Peacebuilding &conflict transformation A ... - Peaceworkafrica

colonial and post‐colonial eras. There have always been peaceful and nonviolentmethods of protest and persuasion that have frequently preceded violent uprising.Diverse nonviolent actions were experienced during 1912 and the ‘60’s in countrieslike Ghana (Kwame Nkrumah), Tanzania (Julius Nyerere), Zambia (KennethKaounda) and South Africa (Albert Luthuli). These societies led by ‘elites’ workedout nonviolent strategies including dialogue, petitions, protests, delegations, boycottcampaigns, strikes and mass civil disobedience to oust colonial masters andgain independence.The European Peace Movement (and anti‐nuclear movements) in the 1980s combinedGandhi’s and King’s experiences to stand up, using creative actions on bothsides of the iron curtain that separated the capitalist from the communist world.3. Nonviolence for life – some activistsHistory shows that there are many great nonviolence leaders and theorists who havethought deeply about the spiritual and practical aspects of nonviolence, including:Leo Tolstoy, Lech Wałęsa, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dorothy Day, Albert Einstein, JohanGaltung, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. All of them were/are powerfuland charismatic people who have chosen nonviolent methods of conflict transformationeven when violent methods were available. Millions of people fought andfight on their sides with nonviolent means for a more just and peaceful world.“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that humanhistory is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or actsto improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends fortha tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million differentcenters of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweepdown the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” 5What is offered below is merely a brief list of some outstanding people who haveinfluenced the ways nonviolence can be understood, implemented and lived.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement6 . He was the pioneer of resistance through mass civil disobedience firm lyfounded on nonviolence. He was most influenced by the experiences and discussionsin Europe (England) on the questions of colonialism and Human Rights.3 . N o n v i o l e n c e f o r l i f e – s o m e a c t i v i s t s 195