Theatre in Burundi: doing it differently in different settings

Burundi is a small monolingual country in East Africa. This country evolved from a powerful kingdom of the same name around the 17th century. For ages, this country is said to have a very rich tradition and different ways people celebrate life, and express what they think and/or feel. Let’s discover theatre in such an environment.

 

Theatre in particular, and performing arts in general are the most common means of expression of Burundians. This is very clear in their everyday life where every ceremony has a special scenography. A simple example is the dowry or marriage ceremonies. They are musicals that carry the beauty and richness of Burundian culture.

Theatre is one of the most powerful tools of communication in Burundian society. It is used in different forms like forum theatre, modern theatre, theatre for young audiences to name but a few. Since the 70s, actors produced classical theatre performances mainly in Bujumbura, the capital city. It evolved a lot and spreaded in the schools and universities. Some teachers with passion made a remarkable work in coaching the students in the production process for years, and theatre contributed a lot in developing oral expression and public speaking skills of thousands of people. In the same perspective, the national University and many boarding schools built halls adapted to the classical theatre performances. 

From classic to modern, a long journey to perfection 

The evolution of classical theatre met serious challenges during different periods of civil wars that Burundi went through for decades. Schools and Universities lost their focus on performing arts and turned it towards the fundamental needs of the students like educating them, feeding them, and insuring their security.

Around 1994, artists found another set on which they could create safe debates to help communities collaborate again, love one another, listen to one another and heal together. Theatre for reconciliation was born and hundreds of forum theatre productions and radio series increased. From Tubiyage asbl, the oldest community theatre company in Burundi, we count now hundreds of community theatre companies that tour each month in the provinces to help communities understand and discuss different problems in their communities to be parts of the solutions.

Though Burundi has no school of performing arts, individual artists continuously develop techniques, follow professional trainings, workshops, residencies that allow them to keep updated and improve their productions. Today, Burundi has only one theatre festival that happens every two years, Buja Sans Tabou initiated by Troupe Lampyre, directed by Freddy Sabimbona.  This festival allows local artists from around 10 companies, and international artists from at least 5 countries to celebrate the right of speech and share cultures for a week in Burundi.

Today, theatre is highly improving in Burundi. Companies like Umunyinya asbl, Les Enfoirés de SANOLADENTE, OUF, Irivuga Art, Troupe Lampyre are now producing high standards performances that tour all over the world. They collaborate with artists from Africa, America and Europe. 

However 

Though theatre is improving, theatre makers have a lot of challenges they face every day in their job. Many people consider artists as lost children and question their financial stability. Moreover, productions are very expensive and less financially productive. This is due to the fact that theatre makers have to rent halls for their productions because there is no National Theatre. Artists have to be highly creative to keep moving through those challenges. They find techniques to stage plays in unconventional spaces like parks, streets, any place that can receive the audience to be able to keep sharing their experience with them. Theatre makers in Burundi, like any other artists work in an environment with limited right of expression and with a lot of taboos.

To cope with the situation, theatre makers are always improving their production and make them much more interesting to keep fitting in the environment. Todays’ theatre productions in Burundi are highly visual and combine all the forms and genres of arts to help the audience view them as instruments that open their mind and help them see and think differently, as a key that ignites discussion to value multiplicity of ideas and avoid the single story narrative.