A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF ENTANGLEMENT

By Margartta wa Gacheru (composed 14 January 2023) Victor Muyekwe hit the nail squarely when he named his new play ‘Entanglement’. I felt entangled in the play from the moment it opened and two people were standing in a shadowy space, shouting at one another for no clearcut cause. The woman is embittered by something the man has told her, making her vengeful and enraged. By the play’s end, we return to these two, still arguing but now in ‘real time’. Apparently, what we had just watched was a flashback. Yet while we have gone full circle, I still feel entangled by a whole lot of loose ends left dangling and multiple questions raised that I didn’t get answers to. I normally don’t rip new scripts to shreds. But I encourage Muyekwe to head back to the drawing board to help us understand what transpired in his play.

To give an overview, I think Entanglement is about several stories of duplicity and betrayal. For one, there is a wedding that is about to take place; yet the fiancé, ironically named Innocent (Michael Wafula) is in love with another woman. So why marry Velma (Melissa Karimi) and not his lover Jael (Joy Kairu)? We eventually learn that there is an elaborate secret plan between the fiancé, his lover, and a man named Onesmus who desperately needs money to pay for an operation. So why are they expecting Innocent to get money from Velma, his new wife, once he marries her? We are left guessing that perhaps when Velma’s father died, he left her an heiress with heaps of money that Innocent can somehow grab. But that is never stated, nor do we know how Innocent will obtain access to her cash. Was she going to be poisoned? Or what? Was he going to get her to change her will? At one point, Onesmus promises to provide passports to both Innocent and Jael so they can flee the country once they get funds sufficient for both Onesmus’s procedure and Innocent’s flight. And why when Velma learns the night before their wedding that he slept in her living room with Jael, did she say she still wanted to marry him? And how could the fiancé, once wedded to Velma do a complete turn-around and cancel the whole scheme, leaving Onesmus high and dry, and leaving his former lover out in the cold? We are told finally that Onesmus wanted the money to pay for his daughter Patricia’s operation. But why hadn’t he told his wife the daughter’s diagnosis which he had obtained several months before? Was it really because he was jobless and ashamed to tell his wife until he could raise the cash? And finally, there is the issue of who is who and what connections they have with one another? For instance, how are Innocent and Onesmus connected? Are they brothers? We are never told. And what kind of relationship does Velma have with Tellah, or Mama Patricia and Onesmus? Initially it looks like she is their daughter, but then Velma tells Jael that she met Innocent at her father’s funeral. They have been together ever since, so had Innocent been after her money from the start? We can only surmise whether he was or not. And what sort of relationship did Velma have with Jael? Did they only meet through Innocent, or were they best friends before? It would seem they had known each other before Innocent came on the scene, yet we don’t know. And why were two important scenes never seen on stage? There was the actual marriage, which slips by without our seeing such an important event. There was also the sickly child Patricia who we hear from her mom, Tellah, how her little girl died in her arms because she didn’t get the procedure required to save her life. Entanglement was a difficult play to watch specifically because there are so many gaps we’d have liked to see filled. But the play has immense potential, only that the script could be workshopped and revised. One feels the skeleton of an interesting script is there. But there is one thing I’d suggest be omitted. It’s the big bulky blanket that came out to shield the audience from witnessing the intimacy between Innocent and Jael in Onesmus’ living room. The lights went out in any case, and we the audience already saw which way the couple were moving so there was no need for the ‘cover up’.

