Paper short abstract:

The continuous exposure to situations of violence can affect the way in which the victims of Bojayá construct their emotional responses to atrocities. An emotional shift is necessary in order to counteract the normalization of violence and build the skills to resist in the middle of the conflict.

Paper long abstract:

The category of social emotion has become a crucial aspect for understanding the construction of categories of victimhood in societies in conflict. In this paper I analyse how the emotions of numbness and fear as usual responses to atrocities change in order to support the activities of resistance. However this change does not mean releasing the negative emotions. Emotions draw the boundaries of the sense of self-worth and self-respect of the victims. The ethical problem of letting the negative emotions go is that it could lead to forget that the victim was inexcusably wronged. Negative emotions such as anger or sorrow can still influence rightful behaviour. In this presentation I will focus on dignity as a social emotion constructed in the context of ten years of memorialisation and resistance of the community of Bojayá.

The research is based on a case study of the surviving community of Bojayá. In the Church of Bellavista (Bojayá), 79 people were killed as a result of the armed confrontation between guerrillas and paramilitaries with complicity of some members of the State in 2002. The massacre left 79 civilians murdered, 48 of them were children. The conflict is still taking place. This research is based on the study of informal and official archives, fieldwork and interviews.