Serving Beyond the Stage: The Role of the Arts in Community Building in Post War Areas in the Great Lakes Region

In my previous article, I provided an account of the consequences armed conflicts and rebellions have meted out on cultural arts practices in the great lakes region. One of the grave effects is alienation of communities from their cultural history and chronological heritage. A number of interventions have been instituted by governments, civil society organisations, private sector agencies and non-governmental organisations with aim to aid rebuilding and resettlement of communities in post war areas. Focus has been put on education, health, agriculture, and physical infrastructures sectors.  Not enough resources have been invested in the culture sector as a driver that can steer social, political and economic transformation.

Indigenous performing arts act as an encyclopedia of cultural norms, practices, beliefs, values, philosophies, ideologies and theories. Language, dress code, economic practices, theological beliefs, ethno-botany and medicine, and social structures are coalesced in music, dance and drama of a people. Further, the arts are a laboratory in which cultural evolution can be tested or/ and detected. Reclaiming cultural identity is vital in advancing social, psychological, political, and cultural empowerment of the communities that were ravaged by armed conflicts in the great lakes region. This sense of cultural identity cannot be reinstated without active application and utilization of arts.

Whereas communities in war torn regions were distanced away from their indigenous music and dance practices, some arts performance elements were retained in some cases. Additionally, there are knowledgeable individuals that survived the wrath of this armed conflicts. To this end, communities can be supported to utilize the already available knowledge and resources to repossess what the war snatched away from them.  Community based performances, indigenous family apprenticeship in the arts, competitions, festivals and ceremonies that engross the arts should be encouraged within these communities. This will revivify the lost sense of cultural identity, cachet and pride.

Population in the great lakes region is becoming younger. With fertility rate at 6.7% in Uganda, 4.8% in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 6.7% in Southern Sudan, 4.46% in Burundi, and 5.4%in Rwanda, the young population is promising to do all but rise. Cases of young population explosion in post war areas are evident. To this end, it is imperative to design programs tailor-made to facilitate early child development. These communities have music and dances that were composed and created to encourage social, cultural, physical, psychological, and psycho-motor development and empowerment of the child. 

 Children in northern Uganda performing Bwola dance (courtesy photo)

Performing arts can be used to advance creativity, nurture talent, cultivate cultural consciousness, and encourage a sense of communal responsibility among the young population. In addition to providing the education, shelter, health care and food for the child, stakeholders need to encourage and promote integration of arts in programs that target children in post war areas.

From a purely economic standpoint, cultural arts can impart skills and knowledge that youth in post war areas can turn into economic ventures.  Training in music composition and performance, dance choreography and performance, arts documentation and production can advance competence of these communities in the arts. Government and other stakeholders need to develop and implement programs that aim to encourage communities to convert indigenous art forms into commercial products. Follow up mechanisms can be put in place to promote and market artistic works produced by these communities. This will increase the employability and productivity of youth in these communities.

The importance of the arts in fostering lifelong skills is well captured by Charles Onyango Obbo (The Daily Monitor, March 21, 2012) who has noted thus: “The best example for this, in Makerere University at least, is in a place where no one ever looks. It is at what was once, and probably still is, the most despised course at Makerere University – Music, Dance, and Drama (MDD). The most tired and small-minded joke on Makerere Hill for years is that MDD stands for Musiru Dala Dala (he/she is very stupid).  However, MDD is the only course at Makerere that teaches you to be what you learn. You learn to act, and you act. You learn to sing, and you sing.” Communities in post war areas need lifelong skills that will aid localized and grassroots-based productivity and competitiveness at a national, regional and international level.

We cannot talk about revamping the education system for communities in post war areas without creating space for the arts within the mainstream curriculum. Education models developed for different levels of education in these areas need to be hyper local. Indigenous knowledge, which is richly imbedded in the arts and other cultural practices, should form the basis for the broader education sector. The arts should have a place in the curriculum, the classroom, and within community-based education paradigms. 

It is worth noting that performing arts from ethnicities in post war areas carry educational and informative messages and knowledge. Systems within the education sector must be established to tap into this rich resource, encourage cross-cultural awareness, and cultivate intra-cultural consciousness.

Programs developed to resettle people back into villages and communities from internally displaced persons camps (IDPs) need to incorporate the arts for community building, therapeutic purposes, intra-ethnic reconciliation, and cultural receptivity. People should be supported to participate in arts related activities that aim to address pressing issues such as health, education, agriculture, environment, sanitation, reconciliation, among others. The best way to empower these communities is by allowing them to partake and own processes that are set to achieve social, cultural, political and economic transformation.  

The arts can be used as a service in the rebuilding and recovery course in post armed conflict areas. We stand to lose a lot if we stick to the mentality that restricts the arts to the stage.

Alfdaniels Mabingo is a Fulbright Fellow at New York University