Lukodi

Anna-Claire and I were given the great opportunity of going out to the village of the Lukodi people with a representative and translator from the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP). We had heard there was a massacre that occurred there but I hadn’t had the chance to look up much more information than that. It turns out that JRP is working with them on documenting events that happened during the war. JRP is having the members do timelines, writing personal accounts and even doing some storyboard exercises. There is a community committee that has gotten together to head this project and involve the community as much as possible. There were about 15 people that attended this meeting. Some of them were older and some just middle-aged.

In the past, whenever you hear ‘massacre,’ it’s about events that have happened so long ago. Most of the people who lived during the time have since passed. In the case of the Lukodi village, it was very recently. The massacre occurred in May of 2004, around the same time that I was celebrating graduation from high school. That is such a bizarre feeling for me. While I was celebrating my next step in life, people were just praying that they lived through the night in order to have a next step in life. As Martin Dennis from Canadian Physicians of Aid and Relief (CPAR) said, “You do not dream about tomorrow because it would be senseless.”

While visiting the village, Vicki (the JRP representative over the project) asked Vincent to tell us the history of the village. It’s something that he does regularly with visitors and he speaks English really well; so he gave his brief rendition. At first I was just thinking he knew the history, but seeing his age and listening closely it dawned on me that he was there. He personally experienced the attack, the killings, the hiding, and all the atrocities that had occurred. I believe that Vincent is probably not much older than me, so he remembers all that happened quite vividly. I have heard personal accounts, read about many of the things people went through, but I cannot even begin to imagine how it would feel or how I would possibly handle such things happening.

These people have been through terrible things, but are willing and wanting to record it all. They have learned that documenting these things is important, not only for their generations but for others such as students, historians, and everyone. Their story needs to be told, remembered, and never be repeated. They aren’t recording just the events of 2004 and after, but they started with history back in 1970’s and the hardships they were experiencing then too. I am so very impressed with these people. Remembering and reliving the pain and trauma of war is not easy. It’s necessary for healing, documenting, and helping but it’s hard to do. My heart goes out to them. I wish them all the best in this endeavor and I hope it works out very well. I hope that they get a lot of cooperation from the rest of their villages and that is a beneficial experience for all and to be used by many for years and years to come.

Interesting side-note: given my social work classes and discussions, I would say that this process of coping/recovering from trauma is a very new, but believed process. People have different ways of healing from very traumatic experiences. This way of doing it through art is very beneficial and yet also very detailed. I have also noticed, through discussions with different people here, that ‘traditional’ counseling as we think of in the states is not as well used. People don’t really seek out help for a traumatic event or situation. And any repercussions from such experiences don’t usually seek out help from counselors or anyone in that profession. So, even though they aren’t using the kind of coping and recovery that we may think of, it’s still a great process to discuss what happened and work through it.