On Monday, 20 March 2017, the DUT based International Centre of Nonviolence (ICON), in collaboration with Arts for Humanity, the Anti-Racism Network of South Africa and the Durban branch of Amnesty International, will host a workshop aiming to explore creative ways of enabling change within South Africa; a society with a long legacy of violence.

The workshop: Change in a context of violence: a dialogue across generations will bring together those working on issues such as racism, gender-based violence, xenophobia, inequality, exploitation and exclusion as well as trauma. The aim is to strengthen the effectiveness of their work through an intergenerational discussion on how they address and respond to issues of violence, and how in doing so they remain consistent with their deep beliefs and commitment to justice and equity.

The workshop will be held at the DUT Hotel School from 08h30 to 16h30.

Anti-apartheid activist Albie Sachs will be one of the speakers at the event.

“Violence has shaped our past, in the colonial and apartheid periods, and it continues to impact deeply on our present”, said Crispin Hemson, Director of the International Centre of Nonviolence (ICON) at the Durban University of Technology. “Activists, both past and present, have had to respond in very different ways to violence in changing contexts. We see it as important first to strengthen the effectiveness of those who already see the need for action to bring justice before reaching to a wider public. The objectives of those participating will be to gain a fuller understanding of the issues confronting activists in the past and in the present, understand the legacy of violence and the trauma it has created, identify some of the ways activists are responding to this legacy and to determine the next step in their own development as activists”, he said.

The details of the event are as follows:
Date: Monday, 20 March 2017
Time: DUT Hotel School
Venue: 08h30 to 16h30

– Sinegugu Ndlovu

Pictured: Crispin Hemson

Picture credit: www.ukzn.ac.za