The Origin of Chikwakwa Theatre

The Chikwakwa Theatre: The coming into being of the Chikwakwa Theatre in the 1960s gave rise to new theatre groups. The leaders of Chikwakwa Theatre were with a strong feeling and conviction that western theatre in the Zambian society was divided along racial lines and that there would not emerge anything of value If Western theatre remained unchallenged.

The origins of Chikwakwa Theatre can be traced to the creation of the University of Zambia Dramatic Society (UNZADRAMS) at the University of Zambia. Formed in 1969, UNZADRAMS was primarily an association for students and lecturers at the university. Though conceived by students and lecturers of the English Drama course in the University, UNZADRAMS had among its members, students who were not part of the drama course. UNZADRAMS had no national following as such but concentrated on the production of plays which had a local appeal as stated by Hudwell Mwachalimba the first chairperson for UNZADRAMS:

UNZADRAMS has as its guiding philosophy a deliberate program for the promotion of theatre arts among Zambians. This we are doing by presenting such plays and sketches in which Zambian audiences can recognise their own ethos – the basis of theatrical appreciation. Emphasis is therefore being placed on locally written plays or those adapted to local situations.

Most of the productions of UNZADRAMS were done for a university audience. Due to the lack of a university theatre, the students and lecturers, in 1969 set out to construct an open-air theatre in the Chamba valley some seven kilometres from the university campus. The construction of the open-air theatre was done through work parties.

The name Chikwakwa meaning slasher symbolises ‘the way grass that formed the enclosure, was cut for construction of the theatre. It also denotes the sense of cooperation and self-help that characterized the process of construction. Chikwakwa theatre became a hive of a good number of productions that included Kasoma’s The Long Arms of the Law (1966), Fear of the Unknown, Houseboy (1969), Che Guevara (1970), Prodigal Son and Kazembe and the Portuguese (1971).

Michael Ertherton (1971), a lecturer at UNZA, who has been credited with being the brain-child of the Chikwakwa Theatre, in 1971 articulated his concept of a travelling theatre which became the guiding philosophy for the Chikwakwa Travelling Theatre:

In Zambia, the leaders of the people have sought to sweep away the white establishment culture; one hopes that they have the insight to carry their cultural revolution through to the masses. For our part we in the university looked up to the clear skies and the rich manifestation of songs and felt that it was too great a heritage to lose to the technocrats and black bourgeoisie and we set about developing theatre on this basis.

Chikwakwa Theatre, therefore, is more than an open-air theatre building in the bush near Lusaka: It is a commitment to the development of theatre in Zambia from exiting cultural roots as they are manifested in the performing arts and in ritual. The traditional performing arts were for all the people and Chikwakwa Theatre must be concerned with the concept of popular theatre.

The theatre cannot develop solely for the better placed in society, In the intervening years between 1966 and 1971 Chikwakwa Theatre and its forerunner UNZADRAMS participated in the TAZ festival but the members realised that it was not feasible to get any award or win recognition in a theatre association that was dominated by an enclave group which was bent on preservation of its own notion of cultural superiority.

The tensions that had characterised KDS in 1963 concerning affiliation to TAZ, loomed high in 1971 when UNZADRAMS entered for the TAZ festival a play Fools Marry (by Kabwe Kasoma). A serious confrontation, with the British adjudicator, ensued because the adjudicator failed to understand the cultural content of the play. UNZADRAMS broke away from TAZ and Chikwakwa Theatre became the external wing of UNZADRAMS that promoted theatre outside the University through provincial tours and training workshops and the manifestation of new works written by students and the lecturers at the university.