–Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa —
My colleague Andrea Calderon and I were recently asked by our school, the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies, to take over their Instagram account for a week, in order to show the raw behind-the-scenes look at the work we have been doing this summer in South Africa. Throughout the course of the five days, we worked hard to capture the essence of the efforts we were undertaking in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. Yet, what would a real and raw look into any such experience be without some reflection? As trained peacebuilders, we take reflective practice very seriously. In order to take appropriate actions and make truly impactful change in the world, one must first watch and listen in order to learn and understand. She or he must plan in order to act. It’s a [vital] repetitive cycle of a process. So here, we reflect on our individual experiences and unpack the most important and recurrent take-aways from our short but concentrated two months, here in the southernmost country on the African continent.
South Africa is a great country for students of peace; there isn’t a day, or even an hour that goes by when you don’t find yourself reflecting on the world around you through the different hues of all of the peace lenses you’ve been instructed to [and eventually organically begin to] see the world through. While we are specifically working in the area of development, our peace-senses have been working in overdrive, questioning everything from the perspective of conflict analysis, human rights, the international system, etc. We hope that you’ll spend the six or so minutes that these posts take to watch to hear a few brief snippets of our reflections on peace and development in a country with deep historical wounds that have created the scars of South African society, in which both development and peace have a huge role.
Here you have it.
peace, unpacked 