The Power of Nonviolence

Estefanía Campos  | 09 de abril de 2019  | Vistas: 19

Fred Bauma, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo talks about his work at LUCHA, a non-violent civil organization to promote community changes. 

He describes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a very diverse country with many valuable natural resources; however it is one of the poorest countries in the world due to corruption, miss governments and violent conflicts. This motivated Fred to found LUCHA, to mobilize people against the president, who wanted to reelect himself.

Fred shares some powerful lessons he has got from his experience as an activist: first that what revolts you is a drop in the ocean, meaning there are many problems to fight in the world and the important thing is to organize with communities to defeat them. The second lesson is not to confuse the targets.

What I realized is the problem is not the individuals, the problem is the system, and the system is more complicated to defeat. To defeat systems you have to strategize”.

Another important lesson Bauma shares is that you are not alone, because there are many people tired of the same situations that you and by coming together you can organize better. Later, on the fourth lesson he says:

Change has a cost. Every generation has to pay for the cost of its freedom.”

Finally he says that the power belongs to the people, we are the masters of our future and have the power to change things.