Reflections on the Everyday Dimensions of Peacebuilding in Seke District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The everyday peacebuilding framework involves shared offstage narratives, social practices and the often taken for granted interactions which are based on the constructed reality of a specific local group of people. Although these informal social processes remain subjective, undocumented and limited to specific geographical locations, they shape peacebuilding efforts of local people at community levels. In ward 8 of Seke district, Zimbabwe, the everyday social practices culminated into the establishment of a 15-member ward peace committee (WPC) without the involvement of an external agent. These offstage social processes demonstrate resilience, local agency and resistance to elitist approaches to peacebuilding as well as insulation by local people against practices considered as subversive to local peace aspirations.