Lebollo's Potential to Reduce Violence and Murders Linked to Likobo/Famo Gangs in Lesotho: Thoughts on Peacebuilding Education

Abstract

Lesotho currently ranks among the top ten countries with the highest murder rates in the world, according to Population Review data, due to its high homicide rate. Famo gang violence contributes significantly to various forms of violence, including murder and domestic abuse. A number of strategies, including interventions by the government and non-governmental organisations have been used to reduce violence related to famo gangs. In contrast, I argue in this paper that most peace initiatives have focused on direct or physical violence by using peacekeeping and peacemaking strategies. These programmes do not address the cultural and structural manifestations of murder and violence that have contributed to conditions inimical to sustainable peace. Therefore, this paper proposes strategic intervention that uses education for peacebuilding to address structural and cultural violence. It further argues that the knowledge and skills acquired at Lebollo School are often uncritically linked to the violent behaviour of famo gangs. In order to transform and re-articulate the knowledge and skills from lebollo into peacebuilding cultural resources, it has been suggested that peacebuilding education be incorporated into the curricula of Lebollo Schools. Specifically, the conscientisation of the cohorts of lebollo through dialogical processes is proposed to support the contextualisation and application of international peacebuilding education material for the transformation of lebollo.