wfn.org | Kenyan Actor-Poet Sings His Nation's Tale of Woe

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

23-September-1997 
97362 
 
    Kenyan Actor-Poet Sings His Nation's Tale of Woe 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
GENEVA--Blessed with the soul of a poet, the voice of a singer and the 
intensity of an actor, Bantu Mwaura is using his theatrical talents to help 
raise awareness of the urgent need for political reform of his nation, 
Kenya. 
 
    Bantu Mwaura educated -- but also entertained -- the Central Committee 
of the World Council of Churches as it met here recently. Through his 
voice, his acting, his story-telling  and his personality, Mwaura brought 
his culture -- and his cry for action --  to the ecumenical community. As 
Mwaura put it, "I speak for hundreds of thousands of Kenyans" through songs 
and stories. 
 
    A trained theater artist, Mwaura is a poet, playwright, actor and 
director who began performing in Nairobi as a boy. After graduating in 1994 
from Kenyatta University, Mwaura taught drama briefly at Loreto High School 
in Limuru, Kenya, but stopped teaching shortly afterward and became an 
outspoken political activist. 
 
    He told ENI he is now a "freelance theater artist." He is also a member 
of Release Political Prisoners (RPP), a group that addresses human rights 
issues and puts pressure on the Kenyan government to free those arrested 
for their political beliefs. 
 
    A key to Mwaura's presentations is the notion of "Sokoni," a Swahili 
word for a marketplace where sellers and buyers come to trade goods that 
are typical products of the land. More important, Mwaura said, "Sokoni" is 
a place for encounter and exchange, not only of goods, but of ideas and 
information. The freedom, warmth and spontaneity of African communication 
are the hallmarks of his presentations. 
 
    Articulating this concept, Mwaura recreated the spirit of Sokoni for 
the WCC Central Committee members with the sounds of drums, a powerful 
speaking voice and dramatic story-telling. His mournful song, "My Eyes Are 
Laughing but My Heart Is Crying," brought the daily hardships of the Kenyan 
people to the committee and challenged them to commit themselves to action. 
 
    "It is particularly important for me to do more than to entertain; I 
wish to link my audiences with the world through `Sokoni,'" Mwaura told ENI 
after his presentation. "I was able to tell this through traditional 
stories, though in a contemporary format, to many members of the world 
religious community." 
 
    Mwaura was himself witness to one of the most dramatic events in 
Kenya's recent history when, on July 7 this year, paramilitary police 
stormed All Saints Anglican Church in Nairobi to stop a public meeting 
called by the National Convention Executive Committee in Kenya and an 
independent electoral commission. Among those attacked was Timothy Njoya, 
an outspoken pastor of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), who 
was severely beaten by riot police. In the aftermath of the storming of the 
cathedral, police in many parts of Kenya used tear gas, truncheons, rubber 
bullets and live ammunition to break up demonstrations demanding democratic 
reform. Ten people were killed in the disturbances. 
 
    "I was a victim because I was in that church when it was attacked," 
Mwaura said. "The desecration of the Anglican church was really the height 
of the insolence of [President Daniel arap] Moi's government. In all my art 
forms, I describe what I have experienced, what I have seen and what I have 
felt." 
 
    Mwaura said the Kenyan government remained extremely oppressive, 
maintained colonial-style rule and had not been open to democratic and 
multiparty processes. For example, President Moi's government had to be 
pressured both at home and abroad to hold its first such election in 1992. 
However, Moi won largely because the opposition was divided. 
 
    Over the last few years, the people of Kenya had been calling for 
constitutional reforms to allow proper democratic government in a 
multiparty system, but President Moi's administration had resisted this 
movement. 
 
    "Consequently there has been a lot of violence, a lot of chaos in Kenya 
and a lot of people terribly injured and killed," Mwaura said. "This 
includes many prominent people in our society." 
 
    Mwaura, who first came into contact with the WCC when he was asked to 
introduce "Sokoni" at a major conference organized by the WCC in Nairobi 
from January 13 to 19, 1997, told ENI he preferred to be identified as an 
ecumenist rather than being affiliated with any particular church or 
denomination. "Certainly a lot of water has passed under the bridge in 
terms of my religious beliefs," said Mwaura, who was raised as a Roman 
Catholic. "At this moment I would not want to identify myself strongly with 
any particular church. I find the ecumenical movement a more pliable kind 
of movement to align myself with because I think there's more that we can 
do when we think of ourselves as people who join up as one and work 
together." 
 
    Mwaura acknowledged it would be dangerous for him to return to Kenya 
now, but for at least one year he will be out of the country pursuing his 
master of theater arts degree at Leeds University in the United Kingdom. He 
said the WCC had offered financial assistance for his studies. 
 
    "I'm not going to shy off from fighting for human rights in Kenya and 
that's why I'm not afraid," Mwaura said. "I do not know what this will mean 
when I go back to Kenya, but that's a bridge that I'll cross when I come to 
it." 

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