The good and bad in controversial “Echoes of War” School play
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By Johnson ODUk
When the curtains opened for the National Drama Festival week in Nakuru, little did we know that a stage play scripted by former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala for Butere Girls High School will attract much state attention.
Historically, stage plays have always offered a variety of topical themes ranging from bad governance, retrogressive cultural practices, religion, corruption and drug abuse.
Straight to the elephant in the room; ‘Echoes of War’ masterpiece by Mr. Malala who has been in the business for the last 15 years is not just an ordinary script play that should just pass with the winds.
We have to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon-by first accepting that the play is a Gen-Z theme masterpiece that artistically borders on events that have happened in Kenya; we had the Gen-Z’s almost bringing down parliament in their quest to kick out the current regime.
The fact that the school had initially been banned from staging the now controversial play, on grounds that it directly critiques the government, ‘directly agitates for war’ opens the lid on what should be an open discussion on the good and bad about the drama that ensued in Nakuru over the play.
We start with the writer Cleophas Malala- a politician per excellency in this case, reeling from the effects of falling out with President William Ruto and subsequently being kicked out from the ruling United Democratic Alliance Party.
We cannot take away the fact that Malala is christened as one of the best school play writers in the country, whose work will occasionally attract resistance from the ruling regime. To be honest on this, most African presidents who rule as dictators would have imposed fake charges on him.
His play centres on a modern hierarchy of powerful authorities clashing with artificial intelligence and an angry youth population with religious undertones laced all over it.
A play that brings to fore the power of technological machinery amidst bad governance, as the young people toil and yearn for realistic and sustained liberties.
This is the message the Senator and our beautiful girls from Butere Girls are passing out there but within the context of literature, dramatized to neutralize it with comic relief and other artistic additives.
The biggest question here is to differentiate between Malala the writer and Malala the politician. That is if he ever stopped being a politician throughout the process and during the regrettable and unfortunate events that unfolded in Nakuru.
A scrutiny of the underlying message in the play depicts a portrait of events that unfolded in the country when the Senator was deeply rooted within government as the UDA Secretary General.A time when his slogan was ‘hear no evil, see no evil,’
The writer and Director in Malala shoots directly in his face with loud farts, with hypocritical sharp cutting fictional tales thrown in the hands of naive Butere Girls too stage. Yet still an award winning piece of work that throws the ruling regime into headwinds.
This is a well thought out piece of work that must have been staged without unnecessary drama. The police should have exercised restraint and state operators should have been discerning enough not to overstretch the drama. Come to think of it, majority of Kenyans had little whereabouts on the play. The government in this case goofed and literary fell into the hands of Malala the politician genuinely disguised as the writer.
We ended up witnessing echoes of war pitting police and anti-government groups that quickly mobilized in Nakuru.The groups sang and praised the heroes from Butere Girls who had stolen the who without having to perform on stage.
If it had been performed, the play was supposed to depict a petulant young population eager to fight for liberation using digital spaces to shape the society. Yet still in the Kenyan context,the angered population could still make more disastrous mistakes on the ballot if elections were called today.
The fact to take home is that ‘Echoes of War’ has political echoes of war and real systematic ‘echoes of war’ that have trapped the country into dungeons of poverty.
We have to accept that literature, music and art in general might at times come in packages-of bitter and sweet and will often not offer clarity with finality. We should never hide behind the mirror but have the courage to confront the reality to unlock the clarity in all this work.
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