By Oulimata Gaye

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In this notebook, Oulimata Gaye, of Réseau Africain pour le Développement Intégré (RADI), explains how she and her organization are breaking the wall of silence surrounding violence against women in Senegal, just as it is happening in numerous other countries and cultures. How are we to begin to "regulate" human rights problems when people will not talk about them? How are we to get people to talk? The tool that we use here is theatre. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, the plays engage the public, both literally and metaphorically, in familial situations. The public sees these situations set on stage and they also have the chance to play a role and to discuss what they saw. As a result, people begin to recognize abuse that they have wanted to hide or to silence: it is a first step to stopping this abuse.

What can be done so that people examine subjects they do not want to face? How can a cultural taboo that is not discussed, but from which numerous people are suffering, be overcome? Human Rights problems are, at times trendy – and the public can come to life and rally around a particular cause by which it’s affected. However, sometimes there are threats to human rights that remain concealed. We consider them given facts that are part of daily routine, that which is normal. These abuses are often the most difficult ones to address, because society refuses to consider them as authentic abuses. RADI, a human rights organization in Senegal, found a way to break this silence: using the people’s theater. Thanks to their years of experience in raising awareness about human rights issues for groups of women, RADI paralegals knew that conjugal and sexual violence against women were part of these disregarded abuses; a taboo subject about which even the victims themselves did not want to speak. This violence is justified as a "family problem", it is perceived as a male prerogative in a patriarchal society, where victims are convinced that it is they who are to blame – or that there is nothing wrong with the violence to which they are subject. And no one speaks nor doubts this state of things. Through a campaign that incorporates professional actors into groups of women in order to perform sketches on the theme, RADI succeeded in opening a public dialogue about violence against women in numerous communities. The women were themselves, invited to participate in the sketches, which gave them the opportunity to play roles side by side with well-known actors of the region. The sketches were both amusing and serious, breaking the silence surrounding this question. For the first time, communities were able to recognize the severity of this problem, its consequences from a human rights standpoint, and the search for solutions. People’s theater is a former method of political education. There is also street theater, union theater, political theater and many others. This practice had remarkable effects in terms of discrimination, war and peace, and all types of injustices. Each culture has a theatrical tradition – and many are those that think that one of theater’s principal functions is to stimulate the people’s political and social awareness. The traditional human rights movement is learning that in order to change behavior, it does not suffice simply to tell them what is wrong. It is necessary to touch the heart, through laughter and tears, so that they reflect upon that which seems "normal" to them in their society. In Senegal, RADI gives us an example of this strategy that is both practical and inspiring.

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