Report by ASFL Executive Board member, Aimable Manirakiza

Students For Liberty (SFL) in Burundi recently completed its 2 months long inter-university competition in which 10 universities across the country participated. This  project which was funded by Network For A Free Society (NFS)  aimed at deepening the participants’ understanding of the principles and foundations of free societies. The project was divided into two parts: the intra-university competition and the inter-university competition.

The Intra-University competition

The competition, also known as the knowledge contest, was a question-and-answer game contest. It was based on 4 themes: liberty, free market, democracy and the foundations of a free society, with the basic theme being “The Principles and Foundations of a Free Society”. The competition took place between September and October in the 10 universities. The first stage was the internal elimination in each of the SFL Burundi club in those universities. They are: University of Burundi (Mutanga Campus), University of Burundi (Kamenge Campus), Upper Normal School (Kigobe Campus), National Institute of Public Health, Lake University (Kigobe Campus), Light University (Mutanga Campus), Light University (Kinindo Campus), Wisdom University (L’Afrique Campus) Asiatique, University of the Great Lakes Campus Saint Michel, Ntare Rugamba University.  Groups of 5 competed in each university to get the ticket to compete at the inter-university stage. A total of 500 students participated at this stage. 

At the end of each internal competition, there were prizes reserved for participants of the program. The winning team was presented USB flash drives containing 100 texts on the ideas of a free society, didactic materials made of pens and notepads that helped them prepare for inter-university competition

The Inter-University Competition

The inter-university competition which is a second part of the project took place on October 28, 2016 in the amphitheater of the ENS with the participation of the ten (10) universities. Each SFL club from these 10 universities was represented by a team that won in the intra-univerity playoffs.There were 120 students from the ten schools ; club presidents, students from the ENS,  journalists from different media organizations, bloggers and jury members were also in attendance. In all there were two hundred (200) participants at the competition. There was also a debate between the teams on how they conceive the idea of a free society in the country. The competition continued on to the semi-finals with 4 schools and later to the finals where the University of Burundi Campus Mutanga met the University of the Lake. The University of Burundi Campus Mutanga won the finals with 270 points against the 90 points obtained by the University of Lake Tanganyika. Consolation prizes were also given to the other teams