Learning about conflicts through narratives by young authors

Synopsis/abstract: In this talk I shall explore narratives as examples of voices that may not be heard when conflicts are diagnosed for the purpose of transformation. Narratives can be voices of the voiceless and therefore of relevance in the transformation of conflicts. Conscientization and peace education interventions are designed to contribute to transformation of existing conflicts that are obstacles to development towards more peace, participation, human rights and democracy. Missing the voices of the voiceless may lead to interventions based on false diagnosis and therefore be of little value or even making bad things worse. In this talk I shall investigate how narratives describe contextual conditions experienced by young people. My goal is to compare narratives from different countries, but in this talk I shall limit the selection to narratives written in South Africa since the turn of the millennium.