Dreams, Night Visions and Decolonial Aspirations in Eastern DRC: Researching Pluriversal Cosmovisions in Conflict-Affected Environments.

Taking dreams seriously, this project aims to articulate alternative ways of 'understanding the world' in conflict-affected environments. Knowledges produced about peace interventions have long been articulated around responses to root causes and symptoms of violence. Increasingly conflict studies acknowledge limitations of peace interventions due to their western-centric logics. Conflict-ridden South Kivu is an emblematic example in which extensive peace interventions had limited success in sustaining peace. Interrogating and nuancing Western articulations, the project will document different ways of experiencing violence and understanding the cosmos (the world). Re-assessing the dreamlife responds to the urgent need to appreciate alternative ways of knowing violence and managing peacebuilding that do not align with dominant peacebuilding approaches. Across time and regions, dreams have been associated with activities such as journeys the mind takes out of the body, communications with the dead, malign desires from a third party, dialogues with the subconscious, and neurological phenomena. The well-known but often neglected fluid, sensorial, bodily, spiritual dimensions of dreams will be mobilized to discuss underlying pluriversalism. Building on feminist and decolonial scholarship, the project is motivated by decolonial aspirations, and is dedicated to theoretical and empirical examinations of pluriversal - rather than universal – cosmovisions of dreams and violence.

Keywords:POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES, DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Disciplines:Postcolonial studies, Social and cultural anthropology, Development studies, Security, peace and conflict