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1. 1 2021-06-02T17:59:00-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram 79c90f81cbadbcee036c97b91365eec227a9fa16 "The grass suffers most..." Sarah York-Bertram 4 Annotation: Grace Acan shares a local saying and an original illustration by Lorenzo Seravalle is paired with the audio recording of Acan to visualize the saying. Transcript (by Patricia Trudel): "After reading Ismael Beah's book I realized he went through like, like more than I thought had gone through because he was a boy and he had to go like, face danger every other time and he escaped several things while he was in the battlefield with the gun fighting. I compared my life. I didn't physically go to the battle, but I was there. There's a proverb in our local language that says 'when two elephants are fighting it is the grass around them that suffers.' So I was just suffering there like that. So wherever there was battle I would be running for my life and to make sure I'm alive. So that was the difference. Ismael Beah was physically there, hum in the battle engaged sometimes, sometimes he has to run as well. But for my case, I was yeah not physically [in the battlefield] but I was there [in danger], you know? That was the difference." plain 2022-08-29T15:51:07-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram 79c90f81cbadbcee036c97b91365eec227a9fa16

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• 1 media/Baobob_Flower.jpg 2020-09-14T14:09:23-04:00 Perspectives and Responses 40 The beginning of the path through the perspectives and responses to the exhibit. This page includes place-based perspectives visualized by original illustrations paired with audio recordings in Acholi and English image_header 2022-04-30T15:03:41-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram; Lorenzo Seravalle

  Ododo Wa community dialogues tracks perspectives on and responses to the Ododo Wa traveling exhibit. The exhibit aims to gain an international presence. It inspires cross-border dialogues about gendered violence in conflict. Though the exhibit’s subject matter is relevant in global contexts, it also centres place-based knowledge, experience, and struggles for justice. This path starts with place-based knowledge and perspectives emerging from community dialogues. It features quotes, original illustrations, and audio recordings that place Ododo Wa in its regional context. 

  
  Place-Based Perspectives
  Nature is an important feature in dialogues surrounding the Ododo Wa exhibit. Presenters and the audience referenced seeds, trees, grass, and animals during the events. In the audio recording below, paired with an original illustration by CSiW’s student Lorenzo Serravelle, Evelyn Amony draws on a local saying to explain her worldview as a survivor of abduction and forced marriage in war. Amony is speaking in Acholi and Grace Acan is translating in English.
   
  
  
  
  
  During his presentation at the Uganda National Museum, Dr. Chris Dolan, director of Refugee Law Project and CSiW project partner, linked the traveling exhibit to a seed and drew links between war in northern Uganda, the illegal logging of the Beyo trees in the region, and the hope that Beyo seeds represent:

  “There is a tree in northern Uganda called ‘Beyo.’ She’s the subject of a lot of discussion at the moment because it is being stripped out of its environment by illegal loggers. It is a tragedy. Beautiful, big trees, one hundred years old—all of that. And the only hope there is that the seed of the Beyo, which is less than the size of my thumbnail—so these seeds give rise to enormous trees, very high. So the traveling exhibit is modest but it is a seed for a much bigger conversation.”

  A local saying about fighting elephants was echoed in presentations and audience comments. As one audience member stated at the Uganda National Museum:

  “you know they say, ‘women are the pillars of the world.’ But, we forget the fact that during wars, [...] these women, the pillars, suffer more than even the branches. […] As you say that, ‘When two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers the most.’ So, realize when there is war, the men are the ones fighting and the women and the children suffer the most” (Community Dialogue, Uganda National Museum, 6 December 2019)

  Grace Acan also shared this saying in her presentation to differentiate the experiences of boys and girls in war. Drawing on A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by former child soldier Ishmael Beah of Sierra Leone, Acan recalled her experience in captivity when boys often had to fight in the battlefield while girls were forced to run for their lives to survive gunfire during battles. In this audio recording, paired with an original illustration by CSiW student Lorenzo Serravelle, gendered experiences of children in war are evident.
  
  Follow the paths through perspective by clicking one of the options below or click: Begin with "Survivors." 
  
  
  Sources
  • Audio recordings and quotes featured on this page are drawn from the 23 October 2019  "Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War" CMHR launch and the 6 December 2019 "Ododo Wa: Ododo pa anyira ikare me lweny" traveling exhibit launch at the Uganda National Museum. If you are interested in reviewing the transcripts, please email your request to csiwproj@yorku.ca. 
  • The original drawings featured on the page have been made by CSiW undergraduate student researcher Lorenzo Seravalle