Exploring Resilience in South Sudan through an Arts Based Curriculum

南苏丹是一个国际上以人道主义危机为特征的国家。700万人需要援助，2018年3月，估计有530万人--几乎占人口的一半--现在面临饥饿。根据Mercy Corp(2018)的数据，100万人正面临紧急程度的粮食不安全。与去年同期相比，这一数字反映出在收获后的季节面临严重粮食不安全的人口增加了40%。南苏丹是对妇女和女童性暴力发生率最高的国家之一。虽然冲突加剧了来自非伴侣的对妇女的暴力，但亲密伴侣虐待的程度也急剧上升。因此，需要将冲突的影响理解为性别问题。在腐败和政治暴力的背景下，这种饥饿、受虐的群众形象主导了局外人的看法，并促使人们做出通常由外部“西方专家”驱动的回应。朱巴的国际发展界的知名度很高，以至于当地的表达形式和激进主义几乎完全沉默。然而，朱巴将在6月份举办第三届电影节，届时该国丰富的艺术和文化遗产将以《让希望活着》为标题进行展示。发展后对发展证据的一次又一次的批评，特别是在严重危机时期，过去的错误如何重演。必须给予新的创新、创造性的方式更多的空间，以理解在南苏丹的背景下复原力意味着什么。南苏丹的艺术社区一直在将他们的创造力引导到对话中，探索和平、复原力和可持续发展等关键概念。然而，就目前而言，这些叙述没有在研究中被捕捉到，也没有被纳入人道主义话语。创建一个新的网络，让人道主义行为者与大学生和擅长语言艺术的艺术家进行对话，至少在一定程度上将解决这一问题。朱巴大学目前有10,000名学生。南苏丹的大学教育作为一项殖民事业，根本没有将当地文化纳入课程。在此背景下，Co-I(RL)先前协调的一项口述历史项目揭示了“地方文化”/母语教育与大学教育功能之间的巨大脱节。我们建议通过这一网络发展的讲习班模式将是探索人道主义核心概念，即安全、和平与复原力的非殖民化替代方案。该网络将以讲故事教学为核心活动。艺术家导师将促进与大学生和人道主义行为者举办讲习班，鼓励他们利用这一媒介，反思复原力在不同层面和对包括最脆弱群体(妇女、儿童和残疾人)在内的不同群体意味着什么。网络成员将根据他们在南苏丹工作和生活的经历创作自己的故事。此外，讲故事的人将从历史和社区遗产中贡献故事。这些故事将被放入数字档案馆，并进行分析，以揭示网络成员的不同立场。我们相信，这个新的网络将是解决各个层面上的明显差距、沉默和悖论的开始；学术和人道主义讨论什么是复原力，并为大学生的学习作出充满活力和相关的贡献。它还将利用网络留给学生的新能力，支持不同文化间的分享和和平建设的形式。最后，它将为人道主义界提供一座桥梁，帮助他们了解南苏丹人民，特别是最弱势群体所经历的根深蒂固的冲突经历。

South Sudan is a country internationally characterised by its humanitarian crisis. 7 million people are in need of aid, and in March 2018, 5.3 million people - nearly half the population - were estimated to now face hunger. According to Mercy Corp (2018) 1 million people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity. Compared with the same time last year, this number reflects a 40 percent increase in the population facing severe food insecurity in the post-harvest season. South Sudan is among the highest internationally for prevalence of sexual violence towards women and girls. Whilst conflict has intensified violence against women from non partners, levels of intimate partner abuse has also risen sharply. Therefore the impact of the conflict needs to be understood as gendered. This image of starving, abused masses set against a backdrop of corruption and political violence dominates outsider perceptions and prompts the usual external 'western expert' driven response. The international development community in Juba is highly visible to such an extent that local forms of expression and activism are almost completely silenced. Yet Juba hosts in June its third film festive in which the country's rich artistic and cultural heritage will be on show under the headline 'Keeping Hope Alive'. Post development critiques of development evidence over and over how the mistakes of the past just reproduce themselves particularly at times of acute crisis. More space must be given to new innovative, creative ways of understanding what resilience means in the South Sudan context. Art communities in South Sudan have been channeling their creativity into dialogues exploring critical concepts such as peace, resilience and sustainability. However, as it currently stands these narratives have not been captured in research and do not feed into humanitarian discourses. This problematic context will be, at least partly addressed, by the creation of a new network that brings humanitarian actors into dialogue with university students and artists who specialise in verbal arts. The University of Juba currently has 10,000 students. University education in South Sudan as a colonial enterprise has not integrated local cultures into the curriculum at all. A prior oral history project coordinated by the Co-I (RL) revealed a great disconnect between "local cultures" / mother tongue education and the function of a university education in this setting. The workshop model we propose to develop through this network will represent a decolonialised alternative to explore the core concepts of humanitarianism, namely security, peace and resilience. This network will use the teaching of story telling as its core activity. Artist mentors will facilitate workshops with university students and humanitarian actors who will be encouraged to use this medium to reflect on what resilience means at different levels and for different groups of the population including the most vulnerable (women, children and the disabled). Network members will create their own stories based on their experiences of working and living in South Sudan. Additionally the story-tellers will contribute narratives from historical and community heritage. These stories will be placed into a digital archive and analysed for what they reveal about the different positions held by network members. We believe that this new network will be the beginning of addressing glaring gaps, silences and paradoxes at various levels; academic and humanitarian discussions on what resilience really means and make a vibrant, relevant contribution to the learning of university students. It will also support intercultural sharing and forms of peace building utilising new capacity that will be left by the network in students. Lastly, it will offer the humanitarian community a bridge into understanding the deep rooted experiences of conflict endured by South Sudanese people particularly the most vulnerable.