Safe Spaces in Bansang, Jarra Pakalinding and Daddy Jobe: Youth Dialogue on TJ, AUTJP and SGBV

Between 17 and 30 April 2025, Fantanka held a series of safe space engagements in Bansang, Jarra Pakalinding, and Daddy Jobe Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, introducing over thirty students to transitional justice, the African Union Transitional Justice Policy, and SGBV. For many participants, it was their first direct encounter with these frameworks.

The point of the sessions was to prove something practical: youth engagement is not "difficult." Exclusion is what is normal. When the space is accessible and respectful, young people engage with serious national questions.

Across the engagements, participants connected the TRRC, constitutional reform debates, and institutional reform needs to their own understanding of accountability, healing, and non-repetition. At Daddy Jobe, students raised probing questions on April 10/11 and even the credibility of TRRC testimony — the kind of critical thinking that public institutions should want from future citizens.

Rural participants in Bansang and Pakalinding also showed strong interest in how continental frameworks like the AUTJP recognise community values and youth inclusion, and how that should shape national reform priorities.

The SGBV dimension was not treated as a side topic. Students explored how cultural norms perpetuate violence and how survivor-centred justice is advanced by early reporting, legal accountability, and public awareness that reduces stigma. The safe space model matters precisely because it allows these conversations to happen without ridicule or moral policing.

A clear outcome across the engagements was the increased confidence of the students — many of whom began to see themselves not as spectators, but as potential actors in national reconciliation and governance. Group activities helped them prepare follow-up presentations so they could articulate what they learned rather than simply "attend a workshop."