School builds peace among Burundi's ethnic groups
Culture of discrimination
Ethnic tensions between Hutus and Tutsis have long dominated news from
Rwanda and Burundi, tiny countries in the heart of Africa. Less widely
known is the discrimination suffered in both countries by the Batwa people.
The first inhabitants of this region, the Batwa now make up 1 percent
of Burundi's population. Most live in extreme poverty and are routinely
denied access to education and healthcare. Through the School of Hope,
supported by MCC's Global Family Program, Batwa, Hutu and Tutsi children
are learning and playing together -- the first step toward a more peaceful
future.
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Four students perform skit on their goal for peace.
One of the teachers is in the background.
Global Family
photo
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School of Hope
The Batwa Educational Development Union (UCEDD), an MCC partner organization,
founded the School of Hope in Mutaho, Gitega province for children age
3 to 6. This village is located at a conjunction of five provinces, and
children from all ethnic groups live nearby. Of the 52 children attending
this school, 32 are Batwa.
Zachee Nzeyiman of MCC Burundi recently attended a celebration feast
hosted by the school. Students' parents expressed their joy and thankfulness
by singing and dancing, he reported. Community leaders also thanked MCC
and UCEDD, noting that Batwa children learn as well as any other children
when given the chance. While this doesn't sound like a radical idea, the
belief that Batwa are inferior and unsuited to education is deeply entrenched
-- even among some of the Batwa themselves.
At the celebration, two children performed a skit discussing these stereotypes.
"Don't you know that you are a Mutwa (the singular form of Batwa)?"
asks one disparagingly when a Batwa boy declares that he can learn. The
Batwa boy proceeds to list the subjects he studies and impresses the other
child by naming the parts of the body in French.
In addition to basic school subjects, the School of Hope program includes
peace education.
The closing skit at the celebration exemplified the school's goal of
peace for all:
Elvis: Amahoro (Shalom/Peace -- Kirundi word of greetings),
Nijimbere.
Antoine: Amahoro Elvis!
Johnson: Your greeting is peace like peace that existed during the
time of our
forefathers and grandfathers! ... Peace that linked Tutsi, Twa and Hutu
before division and hate entered Burundians. Is that the peace you mean
in your greeting?
Alexander: Can we expect peace again in our country? When our forefathers
entered into conflict, they hated each other, killed each other and
many fled outside the country. The one with whom you shared everything
in the past, you sent out. The Hutu said, "I can’t share with
Tutsi people." Tutsi people said, "I can’t share with
Batwa." Our forefathers did not know that these prejudices would
remain with us for generations.
Elvis: What can we do to re-establish good relationships?
Antoine: There is proverb in Kirundi: "When you bear a grudge,
your child will also bear a grudge." (Because a child watches what
a parent does, the parent teaches bad deeds and attitudes by example.)
All: Dear parents, we are the Burundi of tomorrow. We ask you to
show us a way of love. Help us to prepare a good future through good
education when we are still young. We reject any kind of division you
want to teach us. We want to be united. We want to build our country
of tomorrow.
Global Family also works
through UCEDD to support Batwa children attending regular public schools
in Burundi. To learn more about the Global Family education sponsorship
program, contact Gayle Zacharias in Canada, (204) 261-6381, or Kate Myers
in the United States, (888) 563-4676. E-mail
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