An unusual caravan through Ivory Coast
[Translate to English:] Gebannte Zuschauer: Auf den Plätzen von Städten und Dörfern konnte auch Menschen, die nicht schreiben und lesen können, die Reportagen von Peace Counts verfolgen
Fortuné, ein bekannter Schauspieler in der Elfenbeinküste, erzählt die Friedensmacher-Reportagen zu den Bildern ivorischer Fotografen
Oulai Soul, bekannter Radiomoderator aus Abidjan, leitete durch das Programm
The media project Peace Counts identifies people around the world who have made successful attempts to resolve crises and conflicts. The reports are published in Europe and in the countries where they originated. In Ivory Coast, that publication takes a somewhat surprising form.
On stage stands Fortuné, one of Ivory Coast's most famous actors. He gesticulates, ad libs jokes, rolls his eyes ? and loudspeakers carry his voice across an open plaza where more than 1,000 people are watching the succession of photos projected on a gigantic screen. Fortuné tells of people who mediate between herders and farmers, advocate for political prisoners, care for war orphans, or help former fighters learn a trade.
His appearance is part of a traveling radio show that began in June, Faiseurs de Paix, broadcast by the national government-run station RTI and several former rebel stations. The show is broadcast live on ten occasions from ten different cities - a groundbreaking cooperation between radio stations that had formerly been enemies.
Since February, the media project Peace Counts, whose participants were initially all from Germany, has been training 12 journalists in Ivory Coast. Tilman Wörtz and Uli Reinhardt, a Zeitenspiegel member and the agency's co-founder, traveled with participants throughout the country and helped get their work published in print, on TV and radio, and via live events. The project is sponsored by the Goethe Institute in Abidjan and the Peter Becker Award of the Phillips University in Marburg, awarded to Peace Counts on Tour in May, 2009.
One of the results is a film by the Berlin filmmaker Matthias Luthardt that documents "Peace Counts en Cote d´Ivoire" and, in concert the project, pursues answers to the question: How can one create peace? Peace Counts has been documenting those answers for six years in crisis regions worldwide, but Ivory Coast was its first direct cooperation with local journalists. The country has suffered a civil war and will soon face its first presidential elections. The probability of a relapse into violence is significantly higher than it was after the presidential election in Kenya last year. Perhaps, however, Ivorian peacebuilders can make a decisive contribution to a free election ? if enough Ivorians hear about them and follow the example of the faiseurs de paix.