DRC: Young girls take on slam

These young people, gathered in the collective "Goma Slam Session", met for 4 days at the French Institute of Goma to learn writing techniques and public speaking.

Through this "slam au Féminin" initiative, the collective wants to give a voice to young girls, and offer them a platform for expression in a society where they are often silenced.

"The slam will allow me to show the public and also to show our leaders, for example, how things are going in our communities, how people are suffering from insecurity, lack of water, lack of food and everything that goes with it, so I plead for these people, I plead for everyone through the slam," said Feza Eliane, a slammer with the Goma slam session collective.

A dozen young girls are involved in this collective. In turn, they run workshops for other girls.

To close the training, the participants performed in front of an audience.

The sessions were led by Joy Kayaga, a Belgo-Burundian slammer committed to the issue of women's emancipation through poetry in Belgium and Burundi.

"We realised that there are many more men, boys who go on stage and that often Slam events lack women who will speak. Something that we noticed in the world, we did the same thing in Belgium, is that when we allow women to train, to practice among themselves after they have the courage, the strength to dare to go in the mixed scene with the boys or dare to perform in front of the public" Joy Kayaga, Belgian-Burundian slammer

The Goma Slam Session collective has also launched a school slam programme.

18 schools have already benefited from it, enabling 450 pupils to be trained, the majority of whom are girls, with the aim of giving more voice to women.

This is an opportunity that is not usually offered to women.