Ben ni walen (Let’s agree and take action): Mobilising for Human Rights Using Participatory Theatre

Published by Amnesty International within its Special Programme on Africa, this guide is a basic introduction to using participatory theatre methods for exploring human rights issues with people in rural communities. According to the publishers, raising human rights awareness can help people claim respect for and protection of their rights, and it can contribute to peaceful coexistence based on equality, respect, and tolerance. Participatory theatre can be an effective tool for working with people in communities who have had little or no formal education and who cannot read and write.

The guide has been produced as part of the efforts of the Special Programme on Africa of the Dutch Section of Amnesty International to contribute to the strengthening of civil society by furthering a human rights culture in Africa. It contains basic guidelines and suggestions, rather than giving step-by-step directions on how to develop programmes.

The guide is divided into two sections.

• Section I presents the background context behind the writing of the guide. It explains the approach proposed to mobilise rural communities, and it introduces the different components of participatory research and participatory theatre methodology.
• Section II contains information on the range of participatory theatre methods and provides illustrative examples of how to use them to explore human rights issues with rural communities. Background information on specific human rights issues used as examples is also included. The combination of theatre methods and human rights issues in this section is designed to be more or less interchangeable and applicable to most human rights issues.