At Home in Burundi

In 1993, Samuel Ntahonsohokeye’s family was displaced from their home due to the ethnic violence that wracked Burundi.  When the opportunity to return came, they took it but found their land had been occupied in the interim.  Unsure how to handle his land conflict, Samuel heard SFCG’s Participative Theatre troupe was coming to his community and attended the performance.  To his surprise, the theatre troupe’s performance focused on issues of land conflict, similar to those he was experiencing.  Samuel approached the SFCG troupe and explained his situation and the parallels to the performance.

Samuel Ntahonsohokeye

The SFCG Participatory Theatre took an interest in his dilemma and reached out to their SFCG colleagues working on a radio program in Burundi.  Samuel’s conflict was then featured on a radio show on Communitarian Radio Station Star FM.  With this publicity and the support of both the SFCG Participative Theatre and SFCG community radio programs, the local authority stepped in to resolve the conflict.

Participative theatre in Gatwe on March 11th 2011

“The theatre helped us, at a moment we really had big problems. We had built a house which the occupants quickly destroyed and almost all the neighbors sided with the occupant. It’s at that moment that the actors came, and they approached us and we told them about our problems. After that they performed a play about our problem, right here. They did not stop at that. They brought us to the Communitarian Radio Station Star FM, and they spoke about our problem and that is how we were able to find a place to build our house…We would have filed a complaint against the occupant of our land, if not for this intervention. We only got back a small part of our land, but we owe that to the participative theatre, God bless them.”

Ultimately, Samuel and his family recovered part of their land with the help of the local authorities and SFCG.  Samuel now has property to build on a place to call home.

Learn more about SFCG’s initiative in Burundi here.