When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation

282 Pages·2011·0.83 MB·English

by  John Paul Lederach

When Blood and Bones
Cry Out
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When Blood and
Bones Cry Out
Journeys through the Soundscape
of Healing and Reconciliation
JOHN PAUL LEDERACH
ANGELA JILL LEDERACH
1
1

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Copyright © John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach, 2010. All rights reserved.
Foreword © Judy Atkinson 2010
First published by University of Queensland Press,
PO Box 6042, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lederach, John Paul.
When blood and bones cry out : journeys through the soundscape of healing and
reconciliation / John Paul Lederach and Angela Jill Lederach.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-983710-6 1. Peace-building.
2. Mediation. 3. Reconciliation. 4. Forgiveness. 5. Confl ict
management. I. Lederach, Angela Jill. II. Title. III. Title: Journeys through
the soundscape of healing and reconciliation.
HM1126.L435 2010a
327.1'72—dc22 2011009171
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Tom Cauuray, whose life and words inspired our
writing, and for his family in the Falui Poets Society who
faced the horrors of unfettered violence with the prophetic
imagination of memory and hope;
For the family of Efraín Arenas and Doris Berrio and the
more than four million displaced and disappeared in the
Colombian wars;
For Morris Matadi and the thousands of child combatants
on the journey to fi nd their way home;
For Kadiatu Koroma and women everywhere who have the
courage to give voice to the unspeakable devastation of
sexual violence.
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Contents
Foreword ix
Preface x v
Introduction: social healing in the age of the unspeakable 1
SECTION I NARRATIVE REFLECTIONS 15
chapter 1 Drums and gardens 17
chapter 2 The wandering elders 23
chapter 3 The Women of Liberia Mass Action for
Peace Campaign 28
chapter 4 The bones with no name 34
chapter 5 Shifting metaphors 41
SECTION II THE SONICS OF HEALING 73
chapter 6 Sonic survival 75
chapter 7 The Tibetan singing bowl 89
chapter 8 Following the healing muse 111
SECTION III THE WOMB OF CHANGE 145
chapter 9 When mothers speak 147
chapter 10 The poetry of social healing 170
SECTION IV THEORY, IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 195
chapter 11 The resonating echo of social healing 197
chapter 12 Conclusions 225
viii Contents
Acknowledgements 235
Endnotes 239
References 241
Index 251
Foreword
When I fi rst read the book M oral Imagination: The art and soul of
building peace by John Paul Lederach, I felt the pull towards a kin-
dred spirit, someone who knew something about where I had been
and what I was doing in my life and work. John Paul had written in
a way that connected with me. I felt he knew the landscape, often a
rough, harsh terrain, over which I had been walking, and sometimes
a moisture-rich valley of sounds, calling me to places where people
desired to sit in the Dadirri1 circle, listening to and learning from
each other.
Later, when he sent me the draft manuscript for When Blood and
Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the soundscape of healing and
re conciliation, as I read, page by page, slowly, taking time to think,
refl ect, and reconnect where I had been, I felt and heard that kindred
soul speaking to me on another level.
J ohn Paul observed that this writing project with his daughter
Angie is ‘one of the most beautiful experiences a father could have’ .
Perhaps even more so is to work with your children on things that
matter. When Blood and Bones Cry Out links John Paul’s work in
many places, but for this book, violence in Colombia links with that
of his daughter Angie’s work with child soldiers in West Africa, com-
ing home from their childhood war zone experiences.
J ohn Paul writes about what he calls a neglected aspect of healing
and reconciliation. We too often write about it as a linear process. Of