DigiTales across Borders

  • Dancers © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • Musician © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • Dancer © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • Flockey Ocscor © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • Grandpa © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • All together © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira
  • Audience © Goethe-Institut Kigali/Alex Niragira

Tales have the power to connect people

Reconciliation is a topic that crucially determines the relations between all countries and particularly, Germany and France. The reconciliation and the lasting peace between these two countries is an occasion to ask about the importance of culture as a vehicle for reconciliation and collective identity in conflict regions. In the region of the Great Lakes in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo conflicts are an ongoing reality. Apart from these conflicts the three countries share a common history and cultural heritage.

Tales are a significant intangible cultural heritage at risk of loss. They point to collective identities and are strongly community-building on the level of civil society. The reference to narratives, which continue to point to a shared culture despite the experiences and ongoing conflicts, is crucially important for the peaceful progress of a region where more than half of its population is less than twenty years old.

The project “DigiTales across Borders” picks up on this challenge. The dialogue with the poetry pens leads to a re-actualization of the fairy tales in the contemporary form of Spoken Word, which has regional importance as a mouthpiece for youth and constitutes the main stage for their socio-cultural engagement.

The project is divided into three phases: workshop, digital video clip production in Africa and Europe, and the final digital-analogue performance with shared-screen videos. In all three phases, the project will be jointly developed by the partners Goethe-Institut Kigali, Institut Francais Kigali and Goma / Bukavu (DRC), Yolé! Africa (Goma, DRC) and Rwanda Arts Initiative (Kigali, Rwanda).
The project is funded by the fond culturel franco-allemand.