Tim Kamuzu Banda
12 July 2008
Nairobi — For a very long time, plays that dominated Kenya's theatre scene were all foreign adaptations. Theatre powerhouses such as Mbalamwezi, Phoenix Players and Heartstrings Ensemble barely had a Kenyan production worth writing home about.
A Nairobi theatre practitioner says money is quite a factor, and that foreign adaptations were chosen because there was ready funding for them.
"If, say, we were doing an English adapted play then it was quite easy to get funding from, say, the British Council, venue to perform it and even payments for the cast," says Steve Kovuna of Culture Spill Productions, adding that the same was the case with French plays.
The other plays that one could expect to see are those that had themes such as HIV/Aids or drug abuse and, according to singer and actress Iddi Achieng', this was so because there were organisations willing to sponsor them.
"The organisations easily get funding to promote their objectives, and if it is through theatre, they come to us," explains Iddi, who is currently featuring in the play, Our Husbands Have Gone Mad, that just ended at the Kenya National Theatre, Nairobi.
Three organisations
Worried about this trend, three organisations have come together to find ways to see local artistes not only tell local stories, but also develop their own audience.
Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) and GoDown Arts Centre as well as the Ford Foundation have combined forces to form the Changamoto Art Fund.
Changamoto project officer Eunice Kagiri explains that in the first year, numerous groups, upon achieving the set criteria, benefited from grants to the tune of Sh150,000 to enable them to achieve their objectives.
"We funded any artists who included musicians, cartoonists, sculptors and actors - and even cookery projects," she says. "This was the first time that such a fund had been operational in the country."
And there have been many other success stories. The Peace and Cultural Ambassadors of Kisii is one such beneficiary. The group is composed of victims of tribal clashes from different communities.
Registered in 2005, its objective is to promote peaceful co-existence among the Kuria, the Kisii and the Maasai. "We used the grant to finance a play called One Kenya, which depicts a community being divided by politicians and forced to fight.
Politicians are interested in just achieving their selfish objectives," explains group member Ken Adams, one of the actors in the play written by Prof Linus Ondabu.
Ken says the play was staged in homesteads in the hot spots along the borders separating Gucha, Kuria, Trans-Mara, Migori and Rongo districts. The residents are known to fight one another in the run-up to elections.
Importantly, the fund helped them to establish a solid theatre group that continues to give young people the opportunity to explore their acting talent.
Another beneficiary of the Changamoto fund and perhaps one that has been a runaway success is the Slum TV station. Founded by Sam Hopkins, a Briton resident in Kenya, the group's objective was to provide slum dwellers with a form of self-representation.
First, the initiative gives aspiring filmmakers from slums around Nairobi the opportunity to explore their talent and acquire valuable skills. "It is a golden opportunity to share our own stories from our own perspective. The media usually portray our slum negatively and we wanted to share this plus the positive side," says 19-year-old Esther Wanjiru, the youngest member of the group.
Screening by Slum TV takes place every last Friday of the month and for about 50 minutes during which four thematic features, a documentary and a 15-minute drama series are shown. Urban Art, a group of two contemporary graffiti artists Paul Kihiko and Elegwa Wycliffe of Nairobi, has noticed their talent flourish.
Positive messages
The two have worked on putting positive messages on walls in their neighbourhoods. They blend individual styles to create a massive new look on walls across Nairobi. They also intend to give graffiti a more socially acceptable face.
Although hip-hop music-oriented, they reach out to the whole society, old and young alike.
They use graffiti as a means of giving a facelift to the neighbourhoods.
"The money helped us to do graffiti on three walls at Jericho, Uhuru and Maringo," explains Paul Kihoko.
Kagiri explains that almost 78 groups and individual artists have benefited from funding amounting to Sh10.7 million distributed to them in the form for fine art, sculpture, theatre, poetry, dance, puppetry, cooking, fashion and photography, among others.
However, many more will be happy to learn that applications are invited for the second phase of the funding, which will be bigger. It will be extended to artists in Mombasa and Kisumu.
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