Radio messages for peace
In April 1994, the Rwandan president was assassinated and the country fell into chaos. Hutus began killing Tutsis. The
genocide, which lasted three months, left about 800,000 dead.
Laurie Anne Pearlman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and trauma
expert in Massachusetts, was moved by newspaper accounts of
the genocide, but she didn’t know how to help.
Then, in 1997, Pearlman attended a conference on the
prevention of genocide organized by her husband, Ervin Staub,
PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. One of the invitees was a Rwandan official who
talked about bloodshed he had witnessed. Pearlman told him
how powerful his talk had been and he said, “Laurie, I’m here
because we need your help,” she remembers.
That was the call to action she needed. Two years later, she
and Staub were on their way to Rwanda. Thirteen years later,
they’re still working there, creating radio programs designed to
foster reconciliation and prevent future violence.
In 1999, Staub and Pearlman began holding trainings and
workshops with the media, national leaders, and Tutsis and
Hutus who worked with community organizations. To help
them understand how the genocide began, Staub talked about
how difficult social conditions and conflict between groups can
lead to scapegoating. He discussed ideologies that offer hope
for one group but may identify another group as an enemy and
the escalating of violence that results. Rwanda, with its culture
of respect for authority and history of victimization, was
particularly susceptible, he says.
Staub and Pearlman also talked about the psychological
wounds violence leaves and discussed how to prevent future
violence. They stressed the importance of including all groups
in the community, promoting more independence from
authority and developing a shared vision for all groups. Their
efforts seemed to have a positive effect. An evaluation study
published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology in
2005 showed that two months after one workshop, Hutu and
Tutsi members of groups led by people they trained had more
positive attitudes toward members of the other group. They
also exhibited fewer trauma symptoms and more conditional
forgiveness.
In 2002, Staub and Pearlman took their messages to a
larger audience via Rwandan radio. Working with a Dutch
organization called La Benevolencija, the team engaged
with local writers to weave peace-building messages into a
serial radio drama. Their first soap, “Musekeweya,” or “New
Dawn,” tells the story of two villages in conflict. A year after
it aired, the show had become one of the country’s most
48
John Solem
Dr. Ervin Staub works with his wife, Dr. Laurie Anne Pearlman,
to create popular radio dramas that spread messages of peace
in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
popular programs. A 2009 study published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology found the program also
spurred listeners to show more empathy toward people from
other groups. Listeners also showed more willingness to
express what they believe.
Staub and Pearlman have worked on similar radio dramas
in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Staub
detailed the entire project in his 2011 book, “Overcoming
Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism.” “I have the
optimistic belief that maybe we are creating social change,”
he says. n
MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • JULY/AUGUST 2012
