You’re a member of an international peacekeeping organization called, “A Just World.” Several villages in a remote area of Uganda have experienced a high degree of unrest and violence. Groups of rebel fighters have formed in the jungles making the area a dangerous place to live. The ICC sent you to the area to visit the villages, assess the best response for dealing with the unrest, and to recommend a response.

River of Justice was designed to be an interactive experience offering an opportunity to explore the nuances and complexities of personal injustices and to do so from the perspective of both the victim and perpetrators. Situated in the backdrop of the Ugandan struggle around the atrocities caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the player is exposed to multiple motivations and multiple responses to the injustices depicted. The game is intended to support the player in developing a deeper appreciation for notions of restorative justice, and their own internal biases. In order to support players engaging with these larger ideas in their own life, this game will soon be linked into our life-integration platform such that we can leverage curriculum around helping people deal effectively with life challenges, meaning making, and notions of individuation.

See River of Justice Book Chapter – https://sashabarab.org/article/ugandas-road-to-peace-may-run-through-the-river-of-forgiveness-designing-playable-fictions-to-teach-complex-values/

Goal of the Game:

The game was designed to be an interactive experience offering an opportunity to explore the nuances and complexities of personal injustices and to do so from the perspective of both the victim and perpetrators. The player is exposed to multiple motivations and multiple responses to the injustices depicted. Our hope is that the player will come away from our fictional experience with a few new understandings that may allow for more skillful decisions in a real world situation. In order to support players engaging with these larger ideas in their own life, this game will soon be linked into our life-integration platform such that we can leverage curriculum around helping people deal effectively with life challenges, meaning making, and notions of individuation.

Game Background:

For nearly 30 years, the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has continued to kill, mutilate, rape and torture Ugandan civilians and enslave children as soldiers towards their cause. Beyond the suffering of those directly affected, this crisis has raised international disagreement with respect to how to address such severe and often forced criminality. The Ugandan President sought help from the International Criminal Courts (ICC) to remove the LRA, but later recounted the request under LRA threats that adjudication would only increase their violence. The notion that a cease fire could be bargained in exchange for LRA immunity raises complex questions of justice and prudence.