| Abstract |
Drama and theatre practices in Western Kenya aim at development at a grass roots level. This booklet seeks to expose the potential of drama/theatre as a learning medium, a working method and a communication tool. This could inform grassroots NGOs, educationalists, drama teachers, theatre workers, animators, youth groups, community leaders, development organizations and policy makers.
Group and community participation as a self-help concept is very much part of Africans' cultures and tradition. Almost all African communities have, well woven within their cultures and traditions, some form of group self-help activities. In Kenya this self-help group concept is called 'Harambee' - pulling together. Kenyans collectively have built such things as hospitals, schools, roads and colleges. Now there are over 30,000 women's groups spread all over Kenya, engaged in all kinds of projects, founded and run on a self-help basis. Many of these groups are meant to generate income for members who are mostly rural and urban poor women.
Some groups have been set up with special missions such as to create awareness on gender issues, and to sensitize women to their basic rights. Others, like the literature and drama ones, aim at promoting women dancers, singers, actors, writers and story tellers to freely share and express their views. Some self-help projects are initiated by the government, but individuals, mostly women, have founded viable groups to embark on various community-based self-help projects addressing common women's and social needs. However, the main objective of most of these groups, made up of some of the most deprived and illiterate women in Kenya, is to generate income for members, and to assist them in improving the quality of life for themselves and their families. The article also points out that many of these cultural theatre and drama groups were formed to entertain politicians and dignitaries on state occasions and thus the concept of self-help was abused by those in authority who felt that the function of women in development was to sing and dance for politicians rather than to work to acquire positions in government jobs and decision- and policy-making bodies. This thwarted women's attempts at progress.
Nevertheless, women's groups are still seen as an important nucleus of development activities and drama is valued as a means to disseminate information and knowledge to the community, especially on matters of health and education and to encourage development. Women's groups still lack empowerment to utilize their full potential. The paper advocates that their legal status should be strengthened to enable them to acquire land or borrow money for their projects; that their functional literacy level should be improved; and that younger members should be encouraged to join. It stresses that women's groups and theatre must find a new culture of dialogue and development, a new orientation for integration, to understand concepts like democracy, liberation, and autonomy for women through group and individual participation. Theatre is seen as an important medium for education and information on development, as well as on amoral, religious, and socio-economic issues; as a way of giving a voice to people who are usually denied one, especially women; as an instrument for social change; and as an important catalyst in the bottom-up approach to development. However, at present it is felt that the level of theatre activities, performances and current productions by women's groups is lacking proper coordination and professionalism.
The paper concludes that one reason drama is effective as an educational medium is because it uses the language of the people to promote health care, hygiene, agriculture, birth control and even political lobbying for both rural development and urban programmes. Its informal character has given it a wide use in NGO institutions with women's
groups. Theatre can also create an emotional impact in dealing with such tragedies as the AIDS epidemic. Because theatre is an oral communication and usually deals with issues familiar to the audience, it is a suitable medium for women in Western Kenya, where most women are illiterate, poor and have no access to other media such as television and video
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