Migration and exile due to human rights violations have long been key topics in Latin American studies. In the Colombian context, a compelling corpus of texts has surfaced that deals specifically with the phenomenon of forced internal displacement. Colombia is second only to Sudan in terms of the number of victims––some four million people––who have had to leave their homes and communities because of civil unrest. In this dissertation, I consider the socio-political construct of the displaced to be a homogenizing term used by the media and official discourse to refer to those affected by internal exile. This study centres on the uses and impacts of this identity marker at individual and collective levels within a cultural studies approach. In Chapter 1, I discuss three different genres: a novel, which references testimonio accounts, and a play that is partly based on both. The sheer diversity of characters that become part of the displaced category exposes relevant racial, ethnic, and ideological alliances that emphasize us-them relations. An analysis of Luis Alberto Restrepo’s film La primera noche, Chapter 2 deals with the juxtaposition of the rural and urban so as to expose the ramifications of dispossession at multiple degrees of individual and collective identification and examines effects of marginality by contrasting the conditions of the displaced against those of other marginalized populations. In Chapter 3, I argue that music is a tool of both denunciation and declaration through an analysis of a collection of songs written and performed by members of Afro-Colombian displaced communities. I study these vallenato and rap songs, fused with unconventional lyrics and musical elements, as testimonial texts that contest issues of land rights vis-à-vis collective identity and agency. Finally, Chapter 4 is a cross-examination of the shelter within a series of photographs. I first read the refugee centre as a bio-political space where residents are subject to extreme inhumane conditions, and I then show the shelter to be a space that elicits movements of solidarity and resistance, and counters the notion of the displaced as a homogeneous group.

Migration and exile due to human rights violations have long been key topics in Latin American studies. In the Colombian context, a compelling corpus of texts has surfaced that deals specifically with the phenomenon of forced internal displacement. Colombia is second only to Sudan in terms of the number of victims––some four million people––who have had to leave their homes and communities because of civil unrest. In this dissertation, I consider the socio-political construct of the displaced to be a homogenizing term used by the media and official discourse to refer to those affected by internal exile. This study centres on the uses and impacts of this identity marker at individual and collective levels within a cultural studies approach. In Chapter 1, I discuss three different genres: a novel, which references testimonio accounts, and a play that is partly based on both. The sheer diversity of characters that become part of the displaced category exposes relevant racial, ethnic, and ideological alliances that emphasize us-them relations. An analysis of Luis Alberto Restrepo’s film La primera noche, Chapter 2 deals with the juxtaposition of the rural and urban so as to expose the ramifications of dispossession at multiple degrees of individual and collective identification and examines effects of marginality by contrasting the conditions of the displaced against those of other marginalized populations. In Chapter 3, I argue that music is a tool of both denunciation and declaration through an analysis of a collection of songs written and performed by members of Afro-Colombian displaced communities. I study these vallenato and rap songs, fused with unconventional lyrics and musical elements, as testimonial texts that contest issues of land rights vis-à-vis collective identity and agency. Finally, Chapter 4 is a cross-examination of the shelter within a series of photographs. I first read the refugee centre as a bio-political space where residents are subject to extreme inhumane conditions, and I then show the shelter to be a space that elicits movements of solidarity and resistance, and counters the notion of the displaced as a homogeneous group.

Inter-group social trust is one of the main elements for peacebuilding and, as a common feature of civil wars, Forced Internal Displacement is creating further complexities and challenges for post-war inter-group social trust. However, research revealed that among the internally displaced people, some tend to have a higher level of post-war inter-group trust compared to the other IDP. Surprisingly, an analysis based on this topic revealed that only a small number of studies are focusing on the condition of Internally Displaced People’s post-war intergroup social trust in the long run. This study examines the inter-group social trust of internally displaced people to provide a theoretical explanation for the following question; under what conditions the internally displaced people tend to trust more/less the conflicting party in the post-war context? With an examination of the social psychology research, this thesis argues that under the condition of postwar the IDP who have experienced continuous pre-war inter-group contact the post-war intergroup social trust will be stronger than the IDP who do not have such inter-group contact experience. The reason behind this expectation is the expected effect of inter-group contact on eliminating the prejudices and promoting the ‘collective knowledge’ regarding the war and displacement, thus promoting inter-group trust. This research is collected data from two groups of internally displaced people of Cyprus; IDP displaced from heterogeneous areas and homogenous areas, using the method of qualitative single case analysis. The findings show strong support for the expected causal relationship.