Can’t Ugandans develop Theatre of The Obscene?

The Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that elevated the function of reason in the development of knowledge from the 18th Century, did not prevent man from fighting two world wars in the 20th Century.

The technical advances that came with the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries enabled man to develop the tools of war that ensured death and destruction on an industrial scale during the two great wars.

At Auschwitz and Buchenwald, the Nazi vision of a perfect society, a brand of racial and cultural idealism, etched itself in real life images of barbarism that even the darkest fiction or cinematography could not properly or fully describe.

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world was given glimpses of what a post-life planet might look like. The quest for peace and retribution finally exploded with such apocalyptic savagery that man had demonstrated his capacity to actualise the scriptural metaphor of Hell.

Contemplating these unrestrained human excesses, it was hard to counter Albert Camus’ formulation, that God was either evil or powerless.

Death, mutilation, hunger, dispossession; wherever they looked, many people saw a reinforcement of the dominant position held by the most brilliant thinkers and scientists of the century, that God did not exist. Or, at least, that there was no evidence that a ‘humane’ God existed.

Against that huge historical and cultural backdrop, you could walk into a theatre in the middle of the 20th Century, wait for the curtain to be drawn from the barest of stages, so that you could watch Samuel Beckett’s pair of tramps, who were Waiting for Godot.

The conventions of good rounded drama had been discarded to portray man as an irrational creature. The new thing on the stage, sometimes with Kafkaesque (surrealist) elements, was called the Theatre of the Absurd.

Some audiences were at first outraged. But, in time, plays by different writers in the genre established themselves and drew big audiences.

Now, people often talk about exploiting Uganda’s gifts to gain advantage over other competitors in different spheres. Her soil, weather, birds, gorillas and so on; people see potential benefits, say, in agriculture and tourism. But it has recently occurred to me that the activities of our powerful political and business actors could inspire our dramatists to create a new kind of theatre.

You could roll into view all sorts of events from 30 or 40 years ago. But I will stick to things happening when I happen to be writing.

Ms Enrica Pinetti is not a fictional godmother in a gangster novel by Mario Puzo. I am certain that those qualified to go close to her can testify that she is a living organism.

So, Pinetti and others have evaded the backlash from a mystery-packed VIP ghost hospital in Lubowa to secure a coffee marketing deal that would make even Mario Puzo’s lower jaw drop several inches below ‘bite’.

Among many intriguing clauses in the deal, there is apparently one that extends all the head-bending tax exemptions on Pinetti’s finished product operations to her more mundane trade in green coffee beans!

And there is another. Should Uganda make laws or institute new taxes that reduce the profitability of Pinetti’s company, the company will educate government, and government must immediately act to return the company to its correct profit zone!

In such cases, only taxpayers can save government.

Uganda has more marvels, but Pinetti’s coffee deal would on its own be an inspiration to our dramatists to create a new kind of theatre: The Theatre of the Obscene.

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.

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