Sixty leaders take up the legacy of the truth commission in six Caribbean departments
Summer school participants in El Cesar.
Two summer schools were run from November 25 to December 5, 2022, focusing on formative and participatory processes of the Final Report of the Truth Commission and on ‘La Mochila de Molano’ in homage to the former commissioner and now deceased Alfredo Molano Bravo, who in life managed to create a research methodology to tell the facts about the reality of deep Colombia, recognising the peasantry and decentralising academia.
The schools were organised by the la Paz campus of Universidad Nacional in association with Red de Mujeres del Caribe and with technical and financial support from CAPAZ.
The first school was held in the city of Barranquilla on November 25, 26 and 27 at the campus of the Corporación Universitaria Reformada, and gathered participants from the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Magdalena, and Córdoba. The second school was held at the La Paz campus of Universidad Nacional, Cesar, on December 2, 3 and 4, 2022, with participants from the departments of Cesar, Guajira, and Magdalena. It welcomed 60 people from the Colombian Caribbean representing social organisations, women’s organisations, youth leaders, university students, indigenous people from the Kankuama, Wayúu, Arhuaca and Mokana communities; some of the participants are victims of displacement in the context of the conflict, uprooted from their ancestral territory. The school featured workshop participants and academics with expertise in pedagogy and knowledge of the conflict, which allowed them to accompany the participants on a historical-testimonial tour through the multimedia platform of the Truth Commission, which accounts for three and a half years of research to clarify the patterns and causes that explain the internal armed conflict in Colombia.
In the two scenarios, we navigated through different chapters of the report, learning about the context and impacts of ethnic communities, the urban conflict, the role of children and adolescents, women, LGBTIQ+ people, among others. We also explored decolonisation, recognising ancestry and activist movements; important for the defense of the territory as actions of persistence.
The youth voice was present, games, bullerengue songs, the weaving of backpacks representing thoughts and words. At the end, the 60 participants signed an agreement where they committed themselves as legatees of the truth, a responsibility that implies individual study given the extension of the chapters in order to share Molano’s legacy and education in their territories, a commitment that was conceived at the end of 2022 but undoubtedly a long road towards peace in Colombia.