A History of East African Theatre, Volume 2 : Central East Africa

This second volume of __A History of East African Theatre__ focuses on central East Africa; on Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The first chapter is concerned with francophone theatres, comparatively studying work coming out of Burundi and Rwanda alongside a focus on French language theatre in Djibouti. The chapter is particularly concerned to explore how French and Belgian cultural policies impacted theatre during the colonial period and how the French ideas of __Francafrique__ and promotion of elite, French language art have continued to resonate in the post-colonial present. Chapters Two and Three look comparatively at the rich theatre histories of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and are divided between a study of British East African colonial impact and an analysis of the post-colonial period illustrating how divergent political thought and societal make-up led to exponential differentiation in national theatres. The final chapter, on Theatre for Development and related social action theatre, covers the whole East African region, offering the first ever historicised analysis of this mode of theatre making which, since the 1980s, has come to dominate funding and opportunity in performance arts. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Praise for A History of East African Theatre, Volume 2 9 List of Figures 10 Preface 12 1 Francophone Theatre: Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda 18 The Historical Background to Burundi and Rwanda 19 German Colonisation 22 Belgian Power 24 The Djiboutian Background 28 The Influence of Francophone Thought on the Theatre Cultures of Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda 30 Rwanda and Burundi 1962–1994 35 Theatre Culture Between Independence and Genocide: 1962–1993/4 36 Djibouti, Post-Independence Political History 43 French Language Theatre in Colonial Djibouti 44 The Djboutian State and Contemporary Theatre 45 French Language Djiboutian Playwrights 47 Genocide and After: Contemporary Politics in Burundi and Rwanda 54 Francophone or Anglophone? The Rwandan Politics of Language 58 Contemporary Burundian Theatre 61 Contemporary Rwandan Theatre 67 Making Theatre Outside the State 76 Theatre at the University 77 Odile Gakire Katese 80 Dorcy Rugamba 82 References 89 2 Colonial Theatre in British East Africa: Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika 94 East African Performance Forms 95 Missionary Influences 99 The Role of Education 105 The Phelps Stokes Commission to East Africa 106 The British Government Response 107 The 1948 Cambridge Summer Conference 110 The Jeanes School 113 Makerere 116 Schools’ Drama Festivals 120 Indian Theatre in British East Africa 121 European Theatre 124 The Bantu Education Kinema Project and the Kapere Phenomenon 128 African Playwrights in the Colonial Period 132 References 139 3 The Post-Independence Theatres of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania 145 Theatre in the First Years of Independence 145 Uganda—The Theatrical Engine of the 1960s 147 Ugandan Opera 148 The Free Travelling Theatres 154 The Committed Theatre: 1967–1982 159 Finding the Way Back to Africa: The Theatrical Journeys of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Robert Serumaga 169 Major Modern Movements 182 The Leadership of Women: Amandina Lihamba, Penina Mlama and Rose Mbowa 182 Popular Commercial Theatre in Uganda and Tanzania: 1970s–2000s 192 Tanzanian Popular Performance: Negotiating Commerce and the Socialist State 195 The Suppression of Football and the Rise of Popular Luganda Theatre in Uganda 199 The Popular Theatre Plays 201 Superstar Groups and the End of Mass Commercial Theatre 203 The Schools Drama Festivals 206 The Contemporary Theatre 211 Kenya 212 Tanzania 216 Uganda 219 References 226 4 Theatre for Development in East Africa 233 Early Actions—The Idealists 234 Early Theatre for Development in Tanzania 236 Intimations of Corruption 240 AIDS and Theatre for Development Adoption in Uganda 241 How Kenya Took Up Theatre for Development 246 The International Funding of Theatre for Development: 1980s to Early 2000s 250 ‘Nfunira wa?’ ‘What Do I Gain from It?’ The ‘Business’ of Theatre for Development 256 Trajectories of Theatre for Development in Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Somalia/Somaliland 258 Ethiopia: TfD—An Impossible Ask? 259 Eritrean Theatre for Development: An Extinct Life Form 267 Burundi 277 Frédérique Lecomte 278 Search for Common Ground 281 Tubiyage 282 Twenty-First-Century Case Studies 283 Focus on Conflict and Post-Conflict Theatre for Development in Northern Uganda 284 The Big Ones: Magnet Theatre and TUSEME 290 Magnet Theatre: Kenya 290 TUSEME—Tanzania (and Elsewhere) 295 Community Actors in Tanzania and Uganda 297 Community-Based Theatre in Tanzania 297 Women’s Community Theatre in Uganda 301 Funding Theatre for Development in the Twenty-First Century 304 References 311 Conclusion 317 Reference 322 Index 323 This book is the first ever transnational theatre study of an African region. Covering nine nations in two volumes, the project covers a hundred years of theatre making across Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. This volume focuses on the theatre of the Horn of Africa. The book shows how the theatres of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, little known in the outside world, have been among the continent's most politically important, commercially successful, and widely popular; making work almost exclusively in local languages and utilizing hybrid forms that have privileged local cultural modes of production. A History of African Theatre is relevant to all who have interests in African cultures and their relationship to the history and politics of the East African region