Post on 03-May-2023
A comparison analysis of nine plays by East African dramatists:
With a preliminary examination of contemporary East African aesthetics, focusing
on the aesthetics and politics of language.
By Joan M Kivanda
For Modupe Olaogun. Interdisciplinary Studies 5010 /6.0
When looking at aesthetics of drama, it is clear to see that most western theories of
aesthetics have given but a “passing reference to the drama” as it is much easier to
examine finished visual arts pieces, than to decipher what “passes through the mind
of a dramatist when he is faced with the multiple complex of writing a play”.
(Courtney, 373) However, some theorists have been successful in defining
aesthetics of the work of dramatist, not by deciphering what passes through the
mind of the dramatist during creation, but by grouping certain elements or
significant features that emerges from the work. This approach is especially
prominent in the study of the non-‐western aesthetics where more attention is given
to the artist who creates the work as an important source of information about
aesthetics. Art critics everywhere, have approached the artist to get a critical
reflection of their art as a first step towards determining the elements that the
creator, and essentially the society, value in a work of art. Each creator and his/her
work, is untimely influenced by their socio-‐cultural, socio-‐economics and their
socio-‐ political development. These elements would often influence the creator’s
attitude in the way they treat several elements of their work, such as language,
subject matter and style.
Needless to say, when a desire to investigate aesthetics preference in a given society
arises, there are several methodologies that are available for such investigations.
“There are many methodological procedures that can be combined to arrive at a
reliable picture of aesthetics of a given culture or society.” (Wilfried, 203) Prevailing
among these methodologies is the study of art criticism, which in part, influences
this paper as I seek to explore the aesthetics of East African drama by conducting a
critical analysis of plays written by East African born writers. As I contemplate the
aesthetics of East African theatre, I am drawn to Beneath Wittgenstein's connective
approach to aesthetics. The kind of work that is undertaken to identify and
articulate such connection as discussed in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
is, for Wittgenstein, the heart of aesthetic experience and aesthetic contemplation.
(Garry, 2007) The connective approach is one of the first generations look at
aesthetics, which has since been renamed the “comparison approach”. The
comparison approach as explained by Garry is an “intricate process of grouping
together certain cases—where such comparative juxtaposition usually casts certain
significant features of the work or works in question” (2007), leading to an
emergence of an organizational theory. I am attracted to this approach of the study
of aesthetics as it gives me a flexibility and the means to distil significant elements
that can start defining the aesthetics of contemporary East African theatre and
drama. It has been suggested that if we group together the many African literatures,
we have a chance to “ encounter passages, which can be looked upon as
embodiment of the community opinion on aesthetics.” (Wilfred 204) I have
therefore, chosen this approach of grouping works of East African theatre
playwrights in my attempt to analyze their attitudes towards their politics and
aesthetics of language, as a first step towards defining the East African community’s
opinion on theatre and drama aesthetics.
In my long study of East African theatre aesthetics, I have read many plays by East
African artists, and for the purpose of this paper, I have chosen to focus on nine
random selected plays written by East African artists in the past 20 – 25 years. Of
these plays, one is written in Swahili, two are unpublished, one is a work in progress
and the others are published plays in English. These nine plays cover the three main
regions of English and Swahili speaking East Africa: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
and is divided as follows:
Tanzania
1. Stori ya by Joan M Kivanda
2. The flying Tortoise by Tololwa Mollel
3. Pullyupullus by Tololwa Mollel
4. Nguzo Mama by Penina Muhando
Kenya:
1. Aminata by Francis D Imbuga
2. The rainbow by David G Maillu
3. Chains of Junkdom by Okoiti Omtatah,
Uganda:
1. Operation Mulungusi by Patrick Mangeni
2. The Bride by Austin Bukenya
In reading of these plays, I have discovered that, when it comes to East African
playwrights, there are three main ways in which they interact with the politics and
aesthetics of language in their works. Often the playwrights either choose to reject
the English language all together and write in local languages, find a way of mixing
English and local languages in the work, or simply choose to write their plays
exclusively in English. Whichever way the East African playwrights choose to
interact with the English language, language in general is a major factor in
determining the elements that define the aesthetics of East African theatre and
drama.
