for the book comes from deeply personal stories
from survivors of war and displacement who rebuilt homes and livable
environments in the aermath of traumatic violence.
My grandparents
and parents lived through the Second World War, experiencing destruction
of their homes (on the maternal side) and hunger (on the paternal
side). As a college student, I had the privilege to meet and talk with
former members of the Dutch Resistance
and concentration camp survivors
while I worked at the Dutch National War and Resistance
Museum
at Overloon, the Netherlands. Particularly inuential was Harry
van Daal, the secretary of the museum board and a former member of
the resistance.
My next formative experience was conducting eldwork
in northern Namibia in the early s, in the immediate aermath of
the end of the liberation war against Apartheid South Africa. The
women
and men who shared their life histories with me were
victims of
wars and displacement that had transformed their villages, farms, and
elds into smoldering ashes, yet they rebuilt lives and livelihoods among
ruins and graves with an incredible energy and determination that inspired
their children
and grandchildren.