MARY COLLIS' 'LIFTING THE DAY' REVIVES THE UPLIFT IN PAPERBACK

 LIFTING THE DAY: lockdown exhibition

By Mary Collis

Reviewed by Margaretta wa Gacheru

That first year of the COVID lockdown was a dreary affair. It was a struggle for many people just to wake up and find a good reason to get out of bed.

Simple things began to matter more, like bright colors splashed onto a virtual canvas and gardens filled with rainbow outbursts of flowers, grasses, and trees.

Kenyan artist Mary Collis responded to the lockdown in the only way she knew how, by painting and sharing her luminous landscapes on Facebook on a daily basis.

‘Lifting the Day’ was the name she gave to her daily dose of a single exquisite painting shared on social media.

It was a stroke of genius and generosity to both friend and stranger who hadn’t known her bright and brilliant paintings before. It didn’t matter to her how the public received them or even if they saw them. She was simply hopeful that by bringing out both old and new pieces, an online audience might feel the uplifting spirit that had inspired the work in the first place.

Mary put her paintings online for 244 marvelous days, and then finally decided to stop. Not that she had come to an end to her artistic expression or to the works she could have shared. But it was time.

It was a sad time for some of us who had experienced the daily delight of seeing her impressions of a Limuru Tea Plantation or her light studies of False Bay in Cape Town or her multiple perspectives of the riotous colors that filled her ‘Erica’s Garden’ series.

Fortunately, the book publisher Unicorn got wind of Mary’s online art exhibition and contacted the artist to see if she’d like her story and her art shared in a book?

‘Lifting the Day: lockdown exhibition’ was launched in Nairobi last Friday, November 26 to the delight of a ballroom-full of book lovers, family, and friends.

The room itself was filled with some of the artist’s most prized paintings, reflective of her dazzling use of color, light, and nature. Most of her artworks are of Kenyan settings, each one luminous with equatorial light.

Tourism hasn’t taken advantage of Mother Nature’s magnificent color schemes that she brings forth in many of Kenya’s most stunning gardens. Mary’s book should go some distance to draw attention to the natural beauty and eye-smacking realism found in gardens like the artist’s dear friend, former fashion designer, the late Erica Boswell.

Mary discovered abstract expressionism when she was still working as an interior decorator, and realized being a painter was a better fit for her professionally. Since then, she’s exhibited all over Kenya and overseas. Her works are collected in both private and public places internationally.

The global reach of her art hadn’t been known by the artist until she began receiving messages from happy owners of her art. Many of them sent images of paintings they’d either bought or been given by the artist over the years. Several of them appear in ‘Lifting the Day.’

One extra benefit of seeing Mary’s book, which contains all 244 artworks that she shared publicly in 2020, is reading her captions. Many of them describe the where, when, and why she painted what she did. She may even say who owns the painting and where it currently stays. Her intimate style of communication is conversational, as if she’s speaking to you, the viewer, like a good friend who deserves to know her wonderful anecdotal stories.

The other advantage of having the book is that the brightness and the beauty of Kenyan colors and light are right at one’s fingertips.

At the book launch, Mary made crystal clear how much she owed to her darling daughter, the award-winning photographer Mia. It was Mia who helped her assemble the minimum 244 high resolution images which were not conveniently located on one single art-filled flash disk. And it was her devoted spouse Alan who helped her with the proofreading of her texts, her storytelling about each painting that brings each picture even more mental light.

Like her favorite abstract expressionists, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Joan Mitchell, Mary values spontaneity and freedom. She’s also inspired by the beauty that she sees and has the gift of ability to express how that beauty makes her feel. It’s that gift which is contained in her newest version of ‘Lifting the Day.’

 

 

she called, after receiving the publisher’s message (having been spurred on by another locally-based artist, Sophie Walboeffe)

FUNDRAISING FOR COLD HOMELESS AFGHANS

                                     FUNDRAISING FOR HOMELESS AFGHANS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 10,2021)

Fundraising is a common feature of Kenyans’ everyday lives. We fundraise for weddings, funerals, children’s education, people’s pressing health issues including related travels abroad.

