Heritage

Sibi Okumu takes Kaggia to the Kenyan stage

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Harry Ebale (right), in Accidental Death, has been picked for Bildad Kaggia role. Inset, the late Bildad Kaggia. PHOTO | FILE | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Phoenix Players have such high regard for the Kenyan playwright John Sibi-Okumu that they reserve a slot for him every year when his latest original play will be staged.

Committed to writing about what he calls the “Kenyan condition”, Sibi has presented a number of his plays at Phoenix, most of which have been received with overwhelming praise, as Role Play and Meetings were.

But others, like Minister Karibu got mixed reviews. I for one liked the show, but other cultural critics claimed he was stereotyping his political characters in tribal terms.

Either way, Sibi is no stranger to controversy and doesn’t shy away from it, as the public will see from this Friday night when his brand new play, Kaggia, will premiere at Phoenix Theatre.

As Kenyans may recall, Bildad Kaggia was one of the Kapenguria Six, who with Jomo Kenyatta and others, was incarcerated for several years. Once released, he joined Kenyatta’s new government, but didn’t stay long since he not only had ideological difference with Kenyatta, he also couldn’t stand what he perceived to be the corruption that he saw in the new government.

Kaggia had played a pivotal role in the Mau Mau anti-colonial war, but he never received the recognition he deserved. Hopefully, Sibi-Okumu’s play will go some distance in rectifying that historical omission.

Harry Ebale (who just finished starring in Accidental Death of a Terrorist at Phoenix) was Sibi’s pick to play Kaggia and Lydiah Gitachu was also the playwright’s choice to play Kaggia’s wife Wambui.

Nick Njache is directing the four-member cast in which two young filmmakers, Stacey (Yriimo Mwaura) and Xan (Bruce Makau), contemplate making a film on the man.

And as they do, they take on a multiplicity of roles that should give us a panoramic view of the Mau Mau leader who chose to make large sacrifices in his personal life even as he fought for the liberation of his country from colonial rule.

Kaggia will run from October 31 through November 15.

Already the show is booked to play to several full house crowds so it might be best to get tickets in advance.

Meanwhile, the word got round this past week about two plays that were either extended beyond the original closing date or brought back to the stage by popular demand.

Both Accidental Death of a Terrorist and How Dearly I Hate You closed last Sunday night with each one playing to packed houses, the first at Phoenix, the second at Alliance Francaise.

So anyone who doubts the Kenyan public is increasingly engaged in attending theatrical productions need to think again. Both shows were exceedingly entertaining but at the same time they each had a clear-cut social message.

Accidental Death examined the threat of police impunity and the need for vigilance while Hate explored gender inequities and one young woman’s resistance to being treated like mindless chattel by the men in her life.

In both cases, one could ignore the socio-political message and just enjoy the hilarity of each play.

Finally, Elizabeth Orchardson-Mazrui worked her magic last Saturday at Paa ya Paa Art Centre where she managed to transform a humble book launch into a multifaceted performance featuring story tellers and spoken-word poets.

Launching not one but three brand new books, Prof Orchardson-Mazrui proved again that she’s a prolific writer despite being best known as a fine artist and art lecturer at Kenyatta University.

On hand to formally launch her new play The Lion of Egerton Castle, selected short stories, Seasons of the Jacarandas and collection of her newest poems (which she described as “angry”) called Recriminations, Lamentations, Ululations, were two veteran Kenyan storytellers, Muthoni Likimani and David Maillu.

Both Muthoni and Maillu had been invited by Prof Orchardson-Mazrui to honour their contributions to Kenya’s incipient literary culture. But she also invited a much younger generation of performing artist to dramatise her writings and lift them off the written page and into a vibrant vocal presence.