Of Echoes of War and the place of drama in society
Anti-riot police escort Butere Girls school bus which was ferrying students along 58 road in Nakuru after they declined to perform their play at Melvine Jones academy on April 10, 2025.
The storm that has been raised by Butere Girl’s play, Echoes of War, has birthed an important national discourse on the nature of drama and its role in a democracy.
Two points of view have emerged. Some people feel that nobody should have interfered with the play; that it had an important message for the population, and that it spoke truth to power.
Those who hold this view argue that interfering with the performance of the play was tantamount to the curtailment of constitutional provisions around freedom of speech. However, there are those who argue that the play was too political; that its author, former Senator Cleophas Malala, was using school girls to advance a political agenda.
While both sides have raised reasonable arguments, albeit with unhelpful emotiveness, it is important for the country to reflect on three important questions in the aftermath of the hullabaloo about the play.
The first question is: does drama have a role in our society? The answer is obvious. In the entire history of human civilisation, every society has used drama to discourse with itself. From the ancient times to the present, every good play has always been some kind of national dialogue whose aim is to achieve a better society. By celebrating the good in human behaviour and questioning the bad, drama plays in the same league with law, philosophy and religion.
Like all genres of literature, drama is not just useful to a select few in society who might be art-oriented. People in all professions need drama. Engineers, lawyers, farmers, doctors, information technologists, economists and politicians all need to interact with drama through reading plays, acting in them or watching them on stage. Interacting with drama makes them better in their own professions.
Anti-riot police officers at Melvin Jones Academy where Butere Girls were to stage their play.
A doctor who appreciates drama is a better doctor. An engineer who reads plays is a better engineer and a better human being. Kenya has enough examples of people in different professions whose dalliance with literature made them outstanding individuals. Hillary Ngw’eno, Grace Ogot, Margaret Ogolla, Meja Mwangi, Yusuf Dawood, Pheroze Nowrojee, James Orengo and many others have demonstrated that literature makes people better at what they do.
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists the world has known, advised that literature, particularly story-telling is essential for the mental development of children.
(Here is the full script as produced in court -- Go to page 11.
As an art form that relies on dialogue, drama fosters the skills of negotiation, turn-taking, collaboration, cooperation, delegation and general communication skills. These are important people skills that many professionals yearn for.
Many employers will tell you that irrespective of their field of practice, what they look for in prospective employees is the ability to communicate well in speech and in writing. These are skills that drama offers. Beyond these skills, the drama also ignites national debate about pertinent issues.
The most important function of drama lies in its potential to humanise all of us; to make us better people: people who have genuine human feelings such as empathy, love and forgiveness. People who cannot celebrate injustice anywhere. People who value other human beings across colour, gender, age, ethnicity or religion.
Unlike the other disciplines, drama manipulates the beauty and resourcefulness of language, thereby presenting facts in an aesthetic and pleasurable fashion. Drama presents the truth about society in a manner that informs and entertains.
This begs the question: Does Cleophas Malala’s Echoes of War present truth in an aesthetic manner that allows for both intellectual and emotional reaction? Only those who have read or watched the play can answer this question. When I was invited to the Western region gala performances last month, the play was not on the programme.
The second question is whether drama is always political. To the extent that drama illuminates the issues that confront society and the power play that feeds those issues, one might be tempted to argue that most plays are political. After all, in ancient and mediaeval times, drama always revolved around the actions of kings and royals.
Lysistrata by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes criticizes the leaders’ love for wasteful war. Even in the modern period, dramatists such as Henrik Ibsen, Nikolai Gogol and Betholt Brecht wrote plays that interrogated the leadership and pointed at possibilities in the political space. Here in East Africa, John Ruganda used drama to criticize political dictatorship, while Francis Imbuga used satire and humour to make the audience laugh at the folly of politicians.
If Cleophas Malala’s play is political, one might argue that it is well within an established drama tradition. However, a good playwright understands that good art is not preachy, is not propagandist and does not rely on sloganeering.
Instead, good drama persuades and convinces by appealing to the intellect of the audience. Drama works well if it is subtle and nuanced. These are the lenses with which both Echoes of War and all the other plays at the National Drama Festival should be judged.
A cheering crowd escorts a school bus carrying Butere Girls from Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru on April 10, 2025. The girls declined to perform their play, 'Echoes of War', instead opting to sing the national anthem during the ongoing National Drama and Film Festival.
Additionally, although politics is a popular theme in drama, it should not always be privileged over other societal issues. In the twenty-first century, national and global issues such as global warming, artificial intelligence, gender-based violence, femicide, the loss of family values, indigenous knowledge, drug abuse, job creation, pandemics, equity, inclusivity, and many others should be tackled in the drama performances.
Rightly so, drama should raise political awareness on matters such as the need for young people to register and vote wisely. However, other equally important themes should also be handled instead of letting drama imitate our national obsession with politics which sometimes clouds our judgement regarding the real issues of national priority. In fact, in view of the goals of the Competency-Based Curriculum, it is time drama and other school activities were used to empower learners to think about what they can do with their practical skills to create a future that is better than what the political class has bequeathed them.
The third question is whether people who are not trained teachers should be allowed to train students. Some have argued that what happens in schools is the exclusive responsibility of trained teachers. It is true that teachers operate under a code of conduct and every school has rules and regulations. Some of these regulations have to do with who should interact with students and how.
Many parents would worry about having their children interact with people who might not be held accountable if anything went wrong. At a time when schools face many risks such as drug use, internet addiction, unhealthy relationships and religious radicalization, it helps to have rules that regulate those who mingle with students.
However, it is delusional to imagine that the skills that young people need can only be found among trained teachers. Many Kenyans have been taught by untrained teachers. Many Kenyans have been helped to discover their talents by people who are not teachers.
The Ministry of Education should develop a framework in which skills can be outsourced in a controlled manner, allowing outsiders who coach and train school teams to offer their expertise while strictly operating within the regulations of the ministry and subjecting themselves to clear accountability procedures.
At the same time, the ministry should do more to train people who will competently pass the skills to the students. The non-teachers-who are basically filling a gap- should be trained and empowered with professional theatre skills which they can later pass to the students.
As it is, many of these drama coaches rely on their own raw, unrefined talent, resulting in performances at the national festival which might have little meaning outside the festival itself or outside the country’s borders. The national drama festival should be enabled to respond to the global needs of the professional drama, theatre and film industry.
Journalists barred from entering Melvin Jones Hall to cover the Butere Girls' performance of their controversial play 'Echoes of War'.
Finally, a word about Cleophas Malala. Here is a highly energised young man with two conspicuous abilities: political talent and artistic talent. I know because I was his drama patron at Friends School Kamusinga. His political talent tends to be appreciated more, and there is little doubt that he has a bright political future.
However, the country stands to gain if it hinges its artistic and industrial revolution on the energies of people like him. If Kenya taps, refines, redirects and professionalises the artistic energy of Malala and hundreds of other equally talented Kenyan young dramatists, the goals of the CBC in the performing arts area might just be realised.
Dr Mark Chetambe teaches literature at Kenyatta University.