UB launches culture and peace centre

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday April 13, 2007 00:00

Speaking at the launch held at Gaborone Sun yesterday, deputy vice chancellor (Academic affairs) Professor Frank Youngman said the centre would benefit the wider public with its regional focus.

'The centre for culture and peace studies is an interdisciplinary centre that draws on academic expertise across the university,' Youngman said. The centre has been established to address one of the most challenging and complex development dimensions in the Southern African region and the entire African continent. He asserted that the centre is dedicated to understanding and analysing peace and conflict and to the promotion and enhancement of the culture of peace, which is critical to safe and secure livelihoods of citizens and states.

Youngman further stressed that the centre is interdisciplinary in nature because it is designed to take advantage of the synergies that occur when scholars from different backgrounds join hands to address a particular issue. 'It is clear that the question of conflict and peace can be considered from many different angles. We may initially think psychological, social, political and educational dimensions but there are also economic issues and those relating to natural sciences,' he said.

The centre is unique in that it would be approaching peace building and conflict resolution from an African perspective as the basis for the search for effective and lasting peace. He stated that a key question would be to identify those elements of the African heritage, which may play a positive role in conflict resolution whilst also confronting negative elements such as patriarchy.

The UB dean added that the centre would strive to involve all stakeholders involved in issues of conflict and peace. It would seek to access indigenous knowledge systems, like through dikgosi, to link academics and practitioners in the fields of peace building, conflict resolution and prevention, strengthen ties and to work with both civilians and the military.

'It will ensure that stakeholders influence the content of the centre's curriculum and its research agenda.' He said their expectation is to work with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defence and security to promote peace in the sub-continent.

UNESCO, the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and the Botswana government through the national commission, funded the centre for UNESCO.

Its establishment in November last year was the culmination of many years of discussions, workshops and conferences with national and regional stakeholders that followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by UNESCO and the Botswana government in 1995.