But mostly Kenyans fundraise for one another. In Louise Paterson’s case, hers is for helping homeless and hungry Afghans.

Having worked for many years in that part of the world with several humanitarian aid services, Paterson is well-aware of the acute needs of the Afghan people.

Unable to simply stand by and watch millions of people experience famine, homelessness, and the fateful return of the Taliban, the owner of Tribal Gallery says what makes Afghan people’s needs that much more acute is the fact that ‘winter is coming’.

“Millions don’t even have blankets, yet winters in Afghanistan can be brutal,” the Scottish mother of one tells BDLife.

Vowing to send every penny of funds raised next Saturday night, November 13^th to needy Afghans, Paterson’s Tribal Gallery will host an Afghan Supper where guests will be introduced to a delicious selection of authentic Afghan foods prepared by Chef Habib Rahman from Kabul.

The meal itself will be a sit-down affair, so there will be a limited number of sympathizers to the Afghan cause. But their meal won’t come cheap. For Sh7000, there will be introduced to Burani Banjan, Kabuli Pulao, a Vegetarian/Vegan Pulao finished with the most delectably fresh Baklava, the thinly layered pastry desert filled with chopped nuts and honey.

The Burani Banjan is a kind of appetizer made with oven-baked aubergine, organic tomatoes, and fresh cilantro served with homemade yogurt drizzled with pomegranate pearls. It’s served with handmade bolanee (Afghan flatbread stuffed with mashed potato).

The main course (for meat eaters) is the Kabuli Pulao, an ethereal mix of lamb and rice, redolent with sweet, exotic spices.  The vegan Pulao replaces the lamb with vegetables infused with spices and dried fruits.

There will also be a silent auction that night which is bound to raise substantial funds for the Afghans cause. One donor gave four nights for four people in Lamu at the elegant boutique hotel, Bush Princess. Another donated two nights at the Olepangi Farm in Timau while the ‘celebrity barber’, Abbas Noori Abbood donated two stylish men’s haircuts. And several artists have donated works, including Ahmed Abushariaa, El Tayeb Dawelbeit, and Mariantoimetta Peru.

Finally, Tribal Gallery itself will be donating two handwoven rugs to the cause, one from Morocco, the other from Afghanistan. Practically all the carpets, artifacts, furniture, sculptures, and home décor that Paterson exhibits and sells in Tribal Gallery have been hand-selected by herself or her brother.

“My brother and I travel the globe looking for beautiful [hand-made] treasures. I literally have felt like a treasure hunter,” says the former nurse turned country director for the American Refugee Committee (ARC).

“I was country director as well as regional coordinator for both Pakistan and Afghanistan,” she adds. Her job mainly involved emergency response efforts to events like the massive earthquake that hit southeastern Pakistan and the instability in Afghanistan itself caused by the Taliban.

Prior to working for ARC, Paterson had several jobs with various United Nations Agencies. She’s worked for everyone from WHO and UNDP to UNICEF, often in the most unstable places in the world. Having chosen the career of nursing with the double motive of both service and the desire to travel. Paterson knew that her skills as a nurse would enable her to find work almost anywhere.

That is how she started off nursing, initially in Glasgow, but then went to work in Palestine, both to the West Bank and east Jerusalem where she nursed children paralyzed by snipers’ bullets. That tragic experience didn’t deter her from moving to other war-torn places, first to Somalia where her career path shifted slightly. She went to work in a military hospital but now she was in charge of other nurses. She did similar work when she moved to Pakistan, only now her role grew into emergency response, working all around that region including Kashmir.

Working tirelessly for ten years, assisting migrants, refugees and internally displaced people, Paterson finally decided in 2014 she was ready for a change. She moved to Kenya the same year, having been briefly based in Nairobi while working between Mogadishu and Mombasa.

