Last week, I was able to travel up-country and take part in
a training on the rule of law and alternative dispute resolution with
traditional leaders – town chiefs, clan chiefs and paramount chiefs. The first
thing I realized was that my image of traditional leaders was entirely
outdated. I had basically expected to meet elderly, serious men in traditional
clothes with a stick or such in their hand, and instead I met next to a few
elderly men numerous women and young men. I had furthermore assumed that the
chiefs had either inherited their position from their fathers or were appointed
by former chiefs, and instead I learned that nowadays the chiefs are elected –
“Of course! It’s a democratic society, why did you think that we would not
elect them?” Lastly, these chiefs were clearly not the serious or even grim
leaders I had expected – I haven’t often seen a group that enjoyed energizers
as much as these chiefs did. Meeting the chiefs was thus a good lesson in
rethinking stereotypes.
In a second step I learned about the complexity of the
Liberian legal system. Liberia has a dual law system where customary law and
statutory law exist in parallel. This gives the chiefs the power to make
binding decisions in their communities on some issues but at the same time
confronts them with various challenges: If a community member is already
married under statutory law, can he marry an additional woman as is allowed
under customary law? If a criminal case is brought to the chief, does the chief
have to take it to the police? Do the chiefs belong to the executive or the
judiciary and which rights and responsibilities do they thus have toward other
state organs? With a significant level of illiteracy among the chiefs and
limited civic education, these are challenging issues. For two days, Liberian
lawyers explained the basics of the state structure, inheritance law, land
rights and many more topics to the participants, equipping them with the
knowledge that can help them fulfill their roles more effectively, in line with
the law, and with the aim of resolving conflict in their communities.
The second part of the training consisted of a discussion on
gender-based violence and several sessions on alternative dispute resolution
methods. In a society where traditional beliefs and practices are a main source
of SGBV, discussing SGBV with traditional leaders is obviously challenging.
Yet, the facilitator managed to constructively engage the chiefs through
looking at the issue from their perspective, rather than providing a lesson
from outside that might alienate them. She explained SGBV with the image of the
“conflict tree” (roots of the problem, fruits/consequences of the problem),
making clear that while tradition (roots) is what gives stability to our
communities and what we need to guide our behavior, it is at the same time also
informing practices that are harmful to the community, such as SGBV. Rather
than rejecting tradition, traditional leaders can thus in fact play an
important role in guiding their communities if they realize that much of the
present image of women and men and their relationship informs behavior which in
turn leads to consequences (fruits) everyone recognizes as negative: unwanted
pregnancies, unhappy families, the separation of couples, the spread of
HIV/Aids, as well as general frustration, fear and worry in the community.
While certainly leaving out a number of more controversial topics related to
SGBV such as FGM, I was definitely impressed by how well the issue was received
by the chiefs, many of whom might not discuss gender roles and SGBV in any
other settings. Just as the youth roundtable the week before, this session
taught me about planning activities and presenting issues in ways that are
appropriate for the respective audience and enable constructive discussions
rather than insisting on talking about everything related to the issue or
falling into jargon that is disconnected from the reality of the participants.
If tradition is a source of SGBV it will not help to exclude traditional
leaders or simply mark their beliefs as bad. A change in mindsets and practices
(even if incremental) will only come about through continuous engagement,
cooperation and sincere attempts at understanding the issue from their
perspective. Without doubt this constitutes a challenge, even more so for me as
I come from a different culture, but it is also a valuable exercise in
practicing patience, persistence, and flexibility, all at the same time.
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