Written literature in East Africa was introduced in the eighteen century “when the
Arabic script was introduced” (Lihamba, et al., 27) and shortly after, the Roman
script was brought into the region with evangelization and solidified with
colonization. East Africa being a melting pot of many cultures because of the trading
coast, and adding to its already multi-‐ethnicity population, language has always
been a topic of discussion in the arts.
The question of “the language of Africa” in East African literature has been around
for a long time. The first serious discussions about language in African literature
were held in Kenya, in December 1981, and it has continued to resurface in many
creative and academic circles since then. (Ngugi, vii) In recent years, Ngugi of Kenya
popularize the subject of the language of Africa in his book Decolonizing the mind:
The Politics of language in African literature, suggesting that African language could
not be decolonized until the mind of the African creative writer was decolonized.
(Banham, et al., 30) In his attempt to start decolonizing his mind as a creative writer,
Ngugi abandoned English, the language that made him popular, to start writing in
his native language of Kikuyu. Ngugi is an example of one of the three main ways
that East African playwrights are interacting with the politics and aesthetics of
language in their works.
Another example is Penima Muhando Mlama, who represents this attitude toward
language in her play Nguzo Mama, written entirely in Swahili. In fact, Mlama takes
up this large language question in “Creating in the Mother-‐Tongue” (1990), where
she assesses her reasons for interacting with the politics and aesthetics of language
in her native tongue. As a strong advocate of theatre for development, Mlama
believes that using African languages not only defies European superiority, but also
sends the message to local villagers in a language they understand. For Mlama,
because of the nature of the work she is engaged in, it is befitting that she writes in
the language of her people. Being in Tanzania, unlike its Kenya and Uganda
counterparts, offers Mlama the comfort in writing in a local language that is spoken
by all its citizens. Swahili is one of the unique African local languages that is spoken
by the entire country and many other neighboring countries, not just a particular
ethnic group, as is common with most other African local languages. As Ismael R
Mbise said in his article “Writing in English from Tanzania”, the most useful tool in
the process of mental decolonization… [in Tanzania] has been the Kiswahili
Language. (Killam, 54)
Other popular playwrights who have adopted this attitude of writing in local
languages include Rose Mbowa, of Uganda. Rose Mbowa, although not outspoken
about it, contributed to this discussion about the politics and aesthetics of languages
in the work that she conducted. Believing in theatre’s abilities to help change
people’s lives and beliefs, Mbowa was a strong advocate and practitioner of theatre
for social change. She focused on the work that “draws on ordinary people’s natural
skills in performance”, (Banham, et al., xx) which means she also preferred to
conduct her work in languages of the people. However, to gain success beyond her
immediate Luganda speaking population, Mbowa wrote some of her plays, such as
the popular Mother Courage and her Children, in English.
In summary, it seems that of those writers who have chosen to respond to the
politics of language by writing exclusively in local languages, the success comes in
balancing the followings three facts:
• Deciding when to start writing in local languages as in Ngugi’s case: Ngugi is
only successful in continuing to write his new plays in Kikuyu because of his
having attained a high level of success before switching to writing in his local
language. Since Kikuyu is spoken by only one ethnic group in Kenya, Ngugi
relies on translations of his work into the English language to reach the wide
audiences.
• Deciding what local language to write in, in order to reach the widest audiences as
in Mlama’s case: Mlama gained her recognition in writing all her plays in the
widely spoken Swahili, (although she speaks and could understand both Swahili
and English.)
• Balancing between the types of plays to write in local languages and engage in
local discussions and types of plays to write in English and engage in
conversations on the world’s stage as in Mbowa’s case.
It is arguable then that, although some writers such as Ngugi, Mlama and Mbowa
have had success in writing in their local languages as explained above, not all
writers have the privilege or the liberty to do so. The choice for many other writers
of East African decent remains to either write in local languages and gain little
recognition beyond their local communities or write in English and have an
opportunity to compete on the world stage. Some writers such as Tololwa Mollel
and myself, have found a comfortable space between writing in English and writing
in local languages, as a way to respond to the politics and aesthetics of language in
East Africa. In my play Stori Ya, more so than in Tololwa Mollel’s work, local
languages, Swahili and Nyamwezi are situated at the core of the storytelling,
although the play is written in English for English speaking audiences. Tololwa
Mollel who writes for young audiences includes small phrases of Swahili in his work,
believing that young people are more adept into capturing and understand foreign
languages. In doing so, Mollel not only does he remind his audiences where the
stories are coming from, but he also reminds them of the influence of his Swahili
speaking culture in his work.