Setting up Tribal Gallery , her travels have enabled her to display handmade home décor from all over the world including China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand as well as Japan, Morocco, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, Sudan, and of course, Afghanistan.

 

 

JOAN OTIENO AND WASANII WAREMBO FIGHT POLLUTION WITH PLASTIC FASHION

                   FIGHTING PLASTIC POLLUTION WITH PLASTIC FASHION

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Who said only poor people live in the slums?

Joan Otieno, 36, stays in Ngomongo village, deep in the bowels of Korogocho slum where she has been working with young Kenyan women to create recycled fashions that have taken her all over the world.

Busy setting up a photo-shoot for an upcoming fashion show in Paris when she spoke to BD this week, Joan has been working with an international team of photographers, hair stylists, production designers, and a fashion journalist to create a captivating photo preview ofan African ‘trash fashion’ show.

“The French team also brought one professional model with them for the shoot, but the rest of the models are girls from Wasanii Warembo,” says Joan, referring to the NGO that she started back in 2018 when she was still based at Kariobangi North.

“We had to move in 2019 and that’s when we set up our studio and gallery in Ngomongo,” says Joan whose following amounts to over 25 girls and young women whose ages range from 6 up to 25.

By then, Joan had already trained her core team of young models, all of whom came from informal settlements in Nairobi’s Eastlands, and all of whom were learning survival skills, especially in recycling plastics into attractive fashions, from Joan.

The shows started slowly. The first one was at the Michael Joseph Centre where Joan tested the waters by wearing an original design. She had created a trash gown made from debris collected and cleaned from the Dandora dumpsite. It was a smash success.

That was right around the same time that she had begun attracting the attention of young girl school dropouts who were eager to learn new skills. Joan was also keen to see young women not fall into errant ways like prostitution or drug addiction.

Initially, it was just a handful of young women who joined Joan on her weekly trips to the Dandora dump where she’d collect plastics for use in recycling everything from jewelry, bags, shoes, and hats, to rugs, paintings, fashion, and even place mats.

By the time Joan and her Warembo Wasanii women were invited to hold fashion shows everywhere from UNEP and USIU to Alliance Francaise, the girls were wearing matching ensembles, (namely dresses, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and hats), all made out of the same refurbished plastic packets.

The marvel of their displays was not just that Joan had taught the girls to design and cut out new clothes like professional seamstresses.

It was also that they had been able to go deep into garbage dumps with Joan to collect specific plastic packaging. This enabled them to design fashions that were either all pink and white, made out of ‘Always’ sanitary pad covers, or red and white, made out of ‘Trust’ condoms, or blue, green or pink, made from Omo plastic packets.

Joan even taught them all how to hand-stitch all those packages together into plastic ‘fabrics’ which they then transformed into environmental statements that have had global appeal ever since.

For instance, Joan has been invited to share her recycling skills in Adelaide, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden where she has shown the versatility of working artistically with plastic trash.

Locally, she’s been invited up to Tafaria Castle several times to create whole windows and walls out of broken bottles and other bits of garbage. And just prior to the COVID lockdown she spent time in Lamu, working with orphans at the Anidan children’s centre.

“We had a fashion show at the Peponi Hotel in which the children modeled dresses that they’d created during the two weeks I was with them at Anidan,” Joan says.

So while she may not be rich monetarily, Joan’s become a trailblazer in solving the planet’s monumental problem of plastic pollution one plastic gown at a time.

BALLET IS BACK AT NATIONAL THEATRE WITH THE NUTCRACKER

 BRINGING BALLET BACK ON STAGE WITH THE NUTCRACKER

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 22 November 2021)

Having performed in The Nutcracker from the time she was two, Cooper Rust says the production of this classical ballet is a time-honored tradition that’s been practiced annually at Christmas time in Kenya since 2015 when her Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) first staged it at Kenya’s National Theatre.

