Early 1996, we had a workshop with Gasina Girls Secondary School. This school is located in Nyanza province in Western Kenya. We were basically invited to go and teach some drama techniques and dances to the patron and introduced to some of the drama club members. Without wasting much time, we engaged the students through some theater games to break inhibitions and create an atmosphere of friendship, trust and belonging.

As the group's spirit begun to rise, more and more students came to join us. When we asked them to propose something that we could all do, now that we were almost a quarter of the school population. "...Food! Yes meat! Headmistress! Away with our headmistress!" came the answers we least expected neither were we invited for! We sensed that something was wrong. And so we had to let the students tell their story. There had been a strike the previous night. The reason being that they were not given meat for dinner as usual. And so when the students went to the refectory and served food, they poured it all on the tables. The headmistress was totally furious with their act and ordered for an inquiry to get the ring leaders. She said they were going to be expelled.

As they were telling their story, dramatically we were trying to make them release their tension, and ‘excess energies’ as well as the fear of expulsion so that there was no or less tension. With time we started to stage the issue and persons mentioned in the strike.

Amazingly with the manner in which we were conducting the session, when we asked somebody to act the role of the headmistress and she was available she promptly volunteered! By then we were not only artists but peace mediators. We were able to bridge the gap between the headmistress and her students. They were able to communicate directly with much understanding and in a creative way. As time went by, we were able to get on to how the conflict was created and the key persons involved. We found out that meat was not available because the student incharge for the store had forgotten to get it from the deep freezer. And it was late for the cooks to have it ready for the evening. Upon realising this, all the students forgave the one incharge and they were promised by the headmistress that share for that evening.

In this session we as artists saw conflict as an opportunity for the students and teachers to re-examine in-depth on their relationships and structures. We had to lower down the individual as well as group emotions to allow room for dialogue.

Amani People's Theater (APT), is an African initiative founded in late 1994 out of the realization that people needed an effective, creative and redemptive approach to conflict resolution, transformation and peace building.

APT uses participatory techniques for theater and drama analysis and transformation. It has grown from open-ended skits to include Image Theater, Traditional African Storytelling techniques, Simulation and Dance.

The Theater-for-Peace process is informed by the theories of the Brazilian Educator Paulo Freire of the widely acclaimed ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, the ideas of Augusto Boal, ‘Theater of the Oppressed Guru’, and the educational, therapeutic and mediative foundations of African theater.

In using theater for conflict analysis, we avoided spectators and made each person to be a story teller. To be proactive and sensitive to other's feelings and situation. The students and teachers in conflict were artistically empowered to take to stage and present their story. With the ownership of the process, they were able to reflect on the root causes of their conflicts and why they experience conflict. In our discussion and analysis, they were able to reach more desirable solutions and lay down appropriate strategies against conflict.

This form of community based theater provides a means of codifying social reality, and the performance becomes a mirror through which participants can see themselves, the causes of conflict and the effects. This in practice has proved that people of all ages need and appreciate the experience, and that People's Theater is a potent catalyst in transformation of the individual and society.

In dealing with refugees, Youth, Women, Leaders, NGOs and CBOs, APT has realized that theater is an effective communication tool in conflict analysis and transformation. In People's Theater, everyone becomes a participant as members of the Community have a chance to critique and debate on the raised concerns and even stage the process as well as the outcome.

Our experience suggests that APT process is very therapeutic. For example through theater games, image theater we are able to enter into people's feelings and mind and provide some psychological counseling. "I have never before experinced a Spiritual healing in a drama performance. One need not see a psychologist but expereince the APT process", says a teacher from Central Kenya commenting on this experience.

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