TODAY just like many other times, I will allow my colleague Edward Lange, who is a theatre critique and activist to recap on the experiences during the Mwansabombwe theatre festival.
He writes, Mable Shaw Secondary school in Mbereshi, Mwansabombwe District was a hive of theatrical artistic activities; this time around people were not scrambling for fresh fish, but showcasing their artistic capacity in the area of theatre.
Between the 18th and 21st of April, 2014, a total of ten local theatre groups from four provinces converged in the remote part of Zambia for the inaugural Mwansabombwe Theatre Festival, an initiative conceived by the area Member of Parliament, Rodgers Mwewa.
The groups that took part in the festival were Africa Directions, Kabwe Arts, Matero Arts Theatre, Bantu Theatre, Zaninge Theatre and Green Buffaloes. Others were NAPSA Theatre, Mufulira Arts Council, Kasama Arts and the host Mwansabombwe Theatre – on the part of the theatrical fraternity, the attendance of the number of theatre groups was a huge breakthrough.
“Honourable Mwewa, a theatre artist himself has insisted on using theatre to spread education and entertainment, particularly in an area starved of recreation, and promises to make this an annual occurence.
To light up Mwansabombwe through theatre, this was a clear testimony of the current Government’s zeal, passion, enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring that, this sub-sector of the creative industry is recognised and acclaimed. All participating groups from Lusaka, Central, Copperbelt, Northern and Luapula provinces were transported by the Government, while the organisers contributed fuel.
Lange adds that following the long distances of travel, the participants were welcomed by the Mwansabombwe Cultural ensemble Theatre group with an excerpt from Mulenga Kapwepwe’s play ‘Longo’, which was followed by a brilliant traditional dance by the Mbereshi Cultural group, who gave the audience practical hints on how it is done in Luapula province.
The guest of honour Luapula Provincial Minister Benson Kapaya, whose humility cannot go without commending, took to the stage and showed the young ones in gyrating his waist that, he was also a potential artistic performer.
Officially, opening the festival, Brigadier General Kapaya commended the organisers for the initiative and assured them of his continuous support to guarantee that, the rural based artistic talent was developed especially in this part of the country, as it would help to diversify the economy and further pledged that his office, through the department of tourism and arts will soon embark on an ambitious initiative to assess existing artistic infrastructure, which I believe is the right way to go in this day and era.
Surely, 2014, seemingly from the word go, the theatrical calendar appears fully packed; Mwansabombwe festival, Yezi Arts festival, School arts festival and NATAAZ festivals, and the office of the National Arts Council (NAC), has been effusively involved, this approach has reduced the perceived conflict between the artists and NAC, though a lot need to be done.
NAC acting director Adrian Chipindi meantime understands the needs of artists country wide, this is not to mean his predecessors failed, they tried their best accordingly.
Perhaps the trouble remains that most artists have not had an opportunity to interact with Chipindi, who I describe as young and energetic.
Lange goes on, “I remember the days of the late Julius Juma Banda, what was interesting about a festival was the disorganisation, and this gave us what to laugh about, imagine these were national events managed by a full team of national leaders, sometimes participants went without any meal at all, but the Isaac Kalumba led three-member Mwansabombwe organising team proved to the contrary, as Chisanga Chanda the administrative officer, was at hand to ensure that all the participants had meals and were in good health while Dominic Sitamu ensured that all productions had their stage properties readily done in time.
Disappointingly, there was poor coordination between the adjudicators and the organisers, which in a way symbolised lack of experience and there was no information desk established by organisers to help gather and disseminate information.
As though that was not enough the time management was very poor as groups were given in some cases more than three hours to prepare the stage, which at the end worked against the benefits and expectations of the participants which included the chance to explore the beauty and local tourist attractions of the province as the program was delayed .
The panel of adjudicators , who included veteran actor ‘not talented but skilled’ former director cultural department, Wesley Musamba Kaonga, experienced and renowned author and director Bright Banda and the longest serving and living theatre administrator Mike Tembo.