“It’s not only staged in Kenya at Christmas time,” the DCK founder tells BDLife. “It’s performed all over the world since it’s a story about a little girl who receives a [fantastical] Christmas toy,” she adds.

This year Cooper, 36, won’t actually be in the Ballet. But she has choreographed and directed the show which opens December 3^rd at the National Theatre.

“I’ll perform in Cinderella in February,” she says. “I’ll play the wicked step-mother,” she adds with a twinkle in her eye.

Explaining that her choreography varies every year, depending on her dancers, many of whom will be new, Cooper says that her students have been rehearsing and dancing throughout the lockdown.

“We are really excited about coming back on stage, since some of us didn’t know if it would ever happen again,” she says, recalling the last time DCK staged a ballet [Romeo and Juliet] was in February 2019.

But her dancers never doubted they would come back. That is why they rehearsed non-stop with this former prima ballerina instructor who’s become like a mother to many of them.

In fact, eleven of the dancers that are in this year’s Nutcracker actually live with Cooper 80 percent of the year. “All eleven have families who they stay with part of the year,” she explains. But she knew that if these dancers were going to fulfill their full potential, they would need to work hard. And she was prepared to work with them.

But as all eleven come from informal settlements, either Kibera or Kuwinda, Cooper says the biggest headache was transport. That was the first consideration for having her most promising young dancers come to live, dance, and study with her.

It all began with the 15-year-old Joel Kioko from Kuwinda, a slum burrowed away deep inside Karen. Joel had come to Dance Centre Kenya as a scholarship student after Cooper had spotted his tremendous potential when she was still teaching dance to under-served kids in the slums. But she quickly realized that in order to ensure he fulfill his full capacity and also be able to travel for further dance training that she was prepared to organize for him, she would need to tutor him academically as well as dance-wise. And that couldn’t happen unless he came to stay and work with her, which is what he did.

Today, Joel just graduated from the English National Ballet School and now has a full-time job working professionally with one of the most acclaimed dance companies in America, the Joffrey Ballet.

Two other of Cooper’s former ‘family members’, Francis Waweru and Pamela Atieno, have also gone on for further studies, Waweru to study lighting design in Oklahoma, in the US, and Atieno to South Carolina where she’s continuing her studies in ballet.

And soon, the fourth housemate, the lovely Lavender Orisaa, 15, will soon be following Joel’s footsteps in travelling to the UK on a full scholarship to study at the English National Ballet School.

Lavender will costar in the Nutcracker as the Dew Drop Fairy. Other members of the Cooper family household who are in the ballet are George Okoth playing the Snow Cavalier, Shamick Otieno as the Sugar Plum Cavalier, and Mithelle.. and Elsy together play the leaders of the rat pack.

“Then there’s the six boys from Kibera [ages 12-14] who will comprise the rat pack in the ballet,” Cooper adds.

Noting that she only missed four days of rehearsals during the lockdown, Cooper says she did spend a couple of weeks in the States, fundraising for her children’s school fees. “Besides transportation, I realized that education was also a problem for my dancers. That’s why we had to fundraise for the young ones to go to ISK,” she adds.

In addition to her housemates, Cooper’s cast is international. The 13-year-old boy who plays the actual nutcracker, Aske Ballan, is from Denmark. Clara is played by a girl from Bulgaria, Jana Landolt, the Sugar Plum Fairy is French, Oceane Deloge, and the Snow Queen is played by the British girl Anamika Govani.

This weekend, on Sunday at 1pm, DCK will stage a dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker for hundreds of children from informal settlements. At 4pm there will be a preview for adults.

But the official opening is Friday, December 3^rd at Kenya National Theatre.

margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com

WAJUKUU, AN OASIS OF ART IN A DESERT OF DIRT AND DEBRIS

                               WAJUKUU TO REPRESENT KENYAN ART AT DOCUMENTA

                        Shabu Mwangi, Ngugi Waweru, and Kim at the new Wajukuu Artists Collective Studio

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 21, 2021)

Wajukuu Artists Collective inaugurated their brand-new arts studio last Monday with a week-long workshop for fellow artists from their Mukuru Lunga Lunga community and beyond.

