Echoes of War: Another case of art clashing with politics
What you need to know:
The girls showed up on stage and in a rebellious style, sang the national anthem.One of them delivered a speech that they were not performing without an audience and their director. And walked off stage.
On Wednesday, a play from across the neighbouring Kenya started making waves. This was the play, Echoes of War by Butere Girls High School, written and directed by Cleophas Malala, a former senator of Kakamega County. The play was meant to be staged in Nakuru where the annual Schools Drama and Film Festival takes place.
The 63rd edition had started on a good note with the government urging creators to monetise their talent. Most of the themes on the first days were diverse, but generally safe, about family, mental health and health. Butere Girls had been scheduled to perform at the festival after emerging as one of the top schools in the regional competitions, leading to the national festival.
But last week, they were controversially dropped and they had been instructed to send the drama club members home. This was despite their strong performance, one that had won at the Butere Sub-County level and secured a third place in the Western Regional Drama Festival. On April 3, however, they were reinstated and cleared to take part in the national festival.
On Wednesday night, news trickled in that at least six journalists had been injured and the playwright and director had been barred from accessing the performers. On Thursday, the play was supposed to be staged at 8pm and they were allowed to perform without a backdrop, audience, or functioning sound system.
The festival also had new guidelines, the festival which had been filmed since it started on April 7 and live streams could no longer be captured on camera. The public was barred from accessing the performance space, even media accredited to cover and stream the performances had been asked to pack up and leave.
Not even journalists were allowed to see their performance. The girls showed up on stage and in a rebellious style, sang the national anthem and one of them delivered a speech that they were not performing without an audience and their director. And walked off stage.
Only to be greeted by cheering Kenyans as their bus left the venue. The play has since become the centre of attention. The script for the play has for instance been availed to the audience and people are already quoting it.
Echoes of War, the play in question, looks at two different groups of Kenyans, the older generation running the country and younger generation who disagrees with the way the other generation is running things. It's almost a reflection of the stand off that led the Gen-Zs to take to the streets almost eight months ago. Is this unique to Uganda? Theatre, for instance, started getting censored as early as the 1970s.
But fast forward to the past 10 years, documentary films, theatre productions and poetry recitals have failed to get space because of what it's thought they represent. Kagayi Ngobi had his show cancelled and there was not a clear reason for it.
It was the same case when Amakula International Festival tried to screen Chili on the Lips, a documentary film about a political rapper from Cameroon. The film was never cleared for screening, even when it went on to win Best Documentary Film. The same happened to Bobi Wine, The People’s President, nominated for an Oscar. The film could hardly find a cinema screen in Uganda.
What they say...
GenZ vs the old generation.
Echoes of War, the play in question, mainly looks at two different groups of Kenyans, the older generation running the country and younger generation who disagree with the way the other generation is running things.
