Browsing by Author "Angucia, Margaret"

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Books
(2010) Angucia, Margaret
Chelpi-den Hamer’s book on the youngest recruits brings to attention the prevalence of the problem of children involved in conflict in Cotê d’ Ivoire. This is important because the problem of the involvement of children in conflict in the West African region has been dominated by the cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In this regard, the book flags another area where attention needs to be paid in relation to children in war. However, as the reader goes on, the lack of comprehensive information on the conflict in Cotê d’ Ivoire as the context for Chelpi-den Hamer’s “child soldiering” does not clarify to the reader if the phenomenon occurs in Liberia, Cotê d’ Ivoire or in both countries. By use of the term “child soldiers”, Chelpiden Hamer’s book is part of the dominant literature referring to children who have been involved in conflict as such. This reference is the unforgiving stigma the academia, the humanitarian industry and the common man attach to these children who have been both victims and victimizers. She has no reflections on how to change the discourse on “child soldiers” by use of alternative language to be able to see such children, for instance, as “war-affected”, however differently.
Child soldiers or war affected children? Why the formerly abducted children of northern Uganda are not child soldiers
(Intervention, 2014) Angucia, Margaret
In many places around the globe, over many centuries, adults have forcibly involved children in war. In more recent times, these forcibly involved children have come to be collectively referred to as ‘child soldiers’, in an attempt to address the crises that these children experience within war conditions. However, recent ¢eld experiences from northern Uganda show that children, formerly abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army, as well as the community they return to, do not consider themselves as soldiers. This paper explains the reasons why the children reject this categorisation and prefer to be regarded as war a¡ected. This paper concludes with the warning that erroneous categorisation of war a¡ected children might in£uence, and/or undermine, the e¡ectiveness of targeted intervention programmes.
Children and War in Africa: The Crisis Continues in Northern Uganda
(Professors World Peace Academy, 2009) Angucia, Margaret
Since the 1990s when the nature of conflict changed from interstate to intrastate, the use of children in the battlefronts and related places has become unprecedented. This paper discusses issues on children and war based on African experiences. The paper shows how children and their surroundings suffer in war conditions and how the crisis of use of children continues in northern Uganda. Issues that face children in war refuse to go away, the paper concludes. This paper is a version of the theoretical framework of the author's thesis on the social reintegration of war-affected children in northern Uganda. She is indebted to Inge Hutter, Peter Kanyandago and Jacques Zeleen.
Memory and Forgiveness:
(2016-03) Angucia, Margaret
Memories of conflict experiences can be problematic in building social relationships between victims and perpetrators in post conflict communities. The challenge of negative memories to constrain living together in the post conflict community is real. According to Lederach (2004) relationships or building them is at the heart of conflict formations or their solutions after they have occurred. Northern Uganda experienced a prolonged conflict where massive abductions, mutilations, deaths, displacement and loss of property was bitterly experienced perpetuated by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army whose members belonged to the same Acholi community that terrorised them. That conflict, one of the “new wars” of contemporary Africa has left an uneasy state of social relations balancing between the imperative to forgive perpetrators of the atrocities who are members of the same community and the burden of the unforgettable and painful memories. This paper will attempt to present some of the most painful memories of the massacres that took place during the twenty year war as remembered by the people of Acholi and discuss some of their dimensions that are posing challenges for forgiveness. The analytical aim will be to search for the possibilities for reconciliation.
Researching the Reintegration of Formerly Abducted Children in Northern Uganda Through Action Research: Experiences and Reflection
(2010) Angucia, Margaret; Zeelen, Jacques; De Jong, Gideon
This paper presents experiences and reflections on the use of a participatory research methodologyunder the difficult conditions of a war situation in northern Uganda. We draw from two compli-mentary approaches in action research to explain our methodology while doing research on thereintegration of formerly abducted children. First, the experience oriented approach, which empha-sizes the need to articulate experience as a basis for learning and knowledge. Second, the exemplaryparticipatory approach which highlights the importance of enhancing empowerment and the need tofind solutions for social problems. We find these two approaches useful for doing action research in aconflict area because of their emphasis on experience and empowerment respectively. In our research,experience is important because of the children’s encounter with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)rebels that both needs to be understood and justifies reintegration. On the otherhand, empowerment isimportant for our assumption that the children’s experience and encounter with the LRA hasdisempowering effects on them. We demonstrate the use of the approaches in our research byenhancing participation, balancing power relations and being aware of ethical issues while at thesame time attempting to make the research valid inspite of the challenges. Copyright#2010 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.
Teacher and Administrator Perceptions of Peace Education in Milwaukee (US) Catholic Schools
(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2021-11-08) Velez, Gabriel; Angucia, Margaret; Durkinc, Thomas; O’Brien, Lynn; Walker, Sherri
Often intersecting with systemic inequity and injustice, young people’s exposure to community violence has been linked to a myriad of developmental impacts. A growing literature demonstrates the potential of peace education programs to promote resilient and prosocial outcomes for these individuals. Still, more work can be done to understand underlying mechanisms and implementation challenges to support these young people and build cultures of peace through education more effectively. In this article, we detail the theoretical foundation, context, and socioecological model for Marquette University Center for Peacemaking’s Peace Works program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, before presenting the results of focus groups with teachers and administrators where it was implemented. The conversations touched on how teachers and administrators perceive of the implementation of this peace education program, what impacts they observe in students and school culture, and obstacles to promoting peace in students, schools, and broader communities through this approach. Overall, we aim to contribute to understandings of peace education in violent urban contexts by offering a model built on a theoretical focus on nonviolent communication and behavior and a socioecological model for transformative change, as well as lessons from the program’s implementation.