The loud voice that died a silent death

By Nikki H Hwindiri


In my school boy days my favourite street in Harare was First Street in the CBD. There was nothing more relaxing after a long day at school than being treated to a live performance by the street theatre gurus of the day. This however, was about ten years ago when street theatre was still in its prime and groups such as Magariro Performance Troupe - of which Kapfupi, Apiri and Amai Maturaburu were the most popular - thrived at the corner of Speke Avenue and First Street. So popular was street theatre during those days that Kapfupi and crew earned a slot on Zimbabwe’s only television channel then, ZTV.    

Street theatre had one of the largest audiences as compared to the more conventional theatre forms as it not only occurred in a public space but admission was free. In the period 2003 – 2007 many performance troupes were formed and street theatre also became much popular in other parts of Harare such as the Mbare and Highfield suburbs. It would seem however that this art form failed to be viable and as a result many groups ‘disappeared’ from the scene while many hibernated as it were.

In all this time Kapfupi had grown to become a deity of street theatre and was going it the ‘Tiller Perry way’. He was making low budget ‘films’ based on his performances and although statistics for their sales are an impossibility to arrive at because of piracy. it is comprehensibly safe to say they were well received by the Zimbabwean people – besides no movies made in this period are worth remembering anyway. Kapfupi’s newly found fame and success as an independent film-maker however, was dealt a huge blow by piracy and subsequently he stopped making them. As the popular saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” and this is exactly what the other street theatre groups did. They took advantage of piracy as it meant wider coverage and they devised a smart way to combat it. They would simply hire a camera and record themselves while performing live in the streets then sell the copies themselves in the busy areas of Harare. This has become the trend so much so that when one feels like watching a street theatre performance they can always buy a live performance.

Although many might receive this new trend gladly due to the fact that street theatre is finding a way of staying afloat some of us are bemoaning the development. Street theatre for me was so exciting because it was live and fresh but the ‘street theatre films’ are rather stale - in any case a film can hardly be called a performance. To tell a long story in fewer words, while some have admired the strategies employed by street theatre groups to stay afloat one wonders if this is not a betrayal of this important art form. What many, especially the corporate world and organizations failed to appreciate is the potential of street theatre as development communication.

One notices how street theatre attracts very large audiences as people love the scintillating performances. An audience is an integral part of development communication and the bigger the audience the easier it becomes for information to be disseminated into different communities. Along with the internet, music and other art forms, street theatre could have provided a great opportunity to propagate information. Street performers of cause are raw when it comes to information dissemination in relation to community development as they mostly concern themselves with entertaining their crowds. However by borrowing some elements of such communication models as A. Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and innovating and fine tuning them to suite our own Zimbabwean needs street theatre could have easily been made into a Zimbabwean communication aesthetic. Instead of people going to street theatre venues only for entertainment it would then become an edutainment opportunity whereby information, for example on legislature would be shared in a laugh but the message would have been driven home. Seeing that most street theatre now is captured on DVDs this only becomes a thought in retrospect of some of the things that the community could have benefitted from an art form that I feel is one of the most underrated in Zimbabwe. But the question that keeps going through my mind is, “Is this the death of yet another beautiful art form?”