I am very pleased to be invited by the Uganda Museum, and Refugee Law Project which allows me to travel to Uganda for one week in order to share my experiences in dealing with the violent past in Cambodia, especially on the development of “App on the Khmer Rouge History” by Bophana Center, and learn from Uganda dealing with their own past as well. It is from the support from our academic network of “Education, Justice and Memory” (EdJAM) based at the University of Bristol. Additionally, I meet Dr. Edgar Nabutanyi who receives the same funding for university Ph.D. program from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the institution that supports my Ph.D. scholarship in Germany.
My Trip to the Pearl of Africa
Sharing and learning from communities, practitioners, and researchers
Uganda which is named “the Pearl of Africa” has beautiful nature of tropical rain forest and a diversity of plants, animals and culture. What is hidden behind its beauty is the past violence that the country had gone through for years of civil war since after its independence. After two days in the capital city, Kampala, I traveled to the northern part of Uganda, where people were strongly affected by a long civil war. I visit the Lukodi community on the day that they organize the annual Memorial Prayer Day for the 69 victims in May 2004. It was one of the tragic events that insurgency groups attacked civilians. I also see some photos of people who were placed to live together in the refugee camp at that community, and I immediately think about Cambodian people who fled the war to live in refugee camps along the Cambodian-Thai border during the 1980s and they faced similar hardship and insecurity. I can hear from the people in the Lukodi community and project staff there telling about the long effect of civil war on the community’s economy, children's education, and their psychology, which violence and domestic violence still happen in the country as well.
My visit to the National Memory and Peace Documentation Center gives me a much better understanding of the historical and political context of Uganda leading to the long conflict and peace process that Uganda has undertaken. The combination of visiting communities with my learning from researchers, and practitioners provide me with a better knowledge of Uganda's history, memory politics, and how state and non-state actors deal with their own past.
I also have the privilege to meet Dr. Edgar Nabutanyi from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He shares with me his work on the Ph.D. scholarship grant given by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. It was a great pleasure for me to meet him and also share my Ph.D. research project. Our short meeting ended with the hope of possible collaboration, research, and sharing more experiences with each other in the future. His inspirational works, his coordination of the Ph.D. scholarship in Subsahara Africa at Makerere University, and the kind scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation give me hope that a similar project can be implemented in Southeast Asia, especially in my home institution, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.