Women's work : building peace in war-affected communities of Uganda and Sierra Leone

Author / Creator

Moore, Jennifer, 1961- author

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Summary

"This book presents a re-imagined theory of peacebuilding and transformative justice constructed through engagement with the experiences and insights of women farmers and micro entrepreneurs who ha...

"This book presents a re-imagined theory of peacebuilding and transformative justice constructed through engagement with the experiences and insights of women farmers and micro entrepreneurs who have survived protracted civil conflicts in their native countries. It pieces together a practical and visionary approach to community life after violence from core values, daily activities and visionary goals generally shared among rural women's cooperative members in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone, despite important differences in the pre-conflict and conflict histories and demographics of the two countries. Drawing upon six years of conversations with women activists across nine communities, four in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda and five in the Moyamba and Koinadugu Districts of Sierra Leone, a three-dimensional community-grounded peacebuilding model emerges, which insists upon equal measures of (a) material wellbeing, (b) governmental accountability and (c) community restoration. Women peacebuilders in the Acholiland Region of Northern Uganda and the Moyamba and Koinadugu Districts of Sierra Leone concede that transformative justice after violence is a braid with material, relational and retributive strands. Indeed, collective survival, communal healing and conflict resolution define the rhythm of their daily lives. But women peacemakers insist that peacebuilding has at least five, not merely three, strands. Alongside livelihood, reconciliation and accountability are the essential components of legal equality for women and healthy partnership between women and men. Enduring social transformation will not happen so long as women are excluded from full socioeconomic citizenship and until they work with men as peers in the home, in the community, and in society. In the meantime, they practice peace, piecemeal. Theirs is a vision of transformative justice grounded in the art of collective livelihood, celebration, and conflict management. They know that justice and sustainable peace require subsistence, resistance, and joyful persistence"-- Provided by publisher.

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