KENYA THEATRE AWARDS SHORTLISTS AWARDS. PUBLIC WILL DECIDE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 1.16.2023) Preparations for the upcoming Kenya Theatre Awards went into high gear last weekend as the judges met in an obscure hideaway in Naivasha for several days. Their task was a daunting one, to first shortlist the 170 productions staged in 2022 by no less than 100 theatre companies. The numbers of productions and theatre troupes jumped so much higher in 2022 than in years past, it almost seemed unbelievable. Yet in 2022, the KTA people kept close track of who was performing what, when, where, and how. Keeping track of the data is an essential reason they feel they can speak with some authority when they give awards to whom they choose on February 23rd at Kenya National Theatre. Yet the jurists are not working alone. “We are encouraging the public to participate in the voting process,” KTA’s CEO Fedari Oyagi tells BDLife. “They can vote online from Monday, January 23rd, he adds. Nonetheless, however transparent and democratic the jurors may sound, it’s still true that all of their deliberations are strictly top secret, and won’t be disclosed until February 23th, the official Kenya Theatre Awards night. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want more public participation in the awarding process,” says Kevin Kimani who besides being Principle Program Officer at Kenya Cultural Centre is the master mind, together with Fedari, behind the Awards. And while neither man is a jurist for the awards, both know the deliberations were not easy. “What made the selection process so challenging was not just the number of plays, musicals, and spoken word shows staged nearly every weekend in 2022, but also the quality of the works,” adds Fedari Oyagi who’s CEO of the KTA Secretariat but not a jurist. “Every juror who agreed to be part of the KTA jury had to commit to seeing all (or as many as possible), of the shows being staged throughout the year,” says Fedari Oyagi, CEO of the Awards Secretariat but not one of the jurors. “And after every show watched, they all had to fill out an online form that spelt out basic elements of the performance that they’d just watched,” he adds. That way, he explains, jurors could refer back to shows they might have seen early in the year but forgot. With the data shared collectively during their retreat, the judges could refer back to prior months so that no production got forgotten. A few shows may have deserved to be forgotten. But on the whole, the judges told BDLife they were pleased with what they had seen in 2022. Compared to what they watched in 2021, the leap from ’21 to ’22 was enormous. For instance, the number of theatre companies that performed in 2022 grew nearly five times. The number of productions staged is even more astonishing. In 2022 there were 170, while in 2021 there had only been 38. Multiple factors affected this difference, including the impact of the COVID lockdown on thespians in ’21. The jurors admit they only saw around 90 percent of the shows in ’22 since more than half were staged in Nairobi, making them more accessible to jurors. But KTA also got wind of shows that were staged in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Lamu, and Eldoret. Fortunately, a few but not all the jurors were able to get around to most of those places. But KTA as an on-going body hopes to find friends of the Theatre who will help support the Awards in future so they can get round the country and inspire even more theatre activity nationwide. “We know there is a lot of interest in performance all over Kenya, and we want to support its development and growth,” Fedari says. One institution that made an immense contribution to the development of quality theatre in Kenya in 2022 was the French government through the French Embassy in Nairobi. “The French government gave technical support to theatre groups in several counties,” Ben Ngobia, Chairman of the Theatre Department at KCA University told BDLife. “That support improved sound and light systems to stages in Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, Lamu, and Nairobi,” he adds. The French not only gave light and sound equipment; they also provided technical training to ensure the maintenance of those systems. The recipients of that support include the Nakuru Players Theatre, Swahili Pot in Mombasa, the Lamu Fort, Kisumu Dung Beach, and Sarakasi Dome. This kind of infrastructural support to Kenyan theatre is invaluable, so we must express our appreciation for it.

DIASPORN CURATOR COMES HOME TO KENYA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted january 10, 2023) Mueni Loko-Rudd is a Kenyan-American curator whose home is in Austin, Texas, but who periodically comes to see her relations living in Kibera, Eastleigh, and Mwingi in Ukambani. We met at Village Market where I saw this striking young woman with beautifully coiffed Afro hair. I couldn’t resist. I had to tap her on the arm and apologize before asking if hers was her natural hair? We were in an art gallery, so the situation looked nonthreatening and gentile. She looked amused and said “Yes,” in an accent I couldn’t quite identify. “This is all my hair.” I couldn’t resist asking my follow-up question. “Are you Kenyan?” This is when the quip turned into a conversation. “Yes and no” is essentially what she said. That’s because she lives in Texas near her mom, but her dad, an American, lives and works here in Kenya. And whose work does she curate? No Kenyans as yet, but she’s open to that possibility. Meanwhile, she has two exhibitions closing this week at Martha’s Contemporary Gallery in Austin, featuring four African American artists. “Three in the front gallery, and one in the back,” she says. Of the three, two are painters and one is a photographer. “I meet photographers through my modeling,” she says casually, posing with a natural and lean look that’s distinctive and attractive. I don’t have to ask what she models since this 29-year-old has a natural grace that one imagines can model anything. It’s true, as she tells me she models everything from hair and hands to shoes and elegant gowns. But she says she doesn’t have much time for modelling. She’s far more interested in curating shows that support black artists like Emily Manwaring, the Haitian American artist whose work she’s exhibiting in the back gallery at Martha’s Contemporary.

