Picturing peace in Congo

The School of Classics’ Visualising Peace Project studies how people in different communities and contexts experience, understand, represent and work towards peace. Their aim is to spark more conversation about what peace means to each of us, where it can be found, how it can be promoted, and what peace-building and peace-keeping actually involve, at domestic, local, national and international levels.

“We think that talking about different kinds of peace

and different forms of peace-building is an important step in

empowering everyone to play a part in fostering more peace

in the world, no matter who they are or where they come from.”

Peace museum

Project lead Dr Alice König has been collaborating with photojournalist Hugh Kinsella Cunningham to shine a light on a conflict zone that is often overlooked in Western media. In the process, they want to pose important questions about what sustainable peace-building involves; what impact women and other marginalised groups can have in peace-building processes; and what we can learn by picturing peace-building from new perspectives, through empathetic and empowering photography.

Nearly 20 years on from a conflict that killed five million people and upended tenfold more lives, the Democratic Republic of Congo is once again sliding into chaos. As renewed conflict with the M23 rebels, massacres and regional militarisation catch the world’s attention, the vital contribution of women to peace-building remains invisible. Despite escalating violence, some women are working to create dialogue between armed actors and communities. They track human rights violations, warn of impending violence, and plead with rebel leaders to stop attacks. In doing so, they take immense risks.

Hugh Kinsella Cunningham has spent the last five years in Congo, documenting many different aspects of conflict and peace-building. He has published work with National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC News, The Sunday Times Magazine, The United Nations and Save the Children. A grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, he was a finalist for the Amnesty International Media Awards in 2022 and 2023, and he won 1^st place for documentary projects in the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 for a series of photographs documenting the work of the women’s peace movement in Congo. Pairing rare visuals of the frontlines with portraits and in-depth stories from women, this long-term project follows activists and the slow work of building peace in an extreme context. The project was created with writer Camille Maubert, and produced with local correspondent Sifa Bahati.

The Visualising Peace project will be hosting an exhibition featuring some of this work in the Byre Theatre in June. Picturing Peace in Congo will launch on 5^th June and be on display until the end of the month. Read more about the project and exhibition.