Emmanuel Irankunda and Mahirwe Dina Ndeze both graduates of Green Train are featured in an article of today’s Post-Standard about refugees from the Congo developing and acting in a play about their experiences in their homeland. Click on the link below the article excerpt to read more from the article on Syracuse.com:
Refugee from Congo hopes his play will bring tribes together
By Maureen Nolan / The Post-Standard
Kambale Syaghuswa was in high school in Congo when the violence became so dire he had to flee. Amid the chaos, he says, he didn’t know precisely which tribe was trying to kill him. In a way, it didn’t matter.
“All the bullets, they kill, so you have to run away,” said Syaghuswa, now 27.
He came to Syracuse five months ago and when he meets other Congolese refugees here he doesn’t ask about their tribe. It might matter too much.
“It is so delicate that right now I don’t even ask what tribe you are from. You see, I don’t want to know. You might be the tribe I was running away from,” Syaghuswa said.
He is among a group of Congolese refugees who will enter the new year preparing a play and community dinner they hope will draw in people from the various Congolese tribes who settled in Syracuse. They say they want to promote unity and prevent old hatred from taking root.
To read more from the article please visit the article link by clicking here.
Photograph taken by Mike Greenlar of The Post-Standard.
