Rwandan Radio Drama by Sheila Siragusa
As seen in Ecumenica: Journal of Theatre and Performance, Issue 6.2 Fall 2013
It is the radio transmitted Hutu propaganda that is at the center of our images of the
violence during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Everywhere were groups, large and
small, gathered around radios in homes, workplaces, marketplaces-all of them
listening to violent prompts to “kill the Tutsi cockroaches” and “cut down the trees”.
The latter is a reference to cutting up Tutsis, the tribe known to be taller, with
machetes, the murder weapon most commonly used to kill in the 1994 genocide in
which some members of the Hutu tribe set a goal to kill every Tutsi tribe member in
all of Rwanda. The massacre lasted 4 months and left 800, 000 Tutsis and moderate
Hutus dead.1
In a truly grand irony, Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman, along with producer
George Weiss, have turned that same radio into an astonishingly effective tool for
peacemaking.
Staub and Pearlman have both spent their careers examining the details of what
leads to genocidal violence, the trauma that ensues for individuals and communities
and how to move forward to a point of healing, peace and prevention of further
violence. The individual and shared scholarship that Staub and Pearlman have
achieved is truly impressive. Between them they have authored over ten books, sat
as President or Directors of several Societies and Institutes, generated new areas of
study in major Universities and created therapy models and practitioner groups.
Both are doctors in their fields and their list of publications and awards is long.
However, they seem unwilling to rest on their laurels. Staub comments, “I am very
interested in impact. Impact in terms of actually making the world a little bit of a
better place.”2 With their serial drama, Musekeweya (new dawn), they have
married their work with film, television and radio producer George Weiss’s media
savvy to create a working model that is generating astonishing change.
Curious Listener
Photo by Anoeke Stekete
Musekeweya now broadcasts throughout Rwanda two times a week. According to a
2005 survey of radio listening, 89% of Rwandan women and 92% of Rwandan men
(both Hutu and Tutsi) tune in to the program. Since then, its popularity has steadily
increased. In 2009, 10,000 Rwandans showed up to a staged wedding of two of the
main characters in the show’s “Romeo & Juliet” story (both of them are from tribes
in conflict with one another). Those 10,000 were both Tutsi and Hutu.3
George Weiss’s Radio La Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation
(Benevolencija) is the producing organization for Musekeweya. Since the start of
the radio theatre in Rwanda, Benevolencija has expanded significantly. It currently
broadcasts three such radio dramas: in Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. Ingiro
Ikwiya is a television talk show, on which a panel of Rwandans discusses developing
violence in other countries as a way of examining the similarities in the patterns
that lead to such violence.4 All of these programs use, as their foundation, the tools
that Staub and Pearlman have developed to understand the roots of genocidal
violence and the trauma that ensues.
Staub and Pearlman first met with Weiss in Belgium in 2001. They were meeting to
hammer out the details of a collaboration that Weiss and Staub had been
developing: a ten-part television series on Staub’s work that different countries
might use as a template for prevention of genocidal violence. Staub and Pearlman
flew directly from Rwanda to the appointment, fresh from a meeting with the head
of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the ruling party of Rwanda, and the Rwandan Justice
Minister. Staub and Pearlman had been working with authorities in Rwanda since
1999 and their work was expanding very quickly as Rwanda was poised to begin the
Gacaca. Gacaca literally translates as “on the grass”. It is Rwanda’s locally based
trial system, started to try the overwhelming number of genocide suspects. There
are over 12,000 of these courts in Rwanda. They are held under the trees by the
roadside.5 The government was afraid of increasing tensions and stirring up more
violence as these trials began. They had asked Staub and Pearlman to find a way to
increase the reach of their teaching to include the larger population. They wanted
all their citizens to learn about prevention of further violence and the role of trauma
in the healing process.
Pearlman recounts about their meeting in Belgium with George Weiss, saying, “He
said to Ervin, ‘How would you like to come to Sarajevo to do television about hate?’
and we said, ‘How would you like to come to Rwanda and do radio about violence
and trauma?’ Amazingly, he said yes.”6
And Musekeweya was born.
