The Little Theatre at University of Malawi in Zomba recently played host to a conference that brought important discussion on sustainability with a focus on financing, localisation and other alternative futures for communication for development.
The gathering of scholars and other professionals aimed at engaging in what Paolo Freire called political dreaming—critically examining “our world and fostering a hopeful reimagination of alternative futures”.
The conference which brought together several players including the academia was sprung on a play 1988 production titled They Call It Africa which was written by Joe Chimwenje and David Kerr.
The play was performed only once in The Great Hall at Chancellor College back then in 1988.
Just one week after the debut performance, Kerr’s office was broken into and the permit from the Censorship Board granting permission to perform the play was stolen.
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They Call It Africa explores issues of power, class and colonialism in three historical periods (pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence) through the eyes of time travelling alien researchers.
And so still significant to what is happening on the ground now, the play directed by Thokozani Kapiri, who is a lecturer at University of Malawi and starring Mercy Ching’amba, Success Masauli, Nyokase Madise and Hambani Magalasi was restaged during the conference.
The conference featuring presentations from various players and an exhibition launch on ‘Making, unmaking and remaking material metaphors’ saw the play breathe in more life to the debates.
Executive Dean of the School of Arts, Communication and Design at the University of Malawi Professor Mufunanji Magalasi said they rejuvenated this “dangerous play from the vault”, performing the scene relating to the international development agencies’ role in Africa, to consider how, if at all, debates about power and development have moved on.
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“This is a very futuristic play looking at how donors were behaving when they came to Malawi and that is why it starts, They Call It Africa and you can see that the name They Call it Africa it is like some kind of a concern because a complete statement is that when they sit in New York, when they sit in Washington, London and Paris, they call it Africa with a sneer,” Magalasi said.
He said the conference and its link to the arts comes in because of communication and that apart from communication, “it is how non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who are doing a lot of good development work, are struggling for sustainability”.
“They do not have the money that they would have to continue with their activities because as you might know after every period, there is a change of agenda in terms of donors and that comes in because there are a lot of emerging issues.
“And when these issues come they bring change such that organisations that were started for a particular reason are left stranded, issues of sustainability in terms of development come in very crucial,” Magalasi said.
He went further to say that in terms of art; a lot of what we call development communication today is very art based, using creativity, working with communities or using metaphors to understand what sustainability is.
“That is what we do in art. To understand it better, this is Theatre for Development where we go into communities, we use art to get stories of people to tell stories of development and that is the biggest link,” Magalasi said.
He went on to say that the most important thing is that they are trying to raise debates, raise issues.
“People’s lives are at stake here. When NGOs come, they come to help the government with development but when they are failing to continue, it means that where they are playing a role still remains a gap and people’s living standards will continue to go down,” Magalasi said.
For example Magalasi looks at the feeding programme where learners benefit from porridge and when donors say they have no money anymore, then learners get affected.
“So, this is about debate and trying to bring a bit of light to the government, people continue to say what is sustainability? Should we decolonise or do away with donors? But it is not about that but rather the challenge is how best to continue funding these NGOs so that they can communicate and deal with issues of development,” he said.
Magalasi said the play They Call it Africa is futuristic and that at a time it was being staged during the one-party era, this was a contentious issue.
“So plays like these are very important. I think society understands that art can bring out issues. Do you know even when you look at Gule Wamkulu, sometimes even the change of step in Gologolo, Kang’wing’wi could be an indicator that there is a problem somewhere,” he said.
Magalasi said art should be allowed to raise issues and that They Call It Africa is one of those plays.
“I studied this play for my PhD and there are about 30 of these kinds of plays which could not be performed during that time which we are hoping that we are going to publish and make them available to the Malawi nation,” he said.
Kapiri adds that art is powerful and that They Call It Africa is an example of a revolutionary production.
“The context of this play is the role of development aid when it comes to how NGOs, the government are being assisted from the global north, the rich countries talk of Europe and then the status quo even after Independence has remained the same and now that the donors are pulling out, we are bringing back the conversation,” he said.
And while this was a conference, Kapiri said the play came there to give a vivid picture.
“I think that is important especially now that we are talking about trying to be politically independent but at the same time we can all agree that we are not economically independent and so, what should the future be like and I think that is what this play is trying to put forward, it is a national conversation,” the drama lecturer said.
He added: “That is my feeling and I think it is an important subject. That also says a lot in terms of the kind of issues if you think this play was performed in 1988 and we had people like David Kerr, Edge Kanyongolo Joe Chimwenje in the cast.”
Now in 2024, the issues remain the same according to Kapiri and if not worse and now we can also think of the theatre that was there in the past, commenting on serious issues and that some of these issues were not even free to perform them on stage.
“I think now that this is what the role of theatre should comment on in terms of what the issues are at the moment,” he said.
He said the play was done in a creative way with not only mere discussions of people but included planets and colonial times reflecting the present and that this is what theatre should do, to comment on social challenges.
Jessica Turner, an academic at Loughborough University in London described the conference as engaging and fruitful.
“Today is a very exciting day, so I have been doing research in this area for several years, then I was very fortunate recently to have an 18 months fellowship to explore what is happening in terms of changes in finding landscape for development on the ground here with organisations and communities.
“So, for the last 16 months I have been doing lots of different research and some of the presentations were about some of the arts based methods that were used,” she said.
Turner said arts based research methods are unique and that they give insights into the truth just like with revisiting the play from 1988.
“The play is speaking the truth through fiction, it is very powerful and 36 years later to think about what has changed, that should provoke a very lively discussion and also for me, it is painful about how the play is still very true and relevant to this day,” she said.
To end it all, the 1988 production makes observations about power, inequality and injustice and makes a very strong commentary about the relationship between capitalism and development and further makes a strong statement about external power over development through financing, funding and the power imbalances.
