Abstract
Researching pluriversal visions of peace across the Burundian-Congolese fluid borders, this project is
dedicated to documenting plural ways of 'understanding the world' in conflict-affected settings. The
project will bring together communities affected by severe flooding, feminist activists, artists and
researchers across Bujumbura and Uvira, two border towns on the Northern coast of the Tanganyika Lake
across Burundi and Congo (DRC). Building on decolonial feminist and arts-based methodologies (e.g. Wang
1999, Theron 2008, Smith 2013), we produce collaboratively photographs, drawings, images and texts
that capture various meanings granted to entanglements of bodies, nature, conflicts and peace. Our team seek to collaboratively enhance decolonial approaches to peace education in Burundi, South Kivu/DRC, and Belgium. Specifically, we co-create artistic material, organize pilot activities and produce a pedagogic portfolio in French, English, Kirundi, and Swahili. In doing so, we are seeking to tackle upfront usual power asymmetries sustained within peacebuilding and peace education activities. Rather than hiring foreign experts to produce pedagogic contents disseminated to conflict-affected communities, the project provides means and spaces for people affected by violence
in South Kivu and Burundi to document their own visions of what peace means to themselves, as well as reflect upon methodological and decolonial feminist insights from the collaboration. Overall, the project's main objective is to develop and reflect upon innovative contributions to re-imagining how peacebuilding education can be delivered.
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