Jahazi Journal is one of the major outlets for discourse and criticism on theatre and performing arts in Kenya. The journal is published under the auspices of Twaweza Communications, led by Prof Kimani Njogu, a sagacious thought leader in our creative economies today. His lifework is embodied in the words that form the adage of Twaweza: “Working towards a Better World”.
Recently, the journal released its 11th volume. The launch was held at the Kenya Cultural Centre within the compound of our national theatre, nestled between the University of Nairobi and the national broadcaster KBC.
The launch took a hybrid format and was attended by both live and online audiences, totalling more than a hundred people. Most of the audience was drawn from the creative sectors and academic spheres of art. The editorial team was led by Mueni Lundi, who pointed out the growth and development of Jahazi over a decade. It is one of the most tenacious art journals on the continent. Many are launched but do not see their fifth anniversary due to a plethora of reasons, including funding, ideological differences and management skills.
Dr Sindi Kirimi gave an interesting treatise on journal visibility. The talk was based on the premise that journals gain currency and respect based on their circulation. Online circulation of journals of an academic nature earns them value in the eyes of experts and scholars. The higher the index of visibility, the more credible the journal. Journals in the pure and applied sciences have a high impact factor, and such should be the case for journals in the arts, too. African journals should be steered towards higher impact factor and visibility in online knowledge economies.
Jahazi, under Mueni and team, is moving in that direction. The editorial board of this issue 1, of volume 11, includes Faith Oneya, Caroline Mose and Lydia Muthuma. I was a member of the board that produced the previous issue and even gave a poetry reading — an elegy to the late guru of Drama in Education in Kenya, my late officemate, Dr Wasambo Were — at this launch of the current journal.
The advisory board of the journal includes great Kenyan minds on art: Garnette Oluoch-Olunya of GoDown Arts Centre, Kahithe Kiiru, the productions manager and senior researcher on Ethnomusicology at the Bomas of Kenya, and Mwenda Ntarangwi, the immediate former CEO of the Commission of University Education.
At the launch, we listened to a conversation on Theatre and Social Change in Kenya between theatre educationists Zippy Okoth of KCA University, Kawive Wambua of the University of Nairobi, and Mueni Lundi. It was moderated by Dr Lydia Waithira Muthuma, who teaches visual arts at the Technical University of Kenya and is the current chair of Unesco’s National Committee for Memory of the World.
In live attendance were eminent theatre and performing arts scholars, such as Dr Fred Mbogo, the performance poet called Dorphan, Prof Abdilatif Abdalla, famous for being one of our first prisoners of conscience after Independence. Famous for his poetry book, Sauti ya Dhiki (1973), he was jailed by the government of Kenyatta 1 and currently divides his life between Germany, his adopted home, and Lamu his natal county.
Jahazi 11 bears the theme, “Perspectives on Theatre Practice in Kenya”. It congregates 23 contributors, who offer a range of perspectives on our theatre fields. Two theatre doyens who left us this year back to back in June are mourned. There is a tribute to Micere Mugo by Wangui wa Goro and an elegy in honour of Wasambo Were by myself.
Theatre dons are led by the current Kenya Drama Festival chairman, Prof CJ Odhiambo. In his paper, he looks at the late Kenyatta University don, Francis Imbuga, as a public intellectual through a reading of his drama. Jane Plastow looks at Kisumu as the radical homeland of Kenya’s applied theatre movement.
More interesting thoughts from academia include those of Oby Obyerodhiambo of Daystar University, offering an informative evolution of the Sigana art form, and F Mbogo of Technical University of Kenya, offering a clear critique on staging Ngaahika Ndeeda by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii at the Kenya National Theatre.
The national maestro of theatre and film, David Mulwa, now in retirement from academics in his Ruai residence but still an active voice in matters drama, appears in an interview with his former student, Dr Edwin Nyutho. This is one of the gripping articles of this issue and a must-read to understand the nature and praxis of our theatre over time.
Wanyonyi Wanyama looks at the history of Nakuru Players Theatre, and the accomplished Mumbi Kaigwa lays bare her “roundabout route to professional theatre”. Mbukha Shitemi offers insights into the budding space for culture and performance that is the magnetic Wanda Gardens in Kakamega county. It is today one of the hotspots of the performing arts and literary activities in that part of the country. Oliver Mbayi and Habil Otanga look at storytelling through theatre by refugee children as Kawive expatiates on the notion of syncretic hybridism using civic theatre for illustration.
Nyokabi Macharia addresses theatre practice in the digital era and virtual spaces. This article sits well with the one by Kenny Cupers of Basel University in Switzerland and Makau Kitata of the University of Nairobi on Kamiriithu Afterlives. These two scholars have been working on a project with digital experts to give us a virtual reconstruction of the famous late 1970s theatre space initiated by the two Ngugis above in Limuru. They worked with African Digital Heritage to archive in a new way one of the most interesting experiments in the decolonisation of the arts anywhere in the world.
Theatre training today is the focus of Chomba Njeru. Keith Pearson offers personal reflections on the same and more. There is an excerpt on his early flowerings in theatre arts from Birth of a Dream Weaver by Ngugi that has been reproduced in this issue.
The 109-page Volume 11, issue 1, of Jahazi Journal, is published with the support of the Lambert Foundation and is available from major bookstores. It is also available as a free downloadable PDF copy at https://jahazi.co.ke/ and on order from [email protected].