debido a la diversidad cultural y a la alta tasa de necesidades básicas insatisfechas. Sin embargo, las memorias de las violencias son un punto de encuentro que posibilita la acción grupal pacífica.

On 10-11 February 2023, the Antioquia Social Process of Guarantees held an experience exchange meeting with indigenous and peasant organizations of Bajo Cauca, Colombia. The meeting served to share organizational experiences and balances related to self-protection and protection in contexts of violence which have been escalating in the Bajo Cauca region for several years.

The meeting was attended by indigenous guards and ethnic authorities from the Embera and Senú ethnic groups of Cáceres and El Bagre, as well as peasant leaders from three peasant organizations – Peasant Association of Bajo Cauca (ASOCBAC), Association of Agroecological Brotherhoods of Guamocó (AHEREMIGUA), and Association of Environmental Victims of Puerto Clavel (ASOVIAMCLA)  – and delegates from the Social Process of Guarantees.

A total of 20 people attended the two-day meeting and shared the self-protection strategies that they have been building for years to face the context of violence as well as the legal and illegal armed groups that are present in the territories where they live.

The attendants embarked on a reflection of lessons learnt in years of struggle for peace and defence of human and territorial rights, highlighting the efficiency and risks which have arisen from the implementation of different self-protection strategies.

The event closed with an evaluation of the implementation of the self-protection protocols of ethnic organizations and peasant communities, in order to establish the degree to which the strategies had been applied within the processes.

The project’s activities will continue in March with the “Circles of the Word”, traditional spaces for dialogue that will seek to build on the progress made at the meeting held on 10-11 February.

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The project “The Social Process of Guarantees of Antioquia, Colombia: An experience of unarmed civil protection with indigenous and peasant communities of Bajo Cauca” is led by researchers Astrid Torres, Eberhar Cano y Winston Gallego. For more information, see: https://creating-safer-space.com/the-social-process-of-guarantees-of-antioquia-colombia-an-experience-of-unarmed-civil-protection-with-indigenous-and-peasant-communities-of-bajo-cauca/. 

This week, we have launched two new videos giving overviews of research projects. The videos from the Strengthening Local Capacities for UCP (Rural Women’s Peace Link, Kenya), and Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned projects are now available on our YouTube Channel. Please feel free to watch these videos, and leave any feedback, reflections, or questions for the PI’s on this Mural page.

Creating Safer Space network PI Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and project PI Sukanya Podder will be chairing a section on ‘Civilian agency in war and violent conflict: Exploring the power of self-protection’ at the 16^th Pan-European Conference (PEC) of the European International Studies Association (EISA). The conference will take place in Potsdam, Germany from 5-9 September 2023. The deadline for submitting a paper or roundtable abstract to the section is 15 March 2023. See the EISA PEC 2023 website for more information: http://pec2023.eisa-net.org/section-list/. We look forward to receiving submissions from the Creating Safer Space community.