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Paper short abstract

This paper shows how two theater experiments worked to unsettle development’s didactic impulse. Whereas development often assumes an “expert” who must teach the “underdeveloped,” the Marotholi Traveling Theatre and Kamĩrĩĩthũ Cultural Centre mobilized alternative voices and local epistemologies.

Paper long abstract

In the early 2000s, the World Bank published its three-volume Voices of the Poor project, claiming to represent the “voices” of approximately 60,000 “poor people.” But the Bank was hardly alone in its search to incorporate new “voices” into the developmental process. For decolonial alternatives, this paper examines two community theater experiments: the Marotholi Traveling Theatre in Lesotho, and the Kamĩrĩĩthũ Community Education and Cultural Centre in Kenya. Established in 1982 by the National University of Lesotho’s English Department and Institute of Extra Mural Studies, the Marotholi Traveling Theatre used theater to “initiate and support community development and self-help programmes” (Zakes Mda, When People Play People, 65). The Kamĩrĩĩthũ project also used theater to engage rural communities. Involved in both projects were two prominent writer-activists: Zakes Mda and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.

This paper surfaces the strategies and practices that both movements used to unsettle development’s didactic impulse. Whereas development often assumes an “expert” figure who must teach the “underdeveloped,” the Marotholi and Kamĩrĩĩthũ experiments reimagined rural communities as producers of knowledge and co-creators of the developmental process. Rather than extract the “voices” of “the poor,” as does the World Bank, the Marotholi and Kamĩrĩĩthũ projects pursued participatory and dialogic methods. And yet, rather than romanticize these projects, this paper seeks middle ground. Mapping tensions between the communities of participants and the “writer-activist,” this paper shows how these projects mobilized alternative voices and local epistemologies while also imposing certain limits around who is granted the authority to define and represent development.