THE STRAND — Volume 1, Issue 3
In an age of polarization and separation, THE STRAND is a newsletter about human connections, brought to you by Search for Common Ground.
TALKING DRUM STUDIO: the radio stars that healed a nation
In 1997, the guns fell silent, putting an end to the First Civil War in Liberia.
They were replaced by the voices of ex-combatants, child soldiers, artists, and women journalists, echoing from radios all across the country. Under the banner of Talking Drum Studio, they became a source of hope and healing for the country, reaching an audience of millions from the halls of power to the refugee camps. Read their stories.
CONNECTORS: Kelly Tsai
“When voices are heard because they’re loudest,
when solutions are chosen because they’re fastest
how can we live — anonymous to our own hearts
unable to shout the dead back to life?”
— from “The Divided Soul” by Kelly Tsai
Watch: YouTube
NOT ALL BAD NEWS
Just days before Christmas, 32 armed groups in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, agreed to a ceasefire facilitated by Congolese civil society leaders with support and training from Search for Common Ground. Read in Le Figaro (in French).
As tension over water scarcity increases across the globe, a new early-warning, early-response system flags up where this threatens to erupt into violence. Read in The Guardian.
THE PEACEBUILDER’S PERSPECTIVE: US-IRAN
“Ensuring people-to-people pathways for peacebuilding stay open will be critical to sustainably mitigating war.”
— Sonya Reines-Djivanides and Perry Cammack share the peacebuilder’s perspective on the US-Iran conflict in this piece for Responsible Statecraft.
