Burundian Children

The activities seemed to start when we got to the youth centers. Displays and performances included traditional children’s dance groups & rap artists. There was a group of young group brightly colored girls. Adults participated as singers, clapping out the rhythm of the dance. This seems different from activities (sports and dance) of children in the U.S., where a coach carries out a sort of formal learning process, often separate from the community children live in. Parents sit in the stands or are not present at all, doing other work. I don’t know where the grandparents are, but I don’t remember seeing many at practices when I was a child, though performances were filled.

The Burundian children blew whistles and sang as they danced. The songs were about wanting to live in peace, scarce Burundi’s past. Many of these children have probably never seen Burundi (their country of citizenship) given their age, and how long most Burundian families have lived here. There were older women who danced as well, including the leader who was probably at least 60, gray hair and all. We had the opportunity to see men and youth together in a demonstration of traditional drumming and dancing – the women aren’t allowed to beat the drums. The drums were large and left the natural wood color, or painted with white and green, Burundian national colors. Each person had one that he beat with two sticks. Some of the head movements seemed like possession, and jumping demonstrated strength and vigor. Dancers leapt high in the air, touching their toes in front of them. Yet another group of women and men from a Christian church came together to sing, and the result was a beautiful melodic sound that I was glad to capture on video.

With so much talent here in the camps there is a lot of potential for youth engagement. How much it happens, I don’t know. It seems like there is a vacuum of activities (cultural or otherwise), given that there are always little children roving around and playing in the street. Other games I witnessed were more sporting – such as soccer. The schools are all equipped with some sports equipment, and the NGO called Right to Play has been working in these camps for quite a while now, instructing people in the rules of certain games. They organize and train Burundians to coach soccer, basketball, volleyball (which Burundians are quite good at), and more… On the schoolyard, the girls play a game where they throw a ball to one another while one girl stays in the middle – at first it resembles ‘monkey in the middle’ – then observing further – the girls actually try to hit the girl in the middle while she retrieves sticks placed on the ground. Luckily the ball is homemade, out of plastic bags and such [see picture of child above], or the ball might sting more. It looks to me like these girls have good arms, and are pretty close range!