“We’ve been building the centre since last June,” says Wajukuu founder-artist Shabu Mwangi. “Previously, it had been a sugar cane plantation,” he adds, noting that was some time back.

Shabu’s colleague, Ngugi Waweru, explains that construction of the studio is not yet complete. “When we are done, the studio will be a double-decker so artists will be able to work both upstairs and downstairs,” he adds.

Ever since 2007 when Shabu launched the original Wajukuu Art Centre (which is just around the corner from the new studio), the arts have played an important role in this ever-changing informal settlement.

“The centre is where we have all our special projects. Here [meaning the new studio] is a space that’s exclusively reserved for artists,” Shabu tells Weekender.

It’s the centre that’s attracted global appreciation of Wajukuu for its being a kind of oasis of art in a desert of dirt, dust, debris, and dilapidated mabati housing. For the centre has not only offered art classes for kids in the neighborhood. It’s offered carpentry and woodworking for slightly older children. And it even screens documentary films which are educational and uplifting to all ages and backgrounds.

Wajukuu has also inspired many young [mostly] men, starting with Ngugi and Joseph Weche, to take up the challenge of developing their own artistic talents. In this regard, it’s Shabu who has been a role model for these emerging artists. “He’s shown us how anything is possible if we’re committed to making it happen,” says Ngugi.

Shabu’s commitment to art started early on, even before he completed primary school at Rubin Centre in Lunga Lunga.

“Art was still on the syllabus when I went through primary. And since Rubin Centre was run by [Catholic] Brothers, there was greater interest expressed in art,” he says.

Shabu’s circumstances were slightly different from those of Ngugi and Weche since they both went to Saint Elizabeth’s primary where art was not taught.

Shabu already could feel he had a calling, to be an artist, so when Sister Marie invited him to join her ‘art college’, he could hardly resist.

“I didn’t learn much in Sr Mary‘s school. In fact, a few months after I joined, she moved me into managing the college’s art and craft centre,’ he says.

The items that he curated and sold there were what Shabu describes as basically tourist art. It was mainly Maasai-related and wildlife. Nonetheless, he was getting exposed to new ideas every day.

The idea of finding a studio space to work in the slum was the first challenge that Shabu, Ngugi and Weche wanted to solve. That quickly shifted to seeking space to build a community-based art centre. “It was a process that evolved over a couple of years,” Shabu says.

                                    Ngugi Waweru is also learning new skills at Wajukuu Artists Collective

In fact, it was the neighborhood children who played their part in the shift from an artists’ studio to an art centre. “They kept coming around and trying to draw and paint like us,” says Ngugi. Eventually, the art classes grew out of the children’s desire to be creative and to express themselves the way the big boys did.

Meanwhile, Shabu’s artworks were getting noticed by several Nairobi galleries, and he began having shows at both One Off and Circle Art Galleries.

“I had a lot to say in my art,” he says, recalling the way his own social status as an outsider was reflected in his painterly concerns for the oppressed, the migrants, and refugees as well as those with psychological issues.

Today, Shabu says some of Wajukuu’s members now have the means to move out of the slum if they wish. “But we don’t leave. We want to remain to uplift our community with art.”

That sense of loyalty is partly why art lovers have been so keen to support Shabu and the Wajukuu centre. “We want to stay here and help build our community, especially the youth,” says Shabu who feels art can indeed move mountains. His life experience is sufficient testimony to that fact.

Wajukuu has even appealed to the organizers of what’s been billed as the biggest art event in Europe called ‘Documenta’ which Shabu and Ngugi will be attending and presenting artworks they’re creating right now.

“We’re in the process of creating installations, a video and three separate books,” says Ngugi.

Their entire contribution to the event needs to be completed by early next year. “We’re confident we will make the deadline,” Shabu says.

