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（近一半人口）面临饥饿。根据美慈公司（2018年）的数据，有100万人面临紧急粮食不安全状况。与去年同期相比，这一数字反映出在收获后季节面临严重粮食不安全的人口增加了40%。南苏丹是世界上对妇女和女童性暴力发生率最高的国家之一。虽然冲突加剧了非伴侣对妇女的暴力，但亲密伴侣虐待的程度也急剧上升。因此，冲突的影响需要从性别角度来理解。在腐败和政治暴力的背景下，饥饿、受虐待的民众的形象主导了外界的看法，并引发了通常的外部“西方专家”驱动的反应。国际发展团体在朱巴的影响力如此之大，以至于当地的各种表达和行动几乎完全被压制。然而，朱巴将于6月举办第三届电影节，以“让希望永存”为主题，展示该国丰富的艺术和文化遗产。对发展证据的后发展批评一遍又一遍地强调过去的错误是如何重演的尤其是在严重危机时期。必须为理解韧性在南苏丹背景下的意义提供更多空间。南苏丹的艺术社区一直在将他们的创造力用于探讨和平、复原力和可持续性等关键概念的对话。然而，就目前而言，这些叙述尚未在研究中被捕获，也没有纳入人道主义话语。通过创建一个新的网络，将人道主义行动者与大学生和专门从事语言艺术的艺术家进行对话，至少可以部分解决这一问题。朱巴大学目前有1万名学生。作为殖民企业，南苏丹的大学教育根本没有将当地文化纳入课程。在此之前，一项由联合研究中心（RL）协调的口述历史项目表明，在这种情况下，“本土文化”/母语教育与大学教育的功能之间存在着巨大的脱节。我们提议通过这个网络发展的讲习班模式将代表一种非殖民化的选择，以探索人道主义的核心概念，即安全、和平和复原力。该网络将以讲故事教学为核心活动。艺术家导师将为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思考复原力在不同层面和对不同人群（包括最弱势群体（妇女、儿童和残疾人））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，故事讲述者将从历史和社区遗产中提供叙述。这些故事将被放入一个数字档案中，并对它们所揭示的网络成员持有的不同立场进行分析。我们相信，这个新的网络将是在各个层面解决明显差距、沉默和矛盾的开始；关于韧性真正含义的学术和人道主义讨论，并为大学生的学习做出充满活力的相关贡献。它还将利用网络在学生中留下的新能力，支持跨文化分享和各种形式的和平建设。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遭受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.