Living in a Culture of Violence

Living in a Culture of Violence

I often wonder what type of person I have become through the experiences I’ve had in Uganda. I am afraid I’ve become someone who is continually dubious of intentions, presumptuous of actions and judgmental of people. I have tried asking myself why I often find myself falling into these easy responses. Why it is that without cause I presume intentions and react defiantly. My easy answer is that violence in Uganda has led me to be more violent. This is false. Uganda is not more violent than the U.S. Ugandans are not more inclined to be violent, quite the opposite Ugandans are compassionate, king-hearted people who will first invite a stranger into their home to share a meal and tea before asking for their name or background.

Why then, if the lifestyle and culture in Uganda is not more violent than the U.S. and other places in the world, do I and so many others feel more inclined to be reactive instead of reflective when interacting with others?

I read a book recently that spoke about our culture of violence. One of the key points it made is that violence is not new and on the rise. The acts of violence that we see are not unconceivable. We are not living in a new era of violence. Violence has been a natural aspect of life for all of Sapiens existence. However, our conception of violence, our vigor towards our cultural awareness of violence, is new. We live in an age unlike any other where we are now able to be consciously aware of all acts of violence occurring around the world the instant that they take place. This new phenomenon leads to a lot of different reactions. For some being aware of violence makes us cynical and reactive towards any true attempt at changing our culture of hate. So often I hear, “If it has been in our nature to always be violent than why try to change it now? Shouldn’t we instead buy a gun and prepare to defend ourselves?” For others it makes them passive. “If violence is the natural way of life than I will isolate myself and worry about my self-preservation instead of taxing myself with fighting against an inevitable cause.” And for others news of our violent culture leads to blowback like the waves of peace activism and consciousness that we witnessed post World Wars, genocides and 9/11. The difference between these past instances of violence and todays continual tidal wave of violent news is our awareness of these events.

I was privileged enough to live in a country and time where instances of violence were addressed with at times reflective actions. Regardless of how some of us feel today about the violent history and events that have and continue to happen in the U.S. We are incredibly fortunate to life in a country where these events of violence are reported and consciously addressed by society. At times not perfectly and by not all the needed members of society; but still they are acknowledged, and work is done by community members to institute structures and systems so that events and instances like these will not become the norm. In the U.S. I have the comfort of trusting that our society will make an active effort at meeting violence with democracy. And most crucially these efforts are often announced, publicized and celebrated by news, media and society.

I think this is why I have become more reactive instead of reflective in Uganda. The culture of violence awareness is just beginning to become normalized. Community members, media partners and government officials are just starting to get a handle on how to socially address societies access to news and the negative reaction unaddressed violence has on people. So often Ugandans will tell me to be afraid and wary. They’ll hear a news story and imagine the one instance being replayed in their communities across the country without any appropriate democratic actions taken to it. But this is often false.

We need to make an active choice in the way we vocalize and immortalize violence. Our society needs to learn to reflect and report on events of harassment, assault, and death with the full and compassionate story. This story needs to be told not just after the fact but also before the act.

So often I hear other volunteers talking about instances of harassment by Ugandan men be immortalized to symbolize that instance of harassment to represent all types of interactions with Ugandan men. This type of narrative sharing leads to more violence. But not more violence by Ugandan men but instead by its audience internalizing one instance to define all interactions before they could even occur.

We need to reshape our narratives to be inclusive of ways forward. We need to reshape our catch phrases so that they don’t cling to violence as the attention getter but instead trust on the resolution to be the solution. Absolving ourselves of all crime and sanctifying our actions will not lead to a more peaceful time. Acknowledging our victimizations and choosing to be vulnerable to reflective solutions is one of the only ways to unburden ourselves of the violence we fear is around us.