Actor and Listeners
Photo by Anoeke Stekete
The drama is developed by an unusual group of collaborators. Of 100 regular staff
members, 90 of them are Rwandans (both Hutu and Tutsi) and had been involved in
the genocide in some way. The remainder of the creators are government leaders,
stakeholders, writers and the so called “academic team”, which keep the story line
and the participants clear about the content, which comes directly from the Staub
Pearlman approach.7 Each year the group convenes to plan the storyline for the
coming season, which is based on one of the communication messages that Staub and
Pearlman have created to articulate their teachings. The following twelve
communication messages were later expanded to 32, as the work deepened and
became more specific.
“Communication Messages’ of the Rwandan Radio Drama
1. Life problems in a society frustrate basic needs and can lead to scapegoating
and destructive ideologies.
2. Genocide evolves as individuals and groups change as a result of their
actions.
3. Devaluation increases the likelihood of violence, whereas humanization
decreases it.
4. The healing of psychological wounds helps people live more satisfying lives
and makes unnecessary defensive violence less likely.
5. Passivity facilitates the evolution of harm doing, whereas actions by people
inhibit it.
6. Varied perspectives, open communication, and moderate respect for
authority in society make the evolution of violence less likely.
7. Justice is important for healing and reconciliation
8. Significant connections and deep engagement between people belonging to
different groups help people overcome devaluation and hostility and
promote positive relations.
9. Trauma can be understood.
10. It is important to tell one’s trauma story, and there is a way to tell it that is
emotionally safe and constructive.
11. People can help their neighbors heal and help them tell their stories as part
of the healing process; everyone can participate in and can contribute to
healing.
12. Healing is a slow process.8
The core of the story follows two tribes in long-held conflict and animosity that
springs from a father assigning leadership to a stepson, despite the cultural norm
that assigns the eldest son as the heir of leadership. The creators steer clear of
naming these tribes, although increasingly community members refer to one tribe
as Hutu and one as Tutsi. The show will not make that distinction, however, in
support of the leadership’s intention that all are called “Rwandans” with no tribe
designator since the genocide.
Many Rwandans have been quoted in articles and in shorts about the program,
saying they have been changed by the program and, not surprisingly, as it is a StaubPearlman brainchild, there is data to support this.
The most convincing evidence to Ervin Staub, however, is a story that was brought
to him in 2010. A group from a Hutu village had participated in attacks against a
Tutsi village on a nearby hill during the genocide and left it severely compromised. A
young boy from the Hutu village, born after the genocide, had been inspired by
Musekeweya to look to healing and convinced his community members into
approaching the Tutsi’s with offers of help tilling their fields. They agreed and
simply showed up with their tools and began to work in the fields. Initially the
Tutsi’s would not interact with them, but, over time, they joined them in the work.
Ultimately, that enacted a ritual of forgiveness and healing together.9
Boris Pasternak once said that, “What has for centuries raised men above the beast
is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the
attraction of its example.”10 If the world is lucky, Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne
Pearlman will continue to sing.
“Pearlman and Staub Receive Frank Ochberg Award”, International Society for
Traumatic Stress Studies 73 (October 2007), (http://www.istss.org)
2 Ervin Staub/Laurie Anne Pearlman Interview, August 15, 2012.
3 Ervin Staub, Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism (New York,
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 306.
4 Radio Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation,
http://www.labenevolencija.org/category/news/rwanda-news/(October 20, 2012)
5 Jeb Sharp, “Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts,” PRI’s The World from the BBC, PRI and WGBH,
Global Perspectives for An American Audience, February 14, 2007
(http://www.pri.org/theworld/?q=node/8032).
6 Siragusa interview, August 15, 2012.
7 Staub, 307.
8 Staub, 370.
9 Staub, 385.
10 Raghavan N. Iyer, “Gandhi’s View of Man and History”, Mannas 15 (August 15,
1962), (http://www.manasjournal.org/).
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