Moreover, in Stori Ya, Swahili and Nyamwezi are used for alienation and rhythmic
effects, giving and limiting the audience access to the life of this woman who seems
so familiar, yet, so foreign to them. It would’ve been just as easy to write the entire
play in English, but as a writer, I was conscious with the politics of languages from
my East African upbringing. I wanted to create a piece that reminded the audiences
of a place where people, although they are comfortable in expressing themselves in
their local languages, are forced to speak and deal in English, as English is the
language of education and business. In addition to the discussion of language, I
situated Stori Ya in a place that begs a discussion about language, without letting it
interfere with the story, which is independent of the politics of language. I was
happy to have achieved just that:
"It is never a problem that Maria chants and speaks in Swahili and Nyamwezi
as well as English. The movement from one language to another is so smooth
and musical it punctuates the changes in persona and adds to the pleasure of
listening to this amazing journey." (Fuerstenberg, The Rover)
In Stori Ya, as a writer, I participate in this conversation about the politics and
aesthetics of language in East Africa not by completely abandoning English like
Ngugi et al., and writing in my local language, but by understanding that even
though I am not able to completely write in my local language, I am able to infuse my
local language in my plays as a process of decolonizing my mind and showcase my
local language for my English speaking audiences: this attitude to language
represents the second group of East African born artists.
Yet, there are the playwrights who have chosen to embrace the colonizer’s English
language in their work and feel no need to defend their choices, representing the
third group of East African writers’ attitude towards language. This mentality was
shaped post the independency era in East Africa when English became the language
of Education. “In the entire region, English came to represent education, and those
who did not or would not speak it were considered uncouth and backward”
(Lihamba, et al, 50). Therefore, for most writers, writing in English is an effective
way of telling their stories and insuring that it reaches the majority of people
everywhere who speak English. The other major contribution to the attitude of
these writers towards language is the fact that in East African today as Bole Butake
puts it in a 1989 interview with Eckhard Breitinger, “you [still] have to be careful
about what and how you are saying it”, (Banham, et al, 7) because the political
waters are still unsettled and unpredictable, therefore to write in English, is to be
safe and, to a certain extend, compliant.
Of the writers who have chosen to write mostly in English, I have noticed two major
trends in the works I have examined. The first group represents writers who write
in English, but continues to challenge the politics of the language in the way they use
language. These are the writers who choose to write in a “heightened” English that
reflects the heightened nature of East African local languages and lore. These
writers include Bukenya, Imbulga, and to the certain extend Patrick Mangeni,
although it feels like Mangeni is in the cusp of discovering his politics on language,
with one foot in the likes of Bukenya and Imbulga, and one foot in the likes of Okoiti
Omtatah and David G Maillu who falls into the second category of English writers -‐
those who have simply adopted or assimilated to the language of the colonizer,
without directly challenging it.
Bukenya challenges the way East African writers interacts with the English
language. In The Bride, he states openly that he wrote the play with the politics and
aesthetics of language in mind. On the introduction of the play, he writes
passionately about language, stating that when it comes to language “the dialogues
[in the play] was intended as a reaction against the false simplistic representation of
African folks prevalent in African writing” the English language today. (The bride,
vii), In his introduction of The Bride, Bukenya argues that East African people might
be simple, but their language is definitely not simple. This attitude towards language
is echoed in Imbulga’s Aminata, a play that was written around the same time as The
Bride. In Aminata, like in The Bride, the writers have taken time to use African
idioms, “which is not a mere abstract impression of how the “folk” speaks, but, as far
as possible, a direct rendering of words, phrases and expressions heard in people’s
own Lore”. (Bukenya vii.) This is also what Patrick Mangeni tries to achieve in his
play Operation Mulungusi. However, because Patrick Mangeni is more of a
contemporary writer than Bukenya and Imbulga, he places some idioms within his
mostly westernized English plays as Mollel and myself uses Swahili, in our mostly
English texts. Most of the texts in Mangeni’s Operation Mulungusi are written in
what I’d call plain English, with an exception of a few parts that are evidently
coming from the African lore of idioms. Mangeni uses these snippets of the idioms to
represent the language of the old and uses “plain” English to represent the language
of the modern East African audience. His approach differs from Bukenya’s and
Imbulga’s, because, for Bukenya and Imbulga, almost the entire play is written in
Idioms and heightened language, regardless of whether the character uphold the
new ways of thinking or the old ways of thinking. In Imbulga’s Aminata, the
heightened language of the traditional lore is juxtaposed with the heightened
language that comes from the academic world. This heightened academic language
is especially evident in the speeches of Aminata, who is a brilliant and diligent young
lawyer. However, Sam Ukala, a Uganda playwright has argued in African theatre:
Playwrights and Politics that “no matter how politically or social-‐economically
relevant their subject matter”… the use of foreign language, would make any play
unpopular amongst their people, thus voiding relevance. (282) This sentimentality
is often true in most of academics based writer who writes creative works in
heightened languages. “ Problems with plays written by intellectuals at a university
setting, however, Plastow suggests, is that [the intellectuals] write plays for wasomi
(the intellects) instead of wananchi, the people.” (191) I, however found the work of
Imbulga and Bukenya to be accessible and relevant, but perhaps it’s because that I,
too, am an academic, analyzing the politics and aesthetics of language in East Africa.
