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Welcome to Made in Africa (updated 4 Apr 2005) This page is dedicated to anything and everything! From the rambling thoughts of an OTE member to contributions by people who've watched our shows, or have something to say about themselves. First up, Wiina's new play. We had a reading of it at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London on Wednesday the 30th of March, followed by a talk back. Very interesting and well received I thought. For more on the play, see Wiina's notes below ...
Zuva Crumbling A play written by Wiina Lucian Msamati Set in Harare Zimbabwe Zuva Crumbling is a hard-hitting political drama exploring the lives of a few ordinary Zimbabweans suddenly caught up in extraordinary and potentially cataclysmic circumstances. In the wake of the 2002** presidential elections, controversial opposition journalist Faith Nehura lands the ‘interview of the decade’ with enigmatic government apologist Doctor Joseph Matewe. Predictably, sparks fly and a very agitated Faith returns home to her husband schoolteacher Ali Nehura. He has had his hands full during the day defending his pupils from protesting University students and trigger happy riot police. Their awkward domestic quiet is shattered by a phone call informing Faith that her offices have been bombed and that their home phone has been tapped…
Enraged and confused they receive a surprise, late-night visitor: Festus Molife, an old friend of Ali’s who mysteriously shows up after many years of silence. It quickly becomes clear that Festus appears to know more than seems appropriate for the average citizen… Suddenly there are more late-night callers: Police Officers Masendeke and Takadiwa. Festus insists that at all costs they know nothing of his presence. Faith and Ali are thrust into an unpleasant interrogation in which the police make clear whom they believe to be the real ‘criminals’… Within seconds of their departure, Festus re-emerges wielding an automatic handgun followed by a young man called Takura. They carry with them the concealed and unconscious body of Doctor Joseph Matewe… A brutal and grotesque Kangaroo Court session ensues, pushing everyone one to the limits of their reason. As his ‘piece-de-resistance’ Festus introduces the Witness: the victim of unspeakable acts of politically motivated violence. Festus’ hands down his verdict: Matewe and the rest of the government stand down and hand the country back to its citizens. His reward for this resignation is to not suffer the brutal fate that Festus claims to have exacted on Matewe’s two young children… As daylight approaches each individual must make a choice: release the ‘enemy’ politician knowing that they will face the wrath of the law or follow the ‘mad man’ into a new day that could change the fate of an entire country… Zuva Crumbling is an attempt to answer some fundamental questions: Who is the enemy: the individual or their actions? Can the world’s media be trusted as a bastion of truth and justice? With a person directly responsible for the pain and suffering of millions suddenly at your mercy, what really would you do? Is there really such a thing as an objective and universal truth in history? And if so whose interpretation of history/ truth is more valid? Footnote**: Although a work of fiction, Zuva Crumbling takes its ‘inspiration’ from real life events which took place in Zimbabwe during the politically turbulent year of 2002. At that time the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had gained a huge amount of popular support amongst urban workers, the middle class, and, in the wake of the violent farm invasions, the remaining white population in Zimbabwe. At that time the Minister of Information (or Disinformation as he was popularly known) Jonathan Moyo, one time critic of Mugabe, spearheaded a major suppression of the independent press by the ZANU controlled government: all foreign journalists were (and still remain) banned from the country, legislature was passed severely limiting freedom of speech within in the country, and finally The Daily News, the most virulently anti-government newspaper, had its printing press bombed ( though The Daily’s city offices had been bombed in April 2001. A security guard was injured in the attack. The perpetrators of the act were never brought to book). The Daily is now an internet newspaper. The politics of democracy within Zimbabwe have moved on since then. 2005 will illuminate whether this movement is in fact ‘progress’, with elections taking place for the last time for another four years.
Contact details for Zuva Crumbling
Lucian Msamati: Writer / Producer (UK) wiina@overtheedge.co.zw , Phone: 079 5068 9782 Chipo Chung: Producer/ Director (UK) chipochung@hotmail.com Craig Peter: Producer (Zimbabwe) craig@overtheedge.co.zw
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What does it mean to be 'Born African'? Over the Edge threw themselves into this question when they wrote Born African between January and April 2001. It was a particularily hard time in Zimbabwe and strangely because of this the play was very easy to write. As someone once said, writing is easy, all you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. Below are a few entries we've had so far from the forms on our Born African Interactive pages. If you haven't been there already and would like to chuck your mealie pip into the fire, please do. We'd love to hear from you. I'd like to submit my thoughts on being 'Born African'
It can't be explained, it needs to be experienced. If you take one step towards Africa, it takes 10 towards you. As you open your heart to its people and its riches, it gets under your skin, and into your soul. It changes the way you view the world, and challenges everything you thought you knew about how the world works, and what human nature is about. It speaks not only to the body and the senses, but to the very spirit of a person. When you gaze over the lands of Africa, the spirit within you is what shudders. It is filled with contrast, deep sorrow, profound joy, great cruelty, even greater kindness. The weather, the land, the animals, the people - all extreme, none passive. South Africa, where i live and was born, is a place of hope. I feel like a pioneer, an adventurer, a discoverer. It is like living in the days when ships sailed off to find new lands, and brought back riches from foreign lands. The blank slate on which we've built the last 10 years, is as new and exciting as getting off a boat and finding a continent. This is a time of discovery. Every day, i meet a new person, who fills me with hope. These people are socially aware, politically awake. More and more we are taking responsibility for our own destiny in this country, we are prepared to work together, to do whatever it takes, to hand a solid country to our children. The people all around me are proud. (Well, the ones i pay attention to, anyway) Being born African to me means being born into a place and time in History where i have meaning, where i can make a contribution, a difference. Where i can shape and build a country i am proud to live in. It gives me a sense of identity that is independent of my parents, or grandparents, and even despite them, i am welcome here. God Bless Africa My Born African Experience, by 'Ox' Watching our cricket team lose. My Born African Review, by Jennifer Nails |