Having attending an Historically Black University in Austin, Mueni actually majored in Sociology, and then got a Masters in Social work. But she’d been introduced to the arts as a child by her mother, who Mueni says used to take her to all the galleries and museums in Austin. It was in graduate school that she took a course in Grants writing, which she has utilized ever since to raise funds to put on the shows that can benefit both the artists and the wider community as well. For instance, she is currently working on a public art project to create a large mural that’s being funded by the city of Austin. She has even gotten a grant to run two multimedia exhibitions, including both black musicians and visual artists. “That way we were able to pay the artists, and the funds we raised from ticket sales, we were able to donate to group [NGO] called the ‘Black Mamas’ who train local midwives and work in mainly black and brown communities in reproductive health,” she says. Mueni’s initial experience with fund raising began during her second year at university where her school is part of the United Negro College Fund (UNCL). Every year the fund hosts a pageant and the student who raises the most money for the fund wins the title of UNCL Queen. By doing everything from emailing corporates to going door-to-door, Mueni networked with all kinds and won the crown. “I realized how much I enjoyed networking,” she says. “But the prize itself included free room and board for the whole of my junior year,” she adds. And in order to make her pageant fun, she brought a Jazz ensemble to perform as well as a dance troupe that danced to the poetry of Gil Scott Heron (who wrote ‘The Revolution will not be televised’). Mueni was just 18 when she was crowned UNCL queen. She was still based mainly in Austin, a city that considers itself the ‘music capital of the world’. But since then, she has worked with artists from all across the country. ”I wrote a grant in support of a group called CARE, Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity, that’s based in Baltimore and assists black and brown people with disabilities, and assisted by pets. Mueni has even had the opportunity to conduct workshops for young students in Pakistan, hired by her sociology professor. “I was part of a group that ran workshops on skills in research and best practice,” she recalls. “So while I majored in sociology, I’m able to apply those skills in my work for Black artists,” Mueni says. Hopefully, Kenyans will be among them.

COUNTY 49, AGLOW WITH LOCAL TALENTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 10, 2023) Showmax series, ‘County 49’, premiered in Kenya last August and turned out to be one among many brilliant political thrillers that are being produced by a rising crop of Kenyan filmmakers, starting with the film’s director Likarion Wainaina and producer Millicent Ogutu. But I haven’t binge-watched a cable TV series in ages. Yet I couldn’t help getting hooked on the adrenaline-based intrigue, suspense, scandals, and well-written script that was so well performed by an amazingly gifted set of actors in County 49. It didn’t matter that there was no way in ‘real time’ that all those calamitous moments that afflicted Mwatela county could have taken place in a single day. Nonetheless, the time factor was a reminder every few hours that minutes were ticking by, adding to the suspense in every episode. What increased the tension is the fact that everything is being controlled by deadlines given by a mysterious band of masked terrorists, known as the Hive. They claim to need four billion shillings supposedly to pay back the workers who’ve been robbed by government. But the master-mind to all the ploys, including the kidnapping of Bwatele Governor, Nerimah Mkung (Wakia Mzenge) along with her Chief of Staff Debs Maka (Nyokabi Macharia), is a mystery until it becomes clear that it’s the former Governor Okusimba aka Ox (Ainea Ojiambo) who is pulling the strings. Ox had just been indicted on corruption charges, including money laundering and fraud. Publicly, he claims he’s innocent. But privately, he has planned an intricate scheme to screw over not only the county government but the workers that the Hive claims to be serving. In reality, he holds the county and the Governor hostage so that he and his thuggish partner Elijah Matata (James Webbo) can collect the billions and then flee to Sierra Leone with Ox’s wife and children. Ironically, it’s his family, especially his daughter, who ultimately play a major role in bringing Ox down. But the one who comes forth with the most damning evidence and first-hand testimony against Ox is his former right-hand security officer. Malik Maka (Peter Kawa) had acted like a dedicated hit-man for Ox, rather like a Kenyan Jason Bourne who’d been a programmed assassin. But in Bourne’s case, he’d been brainwashed to kill on command. Malik had been just as obedient as Bourne, so one could suggest that he too had been brainwashed. But Malik’s conscience finally compelled him to confess his own role in Ox’s murderous schemes, a role large enough to get him sacked from his government position and disgraced in the eyes of the world. Yet Malik is a complex character. Initially, he doesn’t come off as a sympathetic sort, since he too had betrayed a loved one, even as he was loyal to the state. He betrayed his wife Debs with the former Governor’s beautiful daughter Zoey (Ivy Colette). Nonetheless, working outside the system, he still has the ear of Governor Nerimah who has learned to trust no one, except for Malik who is the only one able to find who’s pulling the strings and how he can be brought down. Plus Malik still loves his wife despite her intention to divorce him and marry Sinjin (Martin Githinji) , a double-minded cop who seems to love Debs, but even he is involved in Ox’s intricate plan. The series explores the themes of duplicity, betrayal, greed, and a hardness of heart that allows so much murder, mayhem and thuggery to prevail in County 49. Ox is even capable of achieving his mind-boggling greedy goals by pursuing his ‘Plan B’, by blowing up millions of citizens in the county. If all else fails, he plans to blow up a major dam in the region. That would put scores of villages and towns under water and slaughter thousands of wananchi. In other words, blackmail is also included in his master plan, even if it means demolishing the county's economy as well. Yet while there’s the suspense of dealing with corrupt politicians and their lackies, there’s also the personal drama of relationships that are major letdowns. This is where the scriptwriters dig into the duplicity versus trust between everyone from the Governor and her assistant (Maqbul Mohammed) to Malik and Debs, Debs and Sinjin, and even the Ox who has his biggest troubles with his daughter, wife, and son. In short, the show holds one captive for 13 episodes, after which you’ll hope there will be season two of County 49.