The National Arts Council Director, led a team of leaders to the Mwata Kazembe Palace to pay a courtesy call as per tradition, and the chief was excited by the visit and through the NAC Director, he conveyed his message to the powers that be to consider including some of the talented dancers from his chiefdom into the National Dance troupe.
Mwata Kazembe said once his subjects were included in the national dance troupe, then the national troupe would rightly bear a national character.
During this traditional procedural meeting with the Mwata, the team learnt that the chief in fact was a performing artist who once acted alongside Bright Banda during the days of ZANACO Theatre in Lusaka and at the same time plays indigenous and traditional musical instruments, which he said if he had prior information of the visit, would have mobilised his team and played.
In about two months’ time, there will be the famous Mutomboko Ceremony in Mwansabombwe District and the chief said the event though with cultural and spiritual connotation, is part of art, he therefore appealed to the Government to come up with a clear policy on how art can directly be transformed into an economic vehicle just like in other countries.
He he questioned, why sport has been given an upper hand by the Government and appealed to the team, which took with them a group of actors and actresses from the Mopani Copper Mines sponsored, Mufulira Arts Council, to develop a deliberate artists mobilisation initiative for the rural based communities like his chiefdom so that theatre could be used as a vehicle for social transformation, which was a very critical and important call from the Mwata.
Later the Mwata called upon the artists to attend the Mutomboko Ceremony. I want to pay tribute to the chief for inviting artists to this year’s Mutomboko, so that among other guiding principles a long term partnership could be developed. I hope the NAC director will take this invitation seriously and ensure that artists attend.
“The more I try to avoid talking about the Ntumbachushi Falls, the more I feel guilty, those who despite the busy schedule of performances, within their limited time artists visited this tourist attraction, and it reminded me of the old days when every year we used to converge in Livingstone and on the menu of the festival one day was dedicated to visiting the mighty Victoria falls as an incentive.
“According to Mwansabombwe law maker, the festival will be an annual event to be held not only in his constituency, but will rotate among the Luapula Province constituencies and Chiengi has already offered to host this festival next year, while it was learnt that during the next event deserving winners will be accorded scholarships to pursue art related studies in China.
“Those who follow artistic events in Zambia will agree with me that, the issue to do with attaching monitory value to the prizes has been a contentious one and the organisers this time around, managed to award best actor and actress who walked away with K2,500 each, while best supporting roles took K1,500.
“Kasama Arts’ play entitled ‘The Moment’, scooped the best script, best production went to NAPSA’s ‘The Hunters of God’, while Eddie Tembo from the same group got the best director award.
“The best Actor was taken by Hansen Muzumila from Erick Kasomo’s play ‘The Will’ performed by Africa Directions’ best Actress was awarded to Callen Chulu from the same production, while supporting actor and actress awards  went to  veteran actor Dominic Sitamu and Munalula Chimanga respectively. Africa Direction’s Miriam Kanganjo took the cameo award.
“This was a festival to remember.”
Many thanks Edward Lange, and hope you will keep dropping in some lines whenever you attend some of these events..
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As I earlier intimated, last week had been a hoard of theatrical undertakings with one festival here and another there.
I attended the Copperbelt School Arts Festival in Kalulushi, and right now as you read this column, I am on my way back to the Copperbelt after having attended a four-day April International Theatre Festival at Lusaka Playhouse organised by Yezi Arts Promotions and Productions.
With so much on my desk as a result of the events; next week I will look back at the Copperbelt School festival which ended last Tuesday, and then take two to three weeks to recap on the April International Theatre Festival, where we had workshops and discussions at an international level and I would want my colleagues to follow these events as this was very educative.
According to Abdon Yezi, the executive director of Yezi Arts the mere interaction with foreign artists and other local practitioners offer opportunity to exchange notes and network which invariably is the cornerstone of the April festival. I will look at this deeper after next week.
However, I should mention before they leave Zambia that Botswana, Malawian and Zimbabwean theatre visitors were a lovely lot  – safe trips back home.
John.kapesa818@yahoo.co.uk – 0955-0967-0977-710975