Why we need a well groomed, hardworking and cultured youth

Editor,Refer to the article, “Regional students take on course to fight genocide” (The New Times, January 3).I commend the Peace Building Institute (PBI) and Never Again Rwanda for embarking on this noble cause. I personally believe that peace building in a post-conflict situation needs to be approached with maturity because “never again” is a big challenge to society. The approach has got to be bottom up – from the grassroots level to the national level.However, I would like to add my voice by echoing on the impact of culture in peace building process in Rwanda. Culture and peace are both complex concepts, varying in meanings and interpretations. To attain peace, more is required than just the absence of violence.Classical notions of conflicts define peace as the absence of war or absence of armed conflict. However, conflict doesn’t necessarily involve violence; it also includes discrimination or marginalisation of groups, human rights abuses or non-fulfillment of economic, social rights to mention but a few.In the process of conflict transformation and peace building, the presence of political participation, social integration and economic development are all important in building a nation during or after conflict by forming a common culture and identity.The cultural infrastructure in Rwanda needs to be exploited further to transform or re-engineer a collective history by creating possibilities for new cultural expressions while preserving cultural elements.Building a global culture of peace as defined by the United Nations in 1998 (‘a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes, to solve problems through dialogue and negotiations among individuals, groups and nations’) to stimulate creative and expressive human activities that can help build a well sustained nation.Creative networks in a cultural infrastructure are very vital in overcoming divisions in society and empower people with intercultural understanding. Understanding how one is influenced by certain representations of one’s own collective history might bring about tolerance, and promote and enhance participatory nation building.Cultural education, and, in particular, history or peace education is also a vital element in creating and stimulating a national cultural infrastructure. As students go through the curricula, their identification with a particular national identity is strengthened.B.M Trofanenko (2008) echoes that, “it is important for students, and citizens in general, to understand how their history, and, in particular, their national history, is represented in specific context, and extent to which the past is seen as influencing or acting upon the present.”Rwanda can said to be in a conflict phase even as violence has ended, but durable, positive peace has not yet been attained. Reconciliation is still at a phase where it must overcome polarisation and manage contradictions and differences.There is a need for continued mass sensitisation on the dangers and dynamics of genocide and other human atrocities. Above all, we need a well groomed, hardworking and cultured youth. Once again, peace building processes need a mature and collective approach with a rich cultural menu for our young generations.David Nkusi, Rwanda

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Why we need a well groomed, hardworking and cultured youth