KINUTHIA AND FRIENDS AT VILLAGE MARKET

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 8 January 2023) Patrick Kinuthia curates his own ‘Collective Art Show’ in the Exhibition Hall of Village Market at a time when many folks have yet to emerge from their holiday retreats.

Best known for being a portrait painter and gallerist who’s got his own Roweinay Gallery, Kinuthia shares the space with nearly a dozen other painters, several of whom are ‘emerging’ artists and others better known for being part of Kenya’s evolving art world. “I like giving younger artists an opportunity to show their work,” Kinuthia tells BDLife as he breaks away briefly from a conversation he is having with prospective clients. “Actually, they have already selected two paintings that they’ll take away today,” he confides.

His works, be they portraits, landscapes, or still-lifes tend to dominate the hall. But one cannot help taking note of a number of large works by Samuel Njuguna Njoroge since his peri-urban street scenes are filled with a wide spectrum of dazzling colors. The two artists could easily fill the exhibition hall by themselves since both are prolific and their works are gentle on the eye. But Kinuthia made sure to retain plenty of space for artists like Stickky Muriithi whose charming ‘portraits’ of tennis shoes accessorized with floral bouquets are slightly surreal.

Kennedy Kinyua has only one painting in the show. But he continues to paint in the same vein as Bertiers Mbatia, his one-time mentor who populates his paintings with a wide range of people, often politicians. In Kinyua’s case, his people are apolitical and undisturbed by the presence of apes in their midst, be they gorillas or chimpanzees. Derrick Munene has brought paintings to the show that correlate with the one selected to cover both the front and back of the latest Kenya Arts Diary 2023. They are collages of winning Kenya runners participating in international marathons. Munene’s paintings capture that snapshot moment when they are all crossing the finish line and all expressing a similar feeling of joy, elation, and ebullient triumph.

Kirosh Kiruri has just two tiny paintings in the show, yet both are gems. Both are of women, both seated and busy, and both preparing food. One mama is studiously shaping her chapati to fry, while the other is peeling potatoes possibly to make chips (or ‘French fries’) or mukimu. But both look like they are meant to be the lead character in some children’s illustrated book of fairy tales. John Maina also painted portraits of working people. One is a seamstress working at her sewing machine, the other a shoe-shine man busy polishing a shoe. Both were painted with what feels like a clearcut appreciation of those humble skills, as if the artist knows those workers first-hand. Josephine Wambui is on attachment with Kinuthia at his Rosslyn Riviera Mall Gallery from Buruburu Institute of Fine Art. “I’ve been mentoring Josephine and encouraged her to bring her work to the show,” says Kinuthia. “She wanted to paint a place familiar to people so she chose the railway line that runs straight through the heart of Kibera,” he adds.

