Abstract:
This article presents a Sri Lankan hermeneutic of the Joseph
Story (Genesis 37-50) in relation to grassroots peacemaking in
Sri Lanka. On a global scale, peacemaking at the grassroots
level is a rare phenomenon outside of the confines of small
groups. Conflicts are often aggravated and even reach the
point of armed struggles due to conditions of dispossession.
These eventually lead to war economies which are ultimately
beneficial to the rich. Sri Lanka could achieve sustainable
peace if solidarity could be created among the dispossessed of
the ethnic divide. Genesis 37-50 reveals four challenges to
peacemaking in Sri Lanka, namely, (i) constituting Benjamin
or creating solidarity among the dispossessed of the ethnic
divide, (ii) highlighting the importance of brotherhood/
sisterhood for the survival of the nation which is jeopardized
by the existing economic policies which are beneficial to the
national and global elite, (iii) understanding peace as
renunciation, and (iv) understanding and interpreting
forgiveness.
