Abstract
Recent policy on education in conflict argues that it is important to include education in peace agreements to promote peace after violence. However, little is known about the effects of such inclusion on peace or how such provisions would be implemented in classrooms. This chapter looks at their implementation in textbooks, using the case of Burundi’s social science textbooks from years 7 to 9. Burundi’s Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement (APRA) mentions education 24 times—far exceeding any other African peace agreement from 1975 to 2017. The APRA has explicit mandates to address educational causes of violence including clauses for peace, national unity, democracy, ethnic tolerance, and human rights education. Through a content analysis applying the IREC framework and exploring active/passive approaches to conflict and peace, I find that education alternates between serving as a transformer of, and accomplice to, violence in these books. I argue that while the textbooks do address several clauses in the peace agreement, they also provide contradictory messages relating to peace building after violence. This contradictory nature is indicative of larger trends in implementation of peace agreement clauses and highlights the need for greater specificity and implementation plans post-agreement.
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Notes
- 1.
The APRA was signed in 2000, however, most sources cite the end of the war as 2005, the end of the transition period.
- 2.
In January 2020, Nkurunziza announced that he would step aside in the May 2020 elections. He campaigned for Evariste Ndayishimiye, also a Hutu. Ndayishimiye won the election and the transfer of power was set to take place in August 2020. However, Nkurunziza died from a heart attack (and suspected COVID-19) in June 2020 and Ndayishimiye immediately took over as President. As of this writing, while there were reports of government-based violence and repression during the election, there is no evidence of widespread violence post-election.
- 3.
Patriotic and Human Education (most Burundian refer to this course as Patriotic and Civics Education in English).
- 4.
In Burundi, the traditional monarchy was from the Tutsi ethnicity group, identified as “ganwa” in literature to represent their higher status in the state—though historical references focus on the distinction between “Hutu” and “Tutsi” as more of a caste system based on economic status, rather than distinct ethnic groups (see Lemarchand, 1995). Melchior Ndadaye (1993) was the first democratically elected Hutu President post-1962 independence. His assassination in October 1993 sparked the 1993–2005 civil war. These two sections in years 8 and 9 omit the three Tutsi presidents from 1996 to 1993, who all came to power through military coups, and other prominent Tutsi leaders within the current government.
- 5.
Note: a constitutional amendment in 2018 re-introduced the post of Prime Minister and removed one of the Vice Presidencies. There is still a requirement that the Prime Minister and Vice President must be from different ethnicities and different political parties.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to Amanda Blewitt, Angela Guerra-Sua, and Brittney Lewer for earlier insights on this chapter. Sarah Hodgson served as a diligent proofreader and provided thoughtful comments throughout. Elisabeth King provided excellent guidance and supervision. Amani, Vigny, Aimé, and many other Burundians helped collect the textbooks and curricula studied here while I was in Burundi during my research trips from January 2019 through February 2020. I am forever grateful for all their help throughout my research for this and many other projects.
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Dunlop, E. (2022). From Peace Agreement to Textbook: Education Content for Peacebuilding in Burundi Post-War. In: Vanner, C., Akseer, S., Kovinthan Levi, T. (eds) Teaching Peace and Conflict. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04676-6_2
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