In 2023, GENERATE collaborated with a group of young refugees from South Sudan, using a creative toolbox of participatory methods to explore their lived experiences. Through stakeholder workshops with youth activists and decision-makers, life story interviews, drawing diaries paired with weekly reflective discussions, and a series of music workshops, we examined how intersecting environmental and climate injustices, repeated displacement, discrimination, xenophobia, and migration to Gulu in Northern Uganda shape their lives and responses to climate change.
In 2023, GENERATE collaborated with a group of young refugees from South Sudan, using a creative toolbox of participatory methods to explore their lived experiences. Through stakeholder workshops with youth activists and decision-makers, life story interviews, drawing diaries paired with weekly reflective discussions, and a series of music workshops, we examined how intersecting environmental and climate injustices, repeated displacement, discrimination, xenophobia, and migration to Gulu in Northern Uganda shape their lives and responses to climate change.
Music as Collective Expression
To create a platform for youth refugees to share their co-produced research findings with the wider public they suggested writing and performing a pop song. To do so, we co-facilitated a series of music workshops with Benjamin Spartos, an acclaimed musician in Gulu. By centring their voices and lived experience, the song aimed to intervene against xenophobia and discrimination, transforming research into creative expression. Drawing on their reflections, diaries, and discussions, the participants collaboratively composed Piir (“Life”), a song then produced by C-Vow Masterbeat and recorded by Benjamin featuring Bazza Man, Micco, Tyler, Cisse, Barau, Sweet B, and Tina Acho, seven of the youth refugees from South Sudan. The track was recorded in a studio above Gulu’s central bus depot. Piir calls for unity, national solidarity, and environmental and climate justice for all.
Public Release and Reception
Released on 5th May 2023, Piir debuted on the popular Kuman Ba radio show on 90.2 Radio King, where Benjamin Spartos discussed its co-creation and played it live for the first time. Listeners were invited to phone in to share their reactions, request the song, and reflect on its messages. Soon after, Piir entered the station’s regular rotation and has since been broadcast widely across local and regional radio in Northern Uganda.
Impact
Radio audiences have expressed a deeper understanding of the vulnerabilities faced by young refugees. For the youth themselves, being recognized as artists and not only as refugees has fostered self-worth, confidence, and new livelihood opportunities. The project has also strengthened their awareness of how overlapping systems of displacement, climate crisis, and environmental injustice shape their everyday lives, while amplifying their voices in the broader movement for intersectional climate justice.
