Journeys of Peace – Traveling Exhibition

“Journeys of Peace”, a travelling exhibition on Kenyan Peace Cultures, is the most recent educational outreach initiative of INMP member Community Peace Museums Heritage Foundation (CPMHF) in Kenya. The project builds on earlier peace and history exhibitions that are locally grounded, such as the “Beaded Peace Tree Project” (2008) in which around 100 elders and youth leaders travelled around the country and held public forums on peacemaking in schools and churches. They carried with them a small ‘tree’ and asked people to decorate its branches with beads using colours that signify peace in their ethnic group.
The exhibition consists of panels that emphasize Kenyan indigenous peacemaking institutions, and peace and reconciliation symbols, ranging from images of African elders performing peacekeeping rituals and ceremonies, to natural and artificial artefacts used in community dialogue and peacemaking. The goal is to introduce these indigenous peace practices to work toward a society that uses cultural heritage to promote peaceful co-existence and respect for human rights and sustainable human development. Given the historic exploitation of Kenyan religio-cultural artefacts, and the degree to which traditional sacred sites and artefacts are being sold or lost due to development projects, this exhibition also serves to preserve and educate about the religio-cultural heritage of Kenyan peace and conflict resolution.
INMP board member and peace studies scholar, Timothy Gachanga, serves as coordinator of the CPMHF, a network of community-based museums in different parts of Kenya, established in 1994. “Journeys of Peace” is in keeping with the goals of CPMHF ‘…. to celebrate and conserve the religio-cultural heritage of particular communities while also using peace traditions and artefacts associated with peace to unite these