                                                 Right outside Wajukuu Artists Collective is Mukuru Lungu Lunga

WAKIO THE STORYTELLER AT EU-AU ARTS COLLAB

                              ART EXCHANGE LINKS AFRICA AND EUROPE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (18.11.21)

Collaboration between the African Union and the European Union have been quietly underway since 2000 when the two regional bodies agreed that mutual exchange could be beneficial to both parties.

They have worked together on projects in various sectors ever since, including everything from business, peace and security to education, digitalization, and good governance. They have even been busy in the area of arts, sports, and culture, setting up something called the Art X Change (AXC) aimed at creating connections and increasing skills among young creatives.

“The Art X Change is actually a project that grew out of the AU-EU Youth Cooperation Hub,” says Emma Macharia, a spokeswoman for AXC and the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP).

“So far it’s a consortium of just five partners from five countries, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Italy, and Sweden, but the project is growing,” she adds, “especially in East Africa.”

Evidence of what AXC has already achieved could be seen this past week during a day-long conference on ‘Connecting Creative Youth in Africa and Europe’ held at Pride Inn Azure Hotel in Westlands.

Organized by the Italian Institute of Culture (IIC) and CISP together with Kenya’s Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Heritage and UNESCO, the Conference shed a spotlight first on several successful case studies that AXC has already participated in. The goal in every case was to support new ways to mobilize creative ideas and cultural activities that would also advance sustainable development.

“Training is one of the big elements in our program,” says Rachel Kessi, the founder-director of the Tanzanian contemporary dance troupe, MUDA Africa.

Kessi explained in a live Zoom call to the conference from Dar es Salaam, that her dance group has been collaborating with dancers from Rwanda and Uganda in the areas of performance and capacity building. She also focused on building a regional body of dancers that can be self-sustaining.

“This is why we got UNESCO involved in the project.” Emma says. “We are also concerned about institution-building as a key factor in sustainable development which is where UNESCO comes in,” she adds.

Two other cultural projects highlighted at the Conference that involved the concepts of cultural identity, sustainable development, and institution-building were the Mogadishu National Museum and the Awjama Cultural Centre.

Dr Osman Gedow Amir, director of the museum shared both high hopes and tragic circumstances of the museum. He has detailed strategic plans for the re-development the museum which is currently a shell of an institution. But due to the instability of his country, his plans are on hold. Nonetheless, AXC is still prepared to support his goal to reestablish the National Museum.

Fardowsa Jama is better off insofar as she started her Somali Awjama Cultural Centre in Eastleigh, Nairobi not Mogadishu. She has a plan to re-establish the Centre in the war-torn Somali capital. But in the interim, she has been able to build up her centre and train Somali youth in multiple aspects of Somali culture and heritage.

One aspect of training that Fardowsa has used to share traditional folktales, riddles, and songs from Somali culture is storytelling. It’s a technique of performance that AXC also supports. Indeed, a high point of the conference was when the Kenyan actor Wakio Nzenge told her story of ‘The Message’.

Having just completed a short course in Storytelling supported by AXC, Wakio told a spellbinding tale of a girl wanting to share news of her good grades with an old friend. Her journey to reach him was harrowing. What was worse was the man had been in jail for 10 years, and had clearly changed dramatically since they’d last met. Their encounter was brief but it had a profound effect on the child who almost forgot the purpose of her mission to visit. It was to tell her father about his little girl’s progress in school.

Wakio’s performance was poignant and bitter sweet. It also illustrated the value of AXC’s concern for cultural exchange and training. “We want to see young people trained so well that when they go out to share their skills, they can do it as professionals,” says Nancy Mwaizaka, UNESCO’s culture officer.

The one Kenyan partner of AXC is the GoDown Arts Centre, which regularly runs an Entrepreneurship Training course for Kenyan creatives. Unfortunately, they had no representation at the conference. Nonetheless, IIC’s new Director Elena Gallenca noted that The GoDown is a valuable partner of AXC. “Many of our exchange activities take place at the GoDown,” she said.

