Studio Ijambo

Studio Ijambo ("wise words" in Kirundi) employs Hutu and Tutsi staff to produce about 15 hours a week of radio news, public affairs, and cultural programming. These programmes, offered in Burundi's national language, Kirundi, as well as in French, deal with current events and processes related to Burundi's transitional period. Messages about social and political change are integrated into the development of characters and story lines. For example, one radio drama features a Hutu family and a Tutsi family who live next door to each other. Entitled Umubanyi Niwe Muryango (Our Neighbors, Ourselves), this drama aims to help listeners identify with problems faced by others and to devise positive, non-violent ways of resolving conflicts. Other programmes offered include:

• Amasanganzira (The Crossroad of Ideas) and Express, which cover the peace process and developments in the transitional government phase
• Iteka n'ijambo (Rights and Dignity), which informs people about their human rights and follows specific cases of abuses around the country
• Wibaza iki? (What Do We Think?), which gives ordinary Burundians often ignored in political processes the chance to express their opinions, hopes, and fears about the pressing issues of the day
• Au dela des faits (Beyond the Event), which takes a step back from the Burundian conflict to examine conflicts and their transformation around the world
• two programmes that educate and spark debate about AIDS: a radio drama (Semerera, or Attention!) and a magazine programme (Ndagucire agace, or A Word in Your Ear)
• two programmes that deal with women's rights and the important role that women play in peace and reconciliation (Uko bukeye, Uko bwije (From Dawn to Dusk) and Mukenyezi nturambirwe!, or Women Awake!)
• a daily live youth discussion and phone-in programme
• Sangwe (Welcome Back), which highlights the positive role musicians can play in the search for peace and reconcilation
• Remesha ibibondo (Give Hope for Life), which allows children to express their hopes and fears for the future
• programmes that allow elders to recount their experiences, incorporating traditional Burundian fables.

The studio's website, http://www.studioijambo.org, offers five weekly programmes in streaming audio. The programmes are added to the website soon after their on-air broadcast in Burundi.

Conflict, Social and Political Development, Rights.

Studio Ijambo was formed in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, during which the 'hate' radio broadcasts of Radio Mille Collines fomented ethnic violence. In neighbouring Burundi, many feared a similar outbreak of genocide. Ethnic tensions were high, Hutu-Tutsi relations polarised, and violence a daily occurrence. Rumours and lies fuelled the environment of hatred and mistrust.Created in 1995, Studio Ijambo was a direct response to this climate of fear. It was a recognition of the power of radio to affect hearts and minds, as in Rwanda, but this time towards peace and reconciliation.

Since 1993, at least 200,000 Burundians have been killed in the civil war. In reporting on this violence, Studio Ijambo's mixed Hutu and Tutsi team of journalists work to present a face of ethnic unity otherwise absent in the society. Rather than a Hutu journalist reporting on killings by Tutsis, or vice versa, journalists report on violence committed by their own ethnic group.

Eighty-five percent of the population has access to radios; Studio Ijambo reaches an estimated 12 million people throughout the Great Lakes region. A 1999 evaluation revealed that over 90 percent of Burundian radio listeners described the radio dramas as dealing with true-to-life issues in a way that brings Burundians together. In 2000, 82 percent of those surveyed said that Studio Ijambo's programmes help reconciliation 'a lot'.

The recipient of several awards, Studio Ijambo was the subject of a story by the United States ABC-TV news program Nightline. Its broadcasts are used regularly by other news organisations such as Reuters, the BBC, and Voice of America.