As part of a world-wide screening, the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement at the University of Stellenbosch Business School is offering a unique opportunity to view the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-old civil war.

According to Gina Barbieri, deputy head of the Centre and organiser of the event, it is difficult to imagine how punishing perpetrators of war crimes can ever heal the deep emotional scars carried by the victims, who are so often women.

“Women drive the shattered war-time economy while the men are fighting,” she says. “They face rape and torture at the hands of enemy and friendly combatants alike. They keep families together and children alive – if they are fortunate - under the most harrowing of circumstances. And when war is ended, they endure the terms of peace agreements in which they have had no say, and which, without their participation, are fragile indeed.

“It is, in fact, only in attempting to heal these scars through ‘restorative’ solutions that real peace may settle in a war-torn area. A ‘restorative’ approach helps to broaden the stakeholder group and engage parties in issues around restitution, empowerment and story-telling. Women must play a role in this process.”

Prof Barney Jordaan, head of the centre, says that the Centre is committed to ensuring that women are empowered to do this. The Centre focuses on developing alternatives to established dispute resolution mechanisms, encompassing all disciplines in the field of dispute resolution, and supports the development of skilled mediators and peacemakers, able to deliver dispute resolution services on the African continent.

For details of the screening please visit the Centre’s website