Colombia’s Truth Commission Online Platform – Women and Lgbtq+ People Lives in re-Existence
Reviewed by: María F. Buitrago
Review started: March 17, 2023
Review last updated: March 17, 2023
Site Link
Context
Colombia’s Truth Commission was formed between 2017 and 2018 after the country signed a peace agreement that sought to end more than 50 years of internal armed conflict. On June 28, 2022, the Commission released its final report: an extensive and exhaustive research on the origins, causes and actors of Colombia’s violence. Rather than constructing a concise and coherent “truth” regarding these events, the Commission approached its work with a wide, diverse and multivocal perspective. Thus, “truth” was not a final statement, but instead became a process of listening and understanding, the memories, experiences, and motivations of both victims and perpetrators. The Commission was divided by themes and/or targeted communities, and the final report was presented both via written books and interactive digital platform. This review will focus only on the Truth Commission’s digital platform regarding Women and Lgbtq+ communities during the conflict.
Data and Sources
- Community Feminist Fieldwork research
- Focal and local interviews
- Bibliographical research
- Testimonies
- Archival research
- Personal life stories
Processes
- Selection of 25 life stories representing women, lgtbq+ communities and men from non-hegemonic masculinities who survived the conflict and could be representative of the multiple stories collected.
- The original videos were animated and live-action shorts included
- Editing the interviews to include ambient sound and music
- Indexing and cataloging of the interviews into five themes
- Systematization and tagging of Interview transcriptions,
- Creation of original illustrations, collages and photos
Presentation
Colombia’s Truth Commission online platform focused on women, lgtbq+ community and non-hegemonic masculinities integrates multimedia narratives to tell the story of 25 war survivors. These life stories come together under the suggestion of being lives that reveal the experiences of individuals who overcame the atrocities and cruelties of war and crafted new existences for themselves—“Vidas en Re-Existencia.” Their journeys are also a reflection of the lives of many people who went through similar circumstances during the war. The narrative is diverse and centers the person's affect and modes of resistance rather than offering quantitative information. The stories are divided further under the following four categories:
- Así suena mi resistencia (The Sound of my Resistance)
The Sound of my Resistance brings together five life stories from Colombian women who have become leaders in their own communities after enduring much violence during the armed conflict. The women narrate their own stories, and the user can listen to the audio of their voices while also experiencing diverse sounds from ambient recordings that capture the environments and places where the women are situated.
- La delgada línea (The Thin Line)
This theme focuses on five stories from women who were part of the different armed groups that caused the violence: guerrillas, national forces or army and paramilitary groups. Animated videos recreate the experiences of the women who fought in these groups including sharing how and why they got involved. Animated videos recreate the experiences of the women who fought in these groups including sharing how and why they got involved.
- Muchos hombres posibles (Many Possible Men)
Many Possible Men is composed of five stories from different men who suffered under or resisted the imposed patriarchal logics of the war. The user can explore stories on multiple themes such as: anti-personnel mines, sexual violence, activism, conscientious objection, and the transformative power of art. The stories are portrayed through text accompanied with illustrations and collages.
- Regar las plantas (Watering the Plants)
Watering the Plants has five life stories from women who lived through the conflict and/or its consequences in rich ethnic and culturally diverse territories. Many of them had to leave their places of origin and migrate to cities to make a living. Some of these women have moved back to their hometowns and have, together, created networks of support to help heal their traumatic memories with each other in a communal process. The stories are told by the women themselves as they are interviewed in short videos.
- Sanar desde lo ancestral (Ancestral Healing)
Ancestral Healing are stories from indigenous and Afro-Colombian women who share the cultural practices and knowledge that have helped their communities overcome the conflict. The women narrate their practices through short audio recordings with ambient sounds and music which recreate the context and environment from which they speak.
Digital Tools Used
- Drupal 9 – Content Management System
- PHP – scripting language
- JavaScript
- HTML5
Languages
Review
Narrating armed conflicts and their manifold truths is a complicated enterprise. Especially considering that Colombia’s conflict lasted for over six decades, but had deeper roots in many social, political, and economic problems that formed prior to that era. Many of these issues, along with the multiple forms of violence that were perpetrated against different communities, were kept in complete silence via omission. Nonetheless, Colombia’s Truth Commission approached this task with a transformative lens and has done an exemplary job at constructing numerous truths, which create a process and not serve as an outcome or explanation. There’s no one official version of the conflict, there are, instead, multiple voices that can give an account of what it meant to live through such harsh circumstances. This project was one of the first examples of a truth commission creating a digital platform as part of their final report. This online digital tool engages more people, especially younger generations and it becomes a portal for educators to find resources for their classrooms. The online resources reflect Colombia’s Truth Commission thoughtful methodology and focuses on the personal and detailed lived stories to reveal patterns and cycles of violence without trying to give a unifying one-sided discourse of the conflict.
The chapter on Women, Lgbtq+ communities and non hegemonic masculinities also brings a new perspective on the war, one which other truth commissions around the world have not necessarily considered. These 25 stories presented with animated videos, ambient sounds, illustrations, collages, testimonies, and music give the reader an opportunity to dive deep into the lives of the people who have overcome the scars of the conflict. The multimedia nature of the platform makes these dense narratives accessible to a wide variety of audiences. There’s a clear pedagogical purpose behind the structure and the illustrations, as well as easily downloaded the audios, readily available to educators. The comprehensive tagging system, in which one testimony can lead to many other resources or testimonies, provides a wider view into the structural issues driving the conflict.
The platform is easy to navigate, one can click in and out of the individual stories or select a sub theme and follow only those testimonies. For example, the thematic line of “Regar las plantas” (Watering the plants) presents videos with women who have survived multiple forms of violence but have built community with other women to resist the armed actors repressing their territory and their bodies. These stories give deep insight into the severe human rights violations perpetrated against women and gender minorities throughout the conflict. At the same time, they offer an opportunity to hear stories of survival and resilience from the individuals themselves.
The artistic treatment of the platform also contributes to reframe the narrative about the war. The colorful illustrations help to highlight the strength of the women and the lgtbq+ communities, and shine light on the beauty of the territories where this conflict had the most devastating consequences.