By GEORGE ORIDO
When one Cleophas Malalah put pen to paper late last year, not even in his wildest imagination did he expect that his script, Shackles of Doom, enacted by Butere Girls’ High School, would draw so much attention.
Not only did the political satire attract a rare ban last slapped in 2010 on Musingu High School’s Coup de tat, but it went into the annals of the School Drama Festival’s history as the first play to reach the nationals courtesy of a High Court order.
On Sunday, May 21, 2013, at 4pm, the air around Mombasa’s Aga Khan Hall was expectant, with long queues of people eager to secure a ticket to watch this controversial play. Many went disappointed for the venue could only hold 500 people, 100 in excess of its usual capacity.
Crucial role
After watching the well-paced production marked by quality direction, excellent acting and persuasive aesthetics, many wondered what the fuss was about.
First, the play, contrary to allegations of hate speech and fuelling ethnic tension, has a beautiful resolution, where resources and job opportunities are shared equally, resulting in peaceful coexistence.
Also, calls for violence are ruled out through the voice of reason, and the main villain is pardoned by a group of furious victims of his segregationist tendencies.
As an adjudicator and a playwright, I know that the ending of any plot plays a crucial role in the moral of the story — it is the take-home message. In Shackles of Doom, the message is equality, which is crucial for national cohesion and integration.
Weak links
Did this not resonate with the Constitution, and did it not marry perfectly with the festival’s theme this year, ‘Performance for National Healing and Reconciliation’?
Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City ends with a scene that teaches us that the gains of vice are short-lived, and that dictators, however powerful they may appear, have weak links in their chain. Living a lie will never make one happy, despite the riches amassed. Is this not what we learn from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?
Obviously, Education mandarins came out badly bruised after Shackles of Doom was staged, and, in apparent move to massage their egos, plunged themselves into yet another controversy at the end of the drama festival.
During the closing ceremony of the 54th edition of the annual fete, Education Permanent Secretary George Godia dramatically announced his ministry’s intention to severe links with young talents who have offered invaluable support to schools, especially in scripting, directing, choreography, set design, costume design and sound management. All these resources must come from teachers and students, he said.
Pundits have described his action as a knee-jerk reaction to the Shackles of Doom phenomenon. Just like the decision to ban the play, this directive is likely to boomerang on a large scale.
Alarming ratios
For starters, the inclusion of external help in the festival is a two-decade-old debate. At some point, a ban had been effected, but schools found themselves overwhelmingly unprepared to handle the rigours that come with the festival on their own.
A quick look at the teacher-pupil ratio in Kenya is a fairly good indicator of this. Instead of the United Nations recommended 1: 4, Kenya’s is alarmingly between 1:60 and 1:100 .
How one expects a teacher already overstretched by his core duties to sit and think about a story, leave alone write it, is a question begging for answers.
The next question is derived from the Bible, where Jesus saved a prostitute from being stoned to death by the Pharisees: “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7).
Consistency
In the drama festival, nearly every item has been touched, in one way or the other, by ‘external factors’, including senior national officials who were vocal in echoing the play’s ban.
Given that over 600 items were on display at the national level, a rough estimate of 5,000 items went through preliminary stages. These numbers are a reflection of the number of employment opportunities provided. Banning outside help simply adds thousands of hands with begging bowls to the streets at a time when the new Jubilee government is pitching for youth employment.
Consistency would be the next headache to ponder. Given the twin festival of music conducted in the second term of the school calendar, will this directive hold where set pieces by musicians from various countries and centuries are the order of the day?
Similarly, very few music teachers can competently read music scores. In every few instances do you find students like those from Kabarak High School or the angelic Moipei Quartet with skills honed enough to teach and conduct their own on stage.
What about the battery of instrumentalists who make a killing when set pieces demand accompaniment?
Prof Godia, whose stint at the Education Ministry has brought many blessings of reforms, including banning of extra tuition, better financial management and a more open-door policy when he worked with former Minister Mutula Kilonzo, cannot afford to have this track record soiled by such small missteps.
Instead, he must, as a matter of urgency, put together a review committee to see into a structured way of engaging the experts in the school festivals in a mutually respectful manner in the future.
Banning experts without addressing critical underlying issues will only exacerbate an already bad situation and open yet another Pandora’s box.
