#África es noticia: Micrófonos de Paz. Conversaciones con Caddy Adzuba

Caddy Adzuba was a Prince of Asturias Concord prize winner in 2014 and had already won the International Julio Anguita Parrado Prize for Journalism in 2009. A journalist and activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, she carries out dangerous work and is deeply committed to the values ​​of peace and the defence of human rights.

After a great deal of effort, Casa África has managed that ​​Caddy visit its headquarters to give a lecture in interview format by the hand of Elisa García Mingo, author of the publication that Casa África has published in its Essay Collection with the same title as this conference. In the book, the two women discuss how the media should serve to change public policies and draw attention to neglected social causes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society has appropriated the media as a tool for promoting cultures of peace. The female journalists of AFEM-SK have capitalised their knowledge of radio, video and press to demand the end of violence against society and break the regime of impunity in which sexual crimes against women and girls continue to be perpetrated.

Caddy was born in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo in 1981. She graduated in Law from the Official University of Bukavu  and is a founding member of the  A Speaker for Silence network. She is a journalist at Radio Okapi, the radio station of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo -MONUC-, which broadcasts throughout the territory of this country.

Adzuba is a member of the Association of Media for Women in Eastern Congo, thanks to which several pleas have been filed in the International Criminal Court and the United States Senate, denouncing sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic Congo, a country that is at war since 1996 and in which a daily average of forty women suffer rapes since the conflict began.

Caddy Adzuba's career is highlighted by her commitment to the defence of human rights and peace building from her work as a journalist in one of the most atrocious conflicts in the world, and her denunciation of the violence perpetrated against women, the use of children as soldiers and the defence of freedom of expression.

In 2014, Caddy Adzuba received the Prince of Asturias Concord Prize in recognition of  her fight for freedom of the press, the reconstruction of peace and human rights, especially those of children and women in areas of conflict. Her denunciation, through journalism, of the torture and rape where Congolese women and girls are victims and her work for the reintegration of these women in a society where they are, due to this fact, repudiated.

Now we have the chance to learn more about this brave, tireless and exemplary fighter, hearing from her own lips what pushes her each morning to fight for what she believes is right despite the enormous personal sacrifice involved.

The activity is part of the # ÁfricaEsNoticia programme, a specific Casa África programme, which seeks to encourage debate and reflection on the hottest topics of Africa today. It is a cycle of conferences on Africa today from Spanish and African experts which invite us to discuss, think and bring us even closer to Africa. The title also refers to Casa África's web section which is updated daily with the main news on the neighbouring continent.

The date is Thursday, 16th July at 7 p.m. at Casa África's Auditorium (C / Alfonso XIII, 5. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).

For more information on Caddy Adzuba:

• Presentation of 23rd May 2013 at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation in Madrid

• Website of the Union of Journalists of Andalusia

• Interview with the journalist during activities around Africa Day 2013 at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation in Madrid
• Article in Elmundo.es
• Interview in Elpais.com
• Related event
• A deafening silence: the conflicts in the region of the African Great Lakes