KEKE MATLABE: AWARD-WINNING SOUTH AFRICAN ACTOR MOVES KITFEST AUDIENCE TO TEARS

 SOUTH AFRICAN ACTRESS MOVED KITFEST AUDIENCE TO TEARS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 20 November 2021)

Out of all the performances I was able to see during the ten-day Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITFEST) at Kenya Cultural Centre, none was more breath-taking or more brutally honest than the one staged by South African actor Kekeletso Matlabe

‘Chronicles of a Whore’ was ‘Keke’s one woman show based on the true story of Glenda, a sex worker who she’d met while researching her final theatrical project to present to her mentors at the world-renowned Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg.

“Glenda’s story still makes me weep,” said Keke during the Q&A that followed her heart-wrenching performance at Kenya National Theatre.

“Normally, I don’t stay after a performance of this piece since it takes so much out of me emotionally, I need time alone to unwind,” she confessed to BDLife.

She made an exception last Thursday night since her audience clamored to learn more about how she’d shaped and scripted Glenda’s tragic story, a classic and cruel case of sexual violence.

Glenda had been raped at age 7 and then again at age 9, each time by different uncles. Her life had essentially gone down hill from there. But Keke managed to gain Glenda’s trust, first by speaking to her in her mother tongue, Tswana, and then spending time listening to all the graphic and painful details of her life with empathy and nonjudgmental understanding.

This wouldn’t be the first time Keke had scripted and staged a story about women. Growing up in a small town in the Free State, she had performed in many school and church plays. But it was one called ‘Sisterhood’ about four best friends, that got her a three-year scholarship at the Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg.

Coming from a family of educators and church men, they had been pleased when she got a degree in accounting, but rejected the idea of her having a career in acting.

“I told them I’m happiest when I’m on stage. I told them I’m a storyteller and that is who I am,” she said, and off she went to Johannesburg.

Following those three glorious years at the Market Theatre Lab, being mentored by some of South Africa’s greatest performers, Keke stayed on for seven more years performing at the Market Theatre as well as at the Soweto Theatre and the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.

“My accounting skills also came in handy when I worked the front-of-house, taking tickets and keeping track of membership and sales,” she said.

Currently, back in her home town in the Free State, Keke has a number of gigs going at once. Her main one is as artistic director of the Bokamoso Art Centre which was started by one of the original stars in the South African stage performance of The Lion King, Sello Molefi. “Sello is still performing Lion King, but he’s now based in Australia. He essentially left the Centre to me,” Keke says.

It hasn’t been easy, especially as her village isn’t a hotbed of contemporary culture. Nonetheless, through a program that came out of the Market Theatre, supported by the International Arts Organization, ASSTEJ, Keke became a certified ‘facilitator’ who travels to schools and facilitates arts programs both for students, (grades four [ms1] through six) as well as for their teachers.

“We cover everything from dance, drama, and music to visual arts, film, video, and fundraising,” adds Keke who just recently returned from a six-month film training course in Johannesburg.

“Having been trained as an actor, it was fascinating to learn more about directing,” says Keke who has already begun writing scripts for film.

She barely completed that course when it was time to come to Kenya for KITFEST. “I had been invited by Kevin [Kimani, the LITFEST founding father] in 2019 but it was too late for me make it that year,” she said. “Then came COVID in 2020, but I was determined to make it this year,” she adds.

The problem was her country’s Ministry of Sports, Arts, and Culture. It cancelled her air ticket at the last minute, so Keke was left stranded. What to do?

Fortunately, she was able to conduct several poetry fundraisers, performing her own poems and inviting other spoken-word poets to share at open mic sessions at her Centre. Finally, her family chipped in to help her buy a round-trip ticket for R12, 600.

It was a challenge for her to make here. But as the other South Africa company, Intokozo Theatre Productions couldn’t get visas in time, it was only Keke who represented a thriving theatre scene currently underway in her country. And she did it very well!

 

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