Kamiriithu: What's in a name?

The Multiworld Network may have originated as a joint initiative of intellectuals and educators from India and Malaysia, but it is aspires to connect with similar initiatives also underway in Africa and South America as well, where we find an equally strong history of resistance to the continuing disease of colonial education. So when we needed a name for the Network Newsletter, we decided to opt for Africa and found our inspiration in Kamiriithu.

The Kamiriithu Community Education Centre was an unusual institution set up by African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, in a village of the same name in Kenya. You can find more details of it in Ngugi's classic book, Decolonising the Mind. In brief: The theatre scene in Kenya, even after independence in 1963, was dominated by theatre companies and groups largely led by expatriate Europeans, performing English plays written by English authors. The trend of using English as the medium of expression continued even with the emergence of Kenyan playwrights. Ngugi wa Thiong'o himself at first wrote several plays in English.

All this was to change, however, when a woman from the village of Kamiriithu approached him demanding he do something for their education. As Ngugi himself lived near the village, he agreed, and with others, set up the Kamiriithu Community Education Centre. Ngugi saw theatre as a medium of learning. He disagreed with conventional imported notions that theatre had to be 'taken to the people'.

Theatre had always been part of African culture, playing an important role in village rituals and even everyday life. Ngugi sought to create a form of theatre that gelled with the lives of the people participating, be it the performers or the members of the audience.

The performing space, more by accident than by design, was an open air auditorium. This entailed auditions and rehearsals being held under the public gaze, open to anyone who wanted to watch or offer his or her comments and criticisms. They were again timed so that they would not interfere with the day to day life of the villagers.