The High Price for Fighting for Women’s Rights

Written by Talisa Singh-MacKay

“I have no doubt that the brave and collective work of women globally will birth the peaceful world we all seek.” Ketty Nivyabandi, The High Price for Fighting for Women’s Rights

Today, as Maama Watali continues to celebrate womens strength and their advocacy in support of human rights, including the rights of women to be free of all forms of gender based violence. The article shines a spotlight on  Burundian poet and human rights activist  Ketty Nivyabandi. She was born in Belgium and grew up in Bujumbura, Burundi, where she studied International Relations and worked as a journalist. As a result of her work, Ketty was forced to flee Burundi and now lives and works in Ottawa. i

Ketty holds in-depth and lived expertise on refugee issues and the intersections of gender, race, democracy and human rights. Prior to seeking asylum in Canada in 2015, she faced police violence as a leading organiser of women’s peaceful protests for democratic change in her country, Burundi.

In 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for an illegal third term in office. In an act of righteous courage, Ketty Nivyabandi mobilised groups of Burundian women and led peaceful protests in the capital Bujumbura until repressed and disbanded by police. Ketty was forced to flee the country with her two daughters and claimed asylum in Canada.

Her activism in Burundi, gave her a wider understanding of the injustices inflicted upon women in Canada with an intersectional approach. Noting “How serendipitous that I was pushed out of my country for leading women’s marches for peace, and ended up supporting similar movements, now on a global scale.”ii

As a communications strategist, she has worked extensively with activists to amplify their voices and shape public policy through international media. Her work is rooted in peoplepower, public accountability, and a feminist iiiapproach to human rights which denotes Eurocentric ways of thinking and being, preceeding colonial invasion.

Additionally, Ketty expresses her lived experience through poetry, where she poignantly weaves the dichotomy of exile and nostalgia for Burundi thus demonstrating the importance of creative expression in all its forms. The experience of trauma can be understood thoroughly through the artistic process. The end result becomes digestible, yet powerful and inspirationa. Imparting its own unique strength that gives hope, through exposure to the unwitting observer to both ponder and take action.

From Ketty Nivyabandi, we learn to stand tall, organise and empower women, regardless of gender identity to express ourselves. There is always space to be heard, both artistically and individually and as a group, together. We acknowledge the harmony we seek and stand for it in the present and moving forward into the future despite all odds.

“I remember you.

Poised-people. Truth-people. Masterly people. Cracked-but-whole people.

Jade, fleeing beauty. A jealous, wild, bewitching beauty.

The kind to burn a prophet’s eyes…

A tiny scoop of land that once dared defy the Reich.

I remember you.

Before your feather-words. Before your paper-sons.

Before your gaping ground, your wandering children.

Before your dignity in crumbs.

For sale. On the sidewalks of famished boulevards.

I remember you.

Yesterday still.

Tomorrow (of course).

This morning. I don’t know

Ketty Nivyabandi, “Remembering Burundi”

Visit Maama Watali’s YouTube Channel to view Ketty Nivyanbandi in Conversation during a panel discussion on the “The Wrath of Global Violence Against Women and Children” on February 10th 202l. Funding for the series of webinars was given by the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 Emergency Funding and distributed through the Canadian Red Cross. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezev1obdgOY

Sources

https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/remembering-burundi-14412