Mshai Mwangola-Githonga introduces historical background of Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing at PointZero Book Cafe
COFFEE, CAKE AND BOOKS A DELICIOUS COMBO AT POINT ZERO CAFÉ
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October 25, 2017)
Book clubs are popping up all over Nairobi. But there is none quite like the Point Zero Book Café.
What makes
the PZ Book Café so special is two things: first, it’s the coffee experience
since conversations about books are situated specifically at Point Zero Coffee
which is right in front of the Nairobi Gallery (the old PC’s office on the
corner of Kenyatta Avenue and Uhuru Highway).
Andrea
Moraa, (who co-owns PZC with Wangeci Gitobu) is the Coffee Master who
introduces her audiences cum customers to new tastes in coffee (which is only
half the reason people come mornings on the third Saturday of every month).
For
instance, this past Saturday everyone present got to taste Blue Mountain coffee
from Kenya and Columbian coffee from Latin America.
It turns out
Andrea had done her ‘homework’ (testing with her experienced taste buds) to
figure out which coffees go best with which cakes! What she’d discovered was
that Blue Mountain goes well with ‘apple and butterscotch’ cake! And Columbian
coffee partners well with banana cake.
Everyone on
hand last Saturday morning got to taste her ‘discoveries’. But since nobody
present had Andrea’s experience in professional coffee and cake tasting, all we
knew was that everything was delicious.
But for
those who’d come to Point Zero primarily to discuss this month’s book choice,
it was the dramatization of Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, Homegoing by The Performance Collective that was even more delectable.
The
theatrical trio of Mshai Mwangola-Githonga, Mueni Lundi and Aghan Odero is no
ordinary acting troupe. They are all performing artists who have known each
other for years. In their university days, they were all members of Theatre
Workshop Productions. And while each has branched out into their own respective
fields, they’ve stayed true to the tradition of storytelling which they
mastered at Nairobi University.
It wasn’t
long ago that they decided the time had finally come for them to reunite and
become The Performance Collective. The Point Zero Book Café is the first time they
have a regular monthly gig and goal, which is to introduce recent African
writings to receptive audiences by dramatizing the texts.
“We also
want to stimulate conversations about issues that arise from the texts,” says
Mshai who actually started TPC with Mueni shortly after the 2013 elections.
“We began by
doing non-fiction. We devised a performance that incorporated a number of
actors and called it ‘Weaving Women,’ which was a fabulous experience,” Mshai
recalls.
She and
Mueni then went on to dramatize eye-witness testimonies from the ICC Witness
Project which was also quite successful.
It was only
last year that Aghan turned the duet into a trio and they started staging
fictional works. Focusing first on Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s award-winning novel Dust, they blended Yvonne’s fiction with
personal reflections on their friend and fellow creative.
“It was
during that performance that we realized we needed to pay more attention to
this project [TPC],” says Mshai who contacted the Point Zero Coffee women and
shortly thereafter the PZ Book Café was born.
Thus far the
Collective has dramatized readings from five novels. They include Dust, So Long a Letter, Ghana Must Go,
Beloved and the book they introduced this past weekend, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
Last
Saturday, Mueni introduced the book by clarifying that their choice of passages
was based on their desire to inspire people to read Homegoing thoroughly by next month (since every book gets two
Saturday sessions).
The trio
definitely succeeded first by giving a bit of background into how the 26 year
old author constructed her book, and then dramatizing the first two chapters
enabling us to get a taste for the characters, the texture of the writing and
the drama that would ensue. Later on, they dramatized ‘the family tree’ using
colorful knotted scarves to symbolize the families’ connections over centuries.
Yaa’s
historical novel is rich with complex relationships; it’s based on the lives of
two sisters, one who grew up privileged having become the wife of a British
colonial boss while the other was captured and destined to become a slave on a North
American plantation.
Yaa has clearly
written an ambitious historical novel. But it’s also one that The Performance
Collective made magical and gripping. Their dramatization (and the lively
discussion that followed) succeeded in inspiring their audience to go get the
book and read it before November 18, which is the second session of the PZ Book
Cafe.
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