A great people, the Maasai of Kenya, have survived decades of violent colonial processes that created political and economic structures to dominate and control populations and extract natural resources.  Today the Maasai are once again facing an existential threat: ongoing drought from climate catastrophe and the violence that accompanies traumatic cultural change.  The Center for Emergent Diplomacy has been approached by a young Maasai leader for “conflict resolution” training to help mitigate and prevent further violence resulting from unprecedented conditions in their community, especially the forced sale of land to outside developers.

 

After decades of work in conflict zones around the world, the Center has moved forward from the old model of “Conflict Resolution” to a new model of Integrative Peacebuilding.  Recent experience on the ground has demanded that we test and apply new methods for transforming conflict in a 21st century context of political and economic globalization.  The most recent research in peacebuilding reinforces our own findings that ending conflict with the promise of sustainable peace is a long process of transformation emerging at the local, grass roots level.  Western trainers invited in from outside must be humbly committed to integrating the best of local Indigenous knowledge and practice into a fully integrative peacebuilding model that can be locally sustained for a long time.

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In order to ensure a multi-year investment in peacebuilding, the Center has partnered with Acacia Moyo, an innovative five-year project whose goal is to prevent the sale of land by jointly working with the Maasai community to introduce appropriate technology for growing food and producing “green” products to insure a sustainable livelihood.