In Latin America absolute pacifism is rare, but the use of nonviolent action as a method of social change is widespread. The commitment to nonviolence is often more pragmatic than principled, based on the calculation that violence leads to further oppression, and that firmeza permanente (“relentless persistence”) can be a powerful means of achieving justice. The use of active nonviolence is rooted in the historical example of Latin America’s indigenous communities, which struggled over the centuries to resist assimilation by Spanish conquerors and national governments, often through nonviolent methods of mass noncooperation. In recent decades numerous Latin American social movements have utilized nonviolent action to overcome repression, end military dictatorship, and defend human rights. The commitment to nonviolent action gained momentum after the Second Vatican Council of 1962–5 and the Latin American bishops conference in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, as liberation theology emerged to proclaim a “preferential option for the poor.” Some appropriated the new theology to justify armed revolution, but most agreed with Leonardo Boff that liberation theology and active nonviolence were “two facets of a single reality.” Both are rooted in the Gospel and seek to transform a society of violence and oppression into one of compassion and justice. In African traditions peace means order, harmony, and equilibrium, not merely preventing war. Western concepts of absolute pacifism or nonresistance have little meaning in societies that place primary value on maintaining social harmony. Peace is a function of social justice. It depends on preserving the integrity of communities. This concept of shared humanity is embodied in the African phrase ubuntu, which literally means “I am because we are.” The truth of ubuntu, wrote philosopher Augustine Shutte, is that we become ourselves by belonging to community. Peace can only be realized in community with others, through the embrace of the other. Community elders are often called upon to preserve peace by adjudicating and resolving conflicts. Africa remains deeply scarred by the brutal legacies of colonialism. In recent decades no continent has suffered more from war and pervasive economic deprivation. The presence of conflict and the absence of development are bound together in a downward spiral of violence and misery. In response African leaders have argued that peace is impossible without economic development and political freedom. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere wrote: “for the sake of peace and justice, these economic inequalities in the world must be reduced and the mass of the people must be able to relieve themselves from the burden of poverty.” Bishop Desmond Tutu said in his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1984: “There can be no real peace and security [in South Africa] until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land.” In Africa, as in Latin America and Asia, peace is inextricably linked to economic and social justice.
Heiwa Shugi: South Asian Sense of Peace
