Kategoria: JPIC

Who among us hasn’t experienced conflict in our communities? We are far from a paradisiacal state of absolute peace. From my experience, the theme of conflict easily provokes a feeling of malaise. It brings us back to the day-to-day realities that we experience. Ignoring conflicts, not wanting to see them, not talking about them, ignoring them or rushing back to a state of apparent tranquillity without managing them constructively are attitudes and habits that we observe, particularly in our religious circles.

Peace is the desire of every member of any community or society. Regrettably, conflict is part of social dynamics, part of any progress and of any human development. Conflict brings crisis. Crisis is a “wake-up call” to tend to neglected issues which are essential for a healthy life together.

With the multiplicity of values proposed for our society today, it is no longer easy to define education. With the current tendency to relativise everything, how can we determine the appropriate education or distinguish between right and wrong? In this article, concerning the values and practices of the Senoufo people of yesteryear, we propose endogenous values and mechanisms as a possible way of inculcating a culture of peace.

While peace may not be of particular worry to some people, given that the realities of their living environment do not seem to frustrate their desire for well-being, it must be stressed that it is a treasure that is hard to come by for many men and women, such as those in South Sudan, who have suffered disastrous fratricidal conflicts for decades. It is impossible to live in such an environment without asking the existential question of education for a culture of peace.