Burundi: all young people need a space for debate and dialogue

While speaking as Burundian bloggers at the Platform and at other events in The Hague, we met many researchers, including Burundians, who have been following the crises that have too regularly shelled the history of Burundi.

What struck me was that even though the internet offers tremendous opportunities for everyone, and for Burundians in particular, to access information and expose themselves to a range of views regarding security and justice developments in the country, people rarely take advantage of that diversity. Instead, many inform themselves via specific websites – the ones they enjoy, because they tend to confirm their opinions.

It concerns me that it is by sitting behind their computers or mobile screens – not in the field – that the Burundian diaspora forms its opinions on reality. And these opinions are part of what may end up splitting the country, Burundi.

The question people in The Hague put to us again and again was: "How do you manage to work with the Imbonerakure, as part of your bloggers Platform, Yaga Burundi?"

For those who do not know, "Imbonerakure" is a word in Kirundi, the language spoken in Burundi, which simply refers to the youth league of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD. But to those who asked us, the Imbonerakure are a bloodthirsty militia. This is the image depicted by social networks and the international media. It is the sole image they have in mind. And it is very far from the reality one experiences daily in Bujumbura.

In fact, the Imbonerakure include many different people, such as intellectuals, the educated – those able to discuss calmly without bringing out grenades or machetes.

That is the explanation we kept giving. This question (the fears and criticism behind it) and our response are a great way to enable people to understand the fundamentals of a project like ours at Yaga Burundi: it is open to all young people, all opinions, all ethnicities, all socio-economic groups. It is a space for debating and coexisting peacefully. Among our own friends, our university comrades, sometimes our own families, we have young people who have taken a path of political activism – even within the ruling party. Some of these people – sometimes close to us - are Imbonerakure.

Agreed that for more than a year, politics has divided us, the youth. There have been demonstrations, arrests, disappearances. And there is fear. We, the Burundians who had previously benefited from a unique level of freedom of expression in the region, we must admit that today, every person weighs his words to the gram. Often these words just stay in our minds as thoughts.

Coming to The Hague and seeing how difficult it is for distant Burundians to inform themselves and to forge an opinion beyond an over-easy simplification, reinforces the importance of our work at Yaga Burundi. The project indeed brings together Burundian youth of diverse opinions around a debate where contradictory ideas can be expressed, but on a basis of respect and tolerance. Yaga stands for being oneself, sharing one’s thoughts, and providing time for the others to speak – in order to better understand one another.

With the disappearance of Burundi’s main radio stations during the 2015 failed coup, Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter have become the “live” space for information and opinions coming from all directions. How many alerts, how many bloody pictures do we receive each day without being able to certify their origin, let alone their truth? In response to these highly anxiety-provoking pieces of content on social networks, we have instead opened up our pages at Yaga for debates, where we sometimes reap more than 800 comments.

Despite the climate of insecurity and fear in Burundi, reduced freedom of speech, arrests and violence, Yaga retains the goal of being a venue for debate and dialogue, which will remain open permanently and where each person can feel free to express oneself. And one day perhaps – we hope – Yaga and Burundi’s youth will play a bigger role, helping build a fuller peace process and even mediating between former enemies.

Dacia Munezero (27 years) is a blogger for Yaga and participated in a Platform brown bag lunch event on "blogging as social activism in Burundi".