Debate on ‘Otonglo Time’ exposes vanity among artistes

By George Orido

Kenya: As drama teachers from across the country completed their workshop in Embu to forecast this year’s annual schools and colleges drama festivals, a hot discussion emanated online on the quality and training of narratives among the students.

The discussion was innocently provoked by one Oluoch Madiang’, an accomplished oral narrative performer in his own right, when he posted pictures on his Facebook page of a Luo tale performance he did nearly a decade ago.

He claimed, in his post, that when he performed that particular piece, the form and content of narrative performance experienced a turning point.

The initial reaction was accolades, including from Kisumu-based narrator George Chunga, who proudly associated with the said performance, noting that he, too, has performed it several times.

Aghan Odero (the director of the Kenya Cultural Centre that had seen much decay until last month, when Kenya Breweries came to its rescue with a Sh100 million cheque), joined the fray. With nostalgia, he recalled the old good days when ‘storytelling was storytelling’.

But the discussion turned murky when Madiang’ and Aghan dismissed the celebrated performance by schoolboy Daniel Owira — he of the Otonglo Time fame. They went ahead to trash everything that happens at the school fete, prescribing their own intervention as the only remedy to the perceived malady.

“There must be a way for Aghan and I to come in and work with the festival to prop up these performers for the market,” Madiang’ said.

This duo that has hardly been seen on stage in recent times went into overdrive in comparing the lad to some one-off-performers, who can be seen in the private-club-like Sigana International Storytellers Festival, held once a year in Nairobi.

Wycliffe Amayoka Tsinje, whose name is synonymous with the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication’s good showing at the national drama fete, chose to identify with the duo.

“Otonglo was a product of the media, in addition to the attention he received from President Uhuru Kenyatta. His performance was below par, according to adjudicators,” Tsinje screamed.

Madiang’ dismissed all fete narrative products as raw, and hardly ready for the professional market.

Yet many came to Otonglo’s defence. The first to raise a red flag was Gikumene High School’s veteran director and choreographer, Rose Mitheu, who asked what, exactly, was wrong with Otonglo’s performance.

Festival veteran Joseph Murungu said that he finds comfort in comic relief in his productions: “ I submit that a performance is no performance unless it makes people laugh, and if it worked for Otonglo so be it.”

Frederick Shitubi, who is leaving Chesamis High School, joined in the heated discussion: “My brother and I have always used comedy in our productions, and it has worked well.”

These are just a few of the words of support that came in to rescue a discussion that had turned cynical, and that had left many astounded on why seasoned artistes could throw so much vitriol on a mere lad who captured the imagination of a nation.

Truth be told, Owira did a splendid job, and critics were full of praise for him even before the State House performance, as reflected in the raving reviews on his first performance at Aga Khan High School Hall in Mombasa.

Satire

“The President and his guests will find it hard to stop their ribs cracking when Highway Secondary School’s Daniel Ouma hits the stage with his narrative, Otonglo Time,” I had written in The Standard on April 26, last year, hours before the concert at State House.

The fact that the jury in Nairobi found it fit for this performance to represent the metropolis in Mombasa is a pointer to Otonglo Time’s artistry and persuasive ingredients imbedded in its disarming power of entertainment.

Didn’t we see the narrative leave the President in stitches in a way that we haven’t seen him when Owira cleverly touched Jubilee’s core campaign pledge of laptops to schools and digitisation, when he signed off with, “Titter me, Twitter me, Mr President”?

Isn’t that the quality of a good effective satire? Doesn’t Otonglo Time, then, compete with such great works as Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the city?