Litooma Kenya
research workshops
Community Health Awareness Puppets in Kenya
Shoeless children in tattered clothes scattered, helter-skelter, running down compact, unpaved and garbage-strewn streets lined with rickety shacks. Their screaming was a blend of fear and excitement, their faces going from shock to beaming smiles as they turned, their runs alternating between flight and leaps of playfulness. Infants wailed with spasms of tears, adults stood curious, amazed, and bemused; all of the action on the street stopped as an eight-foot tall man wearing an enormous cartoon-like head shocked the grim reality of the slum into the surreal with a perfect equatorial blue sky as backdrop.
The “mobilization” puppet stooped to shake hands with shop own-ers selling everything from live chickens to herbal medicines to used clothing. The puppet performer hugged grandmas, chased children, greeted unsuspecting shoppers, pushed carts, and directed traffic. The puppet was doing what it was supposed to do, namely, cause a stir and draw attention, mobilizing an audience to see a puppet performance by the Community Health Awareness Puppeteers, commonly know as CHAPS.
The Nairobi-based puppet company has pioneered the application of puppets to convey vital information to the semi–literate and uninformed masses of Kenya. Their March 2002 performance dealing with HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention was their third at the notorious Korogocho slum outside of Nairobi. The 20-year old Korogocho slum—one of many illegal slums occupying outlying Nairobi City Council land—was occupied primarily by refugees fleeing the ongoing Sudanese civil war. Although the residents of the slum were considered “Kenyans,” the slum was essentially a self-governed world onto itself. Because of the Sudanese connection, the slum was known for its availability for black market guns and criminal activity. “The police don’t come here,” CHAPS puppeteer Simon Musau informed me as we drove down Korogocho’s maze of streets.
The tall, gray puppet was instantly recognizable as being associated with CHAPS and its “Puppets Against AIDS“ program. The puppet head, Styrofoam covered with paper mache, was created by and for Kenyans with the assistance of Gary Friedman, a South African puppeteer who originally applied the use of puppets during the apartheid era in his hometown of Cape Town. Friedman has since expanded puppetry use to serve education and social change throughout sub-Sahara Africa. “Large gray puppets can be seen by huge crowds on a busy street and are a sure way to gather people to watch the show. Their gray skin-tones rid the performance of any racial and cultural stigmas and taboos associated with AIDS being transmitted from one particular group of people to another” (Friedman 2002).
In addition to the large, community mobilization puppets, Fried-man introduced and trained Kenyan puppeteers in the use of Muppets, glove, and rod puppets. Although he introduced puppets with origins in a Euro-American tradition, the Kenyans quickly adopted and trans-formed the form to suit local aesthetics. “Kenyan puppeteers are not simply passive and accepting of puppetry models and modes of performance. Because of their applications and unique circumstances, they must consider local conditions, traditions, and audiences; they are evolving the art form of puppetry. Puppeteers in Kenya adopt and trans-form ideas quickly. Originally, we used the giant puppets and rod pup-pets, but once they saw Muppets, they adopted them to great effect. That’s why there are so many Muppet-inspired puppets now. Because the performers know how effective they are,” Friedman said (Friedman 2002). “The glove puppet was used much at first, but Kenyans like more expression because almost always we must perform outside. We do not use the glove so much anymore because it is not interesting for Kenyans, so it is out of style,” stated Samuel Othino (Othino 2002), a puppeteer from the coastal city of Mombassa.
Puppetry in Kenya has flourished because it is non-threatening, and has an uncanny ability to entertain and communicate simply and directly. Curiously, puppetry, or the animation of figures within a narrative context, was never developed into a performance tradition in Africa. A puppetry per se is not indigenous to Africa, except for a few West African traditions, most notably the thousand year old “kotébe“ from the Niger River area of Mali (Diawara 1997: 187-88). The absence of puppetry from the otherwise vibrant and rich African performance traditions is most likely due to Africa’s use of totemic, fetish, and mnemonic figures. “The use of puppetry as a form of theatre is not wide-spread since puppetry has been associated with witchcraft in a number of ethnic groups” (Mwansa 1997: 351). Puppetry was originally introduced to Africa during the colonial era and then used sporadically, in combination with Theatre for Development activities, since the 1980s. The fact puppets have no history or tradition in Africa is, in no small way, a part of its success. Because there are no preconceived notions, expectations, taboos or traditional contexts attached with puppet performance in Africa, puppets are a novelty, neutral and free to define their own place, expression, and function.
for complete article Community Health Awareness Puppets in Kenya
