Ecosystem

At the 2022 UN climate conference, the countries that are home to the three biggest rain forests in the world agreed to a climate partnership. While the world’s population is gradually understanding that they have to act against the deforestation in the Congo Basin, the local people once again find themselves pawns in a geopolitical tussle. For «Ecosystem», Group50:50 has travelled to north-eastern Congo to craft a multimedia piece of musical theatre, hand-in hand with the inhabitants of the rain forest, about an ecosystem which is slowly but surely coming apart at the seams.

 The situation there is a complex one: to maintain the incredible biodiversity, environmental protectionists are fighting against mining companies and timber exporters who are harvesting gold and wood with the support of corrupt politicians. International protection experts also end up involved in bloody conflicts with local farmers who clear forests using traditional methods to be able to work the land. And then come the nomadic Mbuti people. They know the forest better than anyone because they live off what it provides. They are seen as the «first inhabitants of the forest», but no-one has yet recognised their right to the land, and they can merely watch on as their environment disappears.

 Together with local farmers and the Mbuti community in Bagoia, the Group50:50 performers and musicians talk and sing about what we have inherited from our forebears and what we will leave behind for future generations. In a dialogue with the traditional music of the region, they create a transnational ceremony and an attempt at a ritual, to capture the meaning of the forest for the fate of the world’s population.