The other young artist who brought several of his landscapes to Village Market is Vincent Kimeu, a member of the Mukuru Art Club and mentee of Adam Masava, the founder of the art club. “I believe Vincent is somewhere under 20 [years old], but his landscapes are quite popular,” says Kinuthia who has only one landscape in this show. ‘Nanyuki’ was painted recently when he went for a workshop on the edge of that town, organized by Sarah Whithey, founder of the Banana Box. “She is hoping to stimulate wider interest in the arts in that region, and the workshop was part of that project,” says Kinuthia, an artist who often treks around the country, sketching and snapping photos as he did at the old Mombasa port. “I went there explicitly to take photos of old Swahili doors,” he says, pointing our gaze to one corner of the hall which is filled with paintings of semi-abstract doors that the artist has made to look like prints.

The other artist in the show (besides Patrick) who paints wildlife is the Ugandan artist Jjuuku Hoods. All painted in black and white, his wild dog looks greedy like a hyena, and his rhino looks ready to come after you, having aimed his precious horn squarely in the viewer’s path. In contrast, Kinuthia paints placid herds of both wild and domestic creatures.

THEATRE PREVIEW OF WHAT'S TO COME IN 2023

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted January 4th, 2023) This past year must have broken records for the number of productions staged in a 52-week period, when there were two and occasionally three shows happening the same weekend. This year is also shaping up to bring lots of good, and possibly great productions to the stage. There are several shows that will be repeats of what we watched in 2022. But they will be coming mostly due to popular demand. They include shows like Prevail Arts’ ‘Blessed be the Fruit’, Sitawa Namwalie’s ‘Taking my Father Home’, and possibly even ‘How to have an affair: A Cheater’s Guide’ which made many chuckle at this salacious satire. We have the second edition of the Kenya Theatre Awards coming on February 24th at Kenya National Theatre. The first KTA went over well, and many companies were energized at the thought of possibly gaining the recognition the awards would bring. There are some groups, like Hearts of Art that have already mapped out the year with shows specified. HOA has planned to stage four shows already. They include ‘Pieces of a woman’ directed by Caroline Odongo in March; ‘Stars from Exit Wounds’ directed by Gilbert Lukalia. Then, Hearts of Art founder Walter Sitati will direct ‘Son of Smoke’, and finally, the long awaited ‘Wangari Maathai, the musical’ will be directed by Lukalia! All this is amazing not just because it has been so carefully thought, but because Sitati has been out of the country studying for many months, and still has managed to stay in touch with his company. That’s dedication. In that regard, HOA is not alone. Many theatre companies are peopled by a faithful crew of thespians who love what they do. For instance, a group like Youth Theatre Kenya are dedicated to their team and will focus this year, says Jazz Moll, on conducting workshops and training, even as they plan to collaborate with Dance Centre Kenya on a show Jazz wants to reveal later this year. What is also important is the leadership of these companies. Like Prevail Arts has Martin Kigondu who says they will bring back ‘Supernova’ and ‘Blessed be the Fruit’ even as he plans to be working with Nairobi Performing Arts Studio to act in ‘Betrayal in the City’ which a number of outstanding Kenyan actors plan to perform in as well. NPAS’s Stuart Nash says ‘Betrayal’ is just one of the major productions he hopes to stage this year. He also plans to produce ‘Nairobi Half Life’, and is even thinking seriously about staging Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s other controversial musical ‘Mother, Sing for Me’ or ‘Maitu Njugira’. Ngugi has already expressed his appreciation of the thought of finally, after 40 years, of finally getting that play staged, as it was stopped from opening just minutes before the full cast was prepared to premiere the show in 1982. But it was not to be, and shortly thereafter, Ngugi was advised not to return from a short trip overseas as there were sinister plans afoot to do him harm. So we’ll see if 2023 is the year when ‘Mother, Sing for me’ finally gets her premiere. Meanwhile, companies like Chatterbox, Journals of Orina, Liquid Arts, and Festival of the Creative Arts are all planning to stage new shows this year. FCA has been quiet for years, so it will be interesting to see how the company has morphed. Their first production will be a Kikuyu play directed by Johnson ‘Fish’ Chege. Orina will be performing in his ’Conversation with God’ and Liquid’s first show in February will be ‘Kemia’ by Kelvin Manda and directed by Peter Tosh. Heartstrings and Crony Players are both planning to bring more original comedies. Esther Kahuhi, who has come back to Heartstrings after years, is also likely to bring us more of her Man-Made Woman, revealing her adrenaline-charged run-on wit and charm. The other one woman show that we will see in 2023 is Dr Zippy Okoth’s ‘Mama’s Mirror’ which she will stage in late March. Sitawa’s ‘Silence is a Woman’ is another wake up call to pay attention to womanly-wisdom. Two major woman-directed musicals will be Sitawa’s ‘Escape’ which is brand new and Kristen’s ‘Tuck Everlasting’ which is coming April 20-22 at Rosslyn Academy. Finally, Chemi Chemi players will also be extra busy this year with ‘Pirate’ in March, ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ with Mugambi Nthiga, directed by Julisa Rowe in May, and musicals in August and December. They will also collaborate with a Danish company to stage ‘For Colored Girls who considered Suicide.’

