Peace Hut – CENTRE FOR PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES

Glasgow-SEMI-FINALIST-World-of-Film-International-Festival-Glasgow-2021

OFFICIAL-SELECTION-Film-for-Peace-2021-copy

Women peace activists gather at one of Liberia’s ‘Peace Huts’ for their weekly meeting. They reflect back on the famous 2003 Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace but remind us, and each other, that the work of peace and equality is not finished, instead demanding daily struggle, vigilance, and mutual support.

Runtime: 12:54 mins

Main Credits

Director/Producer

Camera

Editor

Research Assistance

Jaremey McMullin

Matthew Hyndman

Tanja Schangin

Kennedy K. Berrian

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What are the ongoing and diverse functions of the Peace Huts in Liberia?

Why are the Peace Huts still needed, according to women in the film?

How do the Peace Hut activists relate notions of victimhood to peacebuilding? Which factors, according to the women, account for the continuities that link conflict violence to forms of post-conflict violence?

How do the women describe different spaces in Liberia – the Peace Huts, the street, the home, political meeting spaces, etc.? Which attributes do they afford to these different spaces? How are they engaged in transforming each of these?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Erica S. Lawson and Vaiba K. Flomo (2020) ‘Motherwork and Gender Justice in Peace Huts: A Feminist View from Liberia,’ Third World Quarterly, 41:11, 1863–1880.

Freida M’Cormack (2018) ‘Prospects for Accessing Justice for Sexual Violence in Liberia’s Hybrid System,’ Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 7:1, 1-10.

Allison M. Prasch (2015) ‘Maternal Bodies in Militant Protest: Leymah Gbowee and the Rhetorical Agency of African Motherhood,’ Women’s Studies in Communication, 38:2, 187-205.

Sarah Douglas (2014) ‘This Hut Is Working For Me: Liberian Women and Girls Make Peace in Their Communities,’ International Feminist Journal of Politics, 16:1, 148-155.

Leymah Gbowee and Carol Mither (2013) Mighty Be Our Power: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War (Philadelphia: Beast Books).

SUPPLEMENTARY VIEWING

Gini Reticker (2008) Pray the Devil Back to Hell (New York: Fork Films).

WEB RESOURCES

WOMEN’S NGO SECRETARIAT OF LIBERIA (WONGOSOL)

WEST AFRICA NETWORK FOR PEACEBUILDING (WANEP)