Conflict Termination and the Absence of Transformation in Teso

Abstract

According to John Paul Lederach, the cessation of fighting is often considered to be the cumulating point of a peace process, even though this moment only marks a beginning. ‘In reality …[the endings of violent conflicts] are nothing more than opening a door into a whole labyrinth of rooms that invite us to continue in the process of redefining our relationships.¹ To analyse this opening, this odd time in-between war and peace, has been at the centre of this book. I argued that the termination of a violent conflict and the possibility of its long-term transformation have to be situated into the wider social and historical context of the parties to the conflict. This transformation requires changing the exclusive boundaries that demarcate ‘us’ from ‘them’, as well as changing the composition of the own identity group in relation to the enemy. Central to this process is the way the past is remembered and the future anticipated. Remembering after violence constructs a collective identity which may or may not render future reconciliation possible.