DAVID MAIDEN PAINTS IN THE OPEN-AIR AT TALISMAN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (POSTED January 3, 2023) David Maiden has found the Talisman restaurant a warm and welcoming place to exhibit his art. One reason is because he has such an easy time painting there, in the open air, even as passersby engage him is discussions about his art. “People are curious and often like to speak to the artist,” Maiden tells BDLife soon after New Year’s celebrations when the place is packed with foodies meeting friends and getting set to go back to work. In this festive climate, it seems unsurprising that Maiden gets called away from our chat because someone wants to buy one of his works of art.

“It’s the ‘Mzee’,” he says as we want to know which one of his paintings just got sold. Maiden has already told us he considers himself a portrait artist first and foremost. Mzee is actually an 86-year-old Kenyan man who the artist met in Kilifi where he normally stays with his family. Like all of his portraits, Maiden has taken his subject out of his everyday context and placed him in a collage-like setting that is fused with kaleidoscopic colors stroked in gentle geometric lines. His other memorable portraits include a beautiful old mama and a stoical working man whom Maiden calls ‘Fundi’ since the man once worked for the artist. He had even sat for him as he sketched his impressions of a man he clearly admired.

Then, scattered all around Talisman, in its many nooks and crannies, are paintings featuring children, some Kenyan, most from Kilifi, and others from his own family, especially his son Bertie. “My son was four or five at the time,” Maiden recalls, painted while his people were on holiday in Tsavo Park. “We used to live in Tsavo since my wife was working there. But then we moved when it was time for my son to go to school. It was at that point friends told us about a school in Kilifi that we liked, and that is how we got there,” Maiden summarized.

Calling himself a ‘self-taught’ artist, Maiden says he studied filmmaking at university in the UK, but had always loved to paint. “I’ve been painting all my life, but there was a brief moment when I thought I wanted to make films,” he says, admitted he’s never made a single film. Instead, he went straight into portraiture. But my question was about the birds. Blended into his show on a 50-50 basis (half birds, half people) are his focus on colorful Kenyan birds, especially birds from the Coast. “I figured the birds are rather like me. We both migrate between Europe and Africa,” he says in a slightly glib way. But I don’t buy that idea. There must be some other reason. He admits he actually loves birds, and feels not everyone is interested in owning images of endangered species like elephants or rhinos.

In fact, right as you enter Talisman, you are struck by Maiden’s large oil painting of a Hildebrandt’s Starling. Dressed in a rich, navy-blue cape-like set of wings, she’s got a black head and neck with an orange and yellow belly. Then, all around her are the same colorful geometric shapes as we saw in the Mzee painting, only there’s a variation of color, shape, and texture. Finally, right at Hildebrandt’s feet is a smaller crown- crested creature named a White Bellied Go Away Bird. He too is beautiful and I believe he’s the same one Maiden met in Tsavo, the one that came to snack at the family’s outdoor dinner table one day. In any case, I want to know why, when he claims to love portraiture, does he paint all of these birds. Maiden’s response is simple. He paints portraits of his birds. So, in the same way that he studies his human subject’s outer and inner beings when he paints, so he tries to capture the essence and character of each bird that he portrays, be it a Hornbill, Sunbird, King Fisher or Guinea fowl.

Whether he succeeds depends on his public’s response, and he has had a positive one every time he returns to the Talisman. Born and brought up in the Lake District of the UK, Maiden might never have come to Africa if it hadn’t been for his wife. “She trains tailors and has a clothing production factory that’s part of an EPZ (Export Production Zone),” he explains as he picks up his brush and gets back to painting a little girl watching a beautiful Red-billed Hornbill.