Marie-Louise Sibazuri

Marie-Louise Sibazuri (born 1960) is a Burundian activist and playwright. In the 1970s and 1980s she was a teacher, and in 1976 her first play was performed. By the late 1980s she had joined the central committee of the Union des Femmes Burundiases, a feminist group that was close with the government of Burundi. In 1988 and 1989 Burundian politician Pierre Buyoya named her a member of the Burundian national commission on national unity. In 1993 she stopped teaching in order to write full-time. In 1994 her house was burned to the ground, and in 1995 her husband was shot; although she was elected to the Burundian parliament, she thought it was too risky to take her seat, and so declined to do so. One of the organizers of a U.S. non-governmental organization called Search for Common Ground suggested that she create a weekly soap opera about the tension and war between the Hutu and Tutsi, which she did; it was called Our Neighbors Are Our Family, promoted tolerance, and was very popular. In 1998 she left Burundi; she subsequently went to Belgium. In 2003 two documentaries about her programs were made - Pour mieux s'entendre by Jean-Charles L'Ami, and Les mots sages by Dominique Ragheb and Lionel Peti.
She also founded a theatrical troupe called Geza, and a theatrical company called Ibirezi, the latter named for a type of necklace formerly worn by well-dressed women in Burundi.
She has written over 75 plays.