Meet the Voices Behind the Vision
Bonface Beti
Bonface Beti is a board member of Kahanee and an African artist, storyteller and multidisciplinary practitioner working at the intersection of theatre, peacebuilding and healing-centred social change. Since 2004, he has collaborated with Amani Peoples’ Theatre and the Green String Network and later founded Mama Afrika Theatre Lab for Peace and Imaginable Futures. He holds a master’s degree in peacebuilding, formal training in the use of arts in peacebuilding and certifications in Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre, and he is currently pursuing a PhD focused on expressive arts in conflict transformation. His work spans Kenya, South Sudan, South Africa, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada. Bonface has served on committees and boards connected to drama therapy, expressive arts and applied theatre and currently sits on the executive board of IMPACT while supporting artists and peacebuilders through the UnRival Network. His connection to Kahanee is rooted in a deep belief in the power of storytelling as a sacred and shared practice that expands empathy, challenges single narratives and creates spaces for connection, dignity and collective healing.
I spent my life either swimming with the hippos in River Yala in Western, Kenya or later street connected in Nairobi. Swimming with the hippos happened on the weekends away from school. One day I almost drowned in the river and a person who I can't remember today, saved me from the brutal current determined to take me downstream. That's how I learnt to swim.
I was street connected in Nairobi at a young age. Two Kenyan women leaders, one a drama director and the other film-maker connected with us and invited us to develop theatre to highlight our stories. I learnt to make theatre together with my friends on the streets. The theatre pieces were presented in different venues in Kenya. I joined Daystar University in Nairobi and became a member of the Amani People's Theatre. I travelled the world including coming to Winnipeg, Manitoba and worked across African conflicts using theatre as language for peace.Later, I completed my MA and now working on my PhD in peace and conflict studies here at the University of Manitoba.
Peace means supporting creative ways by people embroiled in conflict to give birth to new ways of being in the world while realizing that the future of their children and enemies' children is intertwined.
Kahanee offers imaginative peacebuilding space and allows creative responses to meet conflict for transformation to emerge.
My peace story comes from my people. "Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu"!-Means: One person is connected to all the people!. My other people's philosophy is called "Milembe"-It means "peace". This is a form of greeting that's commonly used to "share the essence of peace".
