Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been plagued by complex and enmeshed conflict since the 1960s, involving diverse ethnic groups and neighbouring countries, Rwanda and Uganda. Despite numerous peace agreements, ongoing violence, particularly in the east of the country continues to affect the civilian population with thousands of deaths, three million people displaced and over 500,000 refugees registered in 2014. It has been argued that this situation of transition is a situation of ‘neither war nor peace’ (Larmer, Laudati & Clark, 2013).

There is a variety of literature on peacebuilding and the arts, in particular on theatre in this process of transition and consciousness-raising in communities (Gordon and Myers 2001, Article 19 2003, Ebewo 2009, Tarter 2011, Mtukwa 2015, Piotrowska 2015). The proposed projects will explore the role of various artistic expressions (music, theatre, dance and media) in conflict resolution and violence prevention in a community and refugee camp settings. The research partner is Search for a Common Ground.