Reclaiming Everyday Peace in the Micro-Spaces in Burundi

Abstract

This study uses the bottom-up peacebuilding approach and the notion of everyday peace to assess the impact of peacebuilding interventions in Burundi, which the Conseil Inter-Confessionnel du Burundi (CICB) implemented from October 2018 to December 2019. Specifically, the chapter explores two themes as indicators of everyday peace: the transformation of group relations and conflict resolution in micro-spaces in four provinces. After analysing empirical data from the field, the study finds that CICB utilised a pathway for change that empowered lower-level religious leaders as agents of everyday peace. The organisation then deployed them to improve relations between ethnic, political, and religious communities through changing individual perceptions and group attitudes towards the ‘other’ and resolving conflicts in micro-spaces. Further, the study finds that CICB combined technical aspects of peacebuilding, including dialogue forums, local peace committees, and citizen-to-citizen engagements, with religious values, symbols, and language to promote everyday peace. The chapter concludes that CICB’s strategy has universal utility because its logic of micro-solidarities possesses the potential to transform conflict narratives, end the cycles of violence, build peace from the bottom, and be the building blocks of peace formation at the national level. As such, the logic is consistent with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, which calls for the reduction of all forms of violence at all levels of society.