The second group of playwrights in East Africa who writes in English, as mentioned
above, is a group of writers who have chosen to assimilate to the language of the
colonizers, in order to have a wider reach of their audiences and speak in a “regular”
language that can be appreciated by local audiences everywhere who speak English,
but are not necessary familiar with the heightened language of the academics and
the elite.
David G Maillu is one of these writers who write in “plain” English. Maillu opted out
of the university, disagreeing with the academic literature that influenced “Ngugi wa
Thiong'o, Okot p'Bitek, Leonard Kibera, and Taban lo Liyong, the elite group of
writers who were based at the University of Nairobi and whose works dominated
Kenyan literary discussion in the 1970s.” (Book Rags) Instead, Maillu decided that if
he was going to be a writer, he was going to address issues and topics that were of
interest to the general public, in the language that they can all understand. Maillu
decided that: “the subjects that interested [the Kenyan] were marriage, sex, religion,
money, politics, drinking, and human relations in general” (Bookrag), which is what
he wrote about in most of his work. “His avoidance of the ideological posturing of
some of Africa's university authors touched the right chord in Kenyan and East
African readers.” (bookrags) and placed his name in the list of popular writers of
East African decent in the post independent era.
Okoiti Omtatah is another example of writers who writes in “plain” English and
relies on the relevance of his subject matter to get his audiences excited and
responsive to his work. As an activist for people of Kenya, Omtatah writes in English,
instead of his local language, so that he can reach all his Kenyan audiences without
the barrier of language and tribalism. Omtatah is very successful in staying relevant
to his audience with Chains of Junkdom. Although the play was written in English, it
was straightforward, simple and followed a character that any East African people
audience would recognize, regardless of their social standings. Other writers such
as David G Maillu are not always so successful in reaching their audiences through
English written texts as with his play The Raibow. Although The Rainbow is written
in plain English, the subject of discussion in the text is complex and academic,
making the play feel out of reach for its audiences, including me.
It is clear then, that a delicate balance is needed for East African writers who write
in English for East African audiences to be successful. Writing in a too simple or too
“plain” English may enrage the likes of Bukenya… Writing in a too complicate or too
“heighten” English may prove the likes of Plastow right about their views on
academic writers… and not paying too much attention to the relationship between
subject matter and language may prove Sam Ukala’s point and create works like The
Rainbow, that is not relevant to its audiences. So to write in English is not necessary
the simplest choice for East African writers, although at first glance, it seems to be
so.
Language in East Africa as explored in this paper about the politics and aesthetics of
language in East Africa theatre and drama is extensive. Language is in the
consciousness of many, if not all, East African writer and each has found a way to
respond to it and interact with it in their works. When it comes to examining the
aesthetics of East African theatre and drama then, language is a crucial and
important analytical point. It is a first step towards defining the East African
community opinion on theatre and drama aesthetics. It is also a key element that
gives us clue of whether or not a particular script is written by an East African
writer. The question about aesthetics is huge, and in East Africa, performing a
critical analysis of language and artists interactions with language is a first step
toward understanding the aesthetics of the region. Although we are making some
progress in defining the aesthetics of East African theatre, more focus is needed on
this subject to give us a better understanding of the aesthetics of East African
theatre in general.
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