Women, Religion, and Peace-Building

Gusii and Maasai Women of Faith in Kenya

verfasst von: Jaqueline Ogega

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Human Rights Interventions

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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This book explores the peacebuilding ideas and experiences of Maasai and Gusii women of faith in Kenya. Women of faith across the world have long demonstrated their leadership in peacebuilding. They have achieved this despite their underrepresentation in formal peacebuilding systems and the persistent lack of consideration for their critical contributions, and in the face of insecurity and violence against their very bodies. Their efforts include daily practices of sharing resources, building social cohesion, promoting human relations, and interlinking psychological, social, political, and spiritual encounters. This book provides a gender-responsive peacebuilding framework that leverages the intersectionality of women’s diverse identities and roles as they navigate both secular and religious spaces for peace. The book will appeal to researchers and teachers as well as practitioners and activists.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Why Women Must Lead

Abstract

Chapter one introduces the central research question on the gendered nature of the conflict and how women of faith act to build peace. Drawing on the broader literatures, the chapter defines women of faith as agents, and examines how they engage their intersectional identities to envision and create peace. It introduces the conflict context, the case-study approach with a gender-aware feminist perspective, and the themes of the book. Conscious of her personal and political voice, the author locates her positionality as an African woman of faith engaged in both academic research and in peacebuilding practice. She commits to remain both objective and subjective, consciously reflecting on the intersection of her unique identities and professional peacebuilding practice, with the larger theoretical imperatives discussed in the book.

Jaqueline Ogega

Chapter 2. Gender-Responsive Conflict Analysis

Abstract

Chapter two presents a gender-responsive conflict analysis to better focus on opportunities for sustainable peacebuilding. It examines relational and structural causes of the conflict, and how they affect women’s peacebuilding roles. Three relational conflict archetypes are presented: gender-based othering, warrior manhood identity formation, and gender-based violence. All these archetypes help to institutionalize a culture of violence. They affect issues of esteem, control, affiliation, power, and status that create and sustain conflict. They also define structures for peacebuilding, which often consider women’s efforts as less important. These structural barriers to women’s participation relate to land, livestock, and political structures.

Jaqueline Ogega

Chapter 3. Healing and Reconciliation

Abstract

This chapter examines the roles of women of faith in promoting healing and reconciliation through leading prayer, confronting grief and loss, conducting burial and funeral rituals, and practicing everyday sharing of resources. As agents in peacebuilding, women of faith are capable of overcoming barriers, and influencing peacebuilding outcomes in their own voices. Often encounters within secular-religious spaces are determined by unequal gender norms and relations, but this is not the only reality for women in the conflict context. Sometimes, such encounters limit men, thereby offering women opportunities to make claims to faith within place and space for peacebuilding. I demonstrate how women of faith transform attitudes and broken relationships, and work toward re-establishing interdependency and personal and collective healing.

Jaqueline Ogega

Chapter 4. Security and Protection

Abstract

This chapter presents the roles of women of faith in peacebuilding by providing security and protection. Although achieving protection and security is a complex process, women of faith play varied roles in this field, focusing on risk reduction, violence prevention, and urgent response. They serve as the primary providers of early warning and violence prevention measures, and occupy unique positions as early responders, alerting the community of imminent or immediate danger, and mobilizing practical action for safety. I discuss how women utilize religious language, moral proscriptions, gendered roles, and networks to secure their homes against violence. The chapter ends with a discussion of the intersectionality of parental and faith identities and whether they offer women legitimacy, moral authority and voice in carrying out peacebuilding roles.

Jaqueline Ogega

Chapter 5. Conclusion: A Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Peacebuilding Framework

Abstract

Chapter five provides concluding reflections, emphasizing that applying a gender-responsive conflict analysis and peacebuilding framework helps to understand how women of faith build peace. It draws on four emerging modes where Maasai and Gusii women of faith deploy religious resources as an identity, a motivator, a form of empowerment, and a resource. These modes enable them to serve in spaces and roles that would otherwise be unavailable to them due to gender inequality and social exclusion. They carve out faith or secular spaces to engage in prayer, rituals of healing, sharing of resources, and building relations across ethnic divides. While women in general may advance peace in these forms, women of faith draw from their religious bases, motivations, resources, identities, and modes to do so.

Jaqueline Ogega

Backmatter

Titel: Women, Religion, and Peace-Building
verfasst von: Jaqueline Ogega
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-89727-7
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89726-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89727-7

Springer Professional

Über dieses Buch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Why Women Must Lead

Chapter 2. Gender-Responsive Conflict Analysis

Chapter 3. Healing and Reconciliation

Chapter 4. Security and Protection

Chapter 5. Conclusion: A Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Peacebuilding Framework

Backmatter

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