Monday 5th April, 2010

The forbidding gates of Shimo la Tewa Men’s prison meet the Kigezi Ndoto group for their first show in Mombasa.  There is a sluggish feel of fear and anxiety as they draw up at the venue, the audience, men locked up by society. The show at the prison is also the first performance since the cast was ejected from the stage while performing in Lamu. With the memory of Lamu still strong in their minds, the confidence of performing is low and shaken. There is also the idea of being in a prison full of dangerous men.

Despite all this emotions stirring in them, Mumbi has moved mountains to make this show possible. “Doing this show in a men’s prison is a huge achievement for me and a high point both as a performer and activist in social justice.” Mumbi says. “I am way beyond my comfort zone but I have always been interested in performing in spaces many would choose to avoid and reaching out to an audience that is unpredictable yet more than ever in need of the message we carry in our words, dances and music.”

At the entrance the group is met by armed prison guards and before going in, all are asked to ensure that they walk together and at all times have uniformed policemen with them. The bus is soon off loaded and several prisoners are brought out to help carry the heavy equipment and the delicate props to the heart of the prison where the show will be staged.

The Officer In charge, Madam Margaret Chuma welcomes the group to the prison and into her office. She was assigned to the prison just a month ago and took over from Madam Wanini. Wanini Kireri is an incredible prison reformist, credited with the prison reforms at Lan’gata Women’s Prison and assigned to Shimo La Tewa where she swept clean the bad reputation that the prison had for years. She was instrumental in shaping up the prison to what it is today, a place where prisoners dotingly refer to as Gereza ya Mama or A Mothers’ Prison. 

As she hands us to the guards, Madam Chuma assures us that we are in good hands and promises to join us during the show. Walking in a cluster, all eyes on them, the group goes straight to the hall at the heart of the prison. As they walk in the first thing that catches their eyes and impresses them is the cleanliness of the place as well as the prisoners.

The hall the cast will perform in was designed like a rectangular shaped pavilion. It has a cemented floor and a roof held by several pillars; those on the outside were painted in the pattern like the spots of a giraffe while the four pillars on the inside had the black and white stripes of a zebra. The walls are open creating the feel of an outdoor theatre. Inside, camouflaging with the zebra striped pillars due to their cloths, are the prisoners who are already calmly settled to watch the performance.

There are several challenges with this space. It does not have a raised stage and there is no place to light a fire for the drums to be tuned. An electrical heater, which the drummers carry at all times, comes in handy and they use it to tune the drums although the process is painfully slow compared to natural fire. Despite all this it is quite an intimate space perfect for a close interaction with the audience.

It takes a long while to set up and the officers start to feel uneasy. They tell us that the prisoners are not forced to attend such events and the longer we stay the more they will be impatient and leave or begin up and down movement that may not be easy to contain. The prisoners also have a time table that is followed strictly. Since the cast do not want to get them to get backed up they rush the preparations.

Two prisoners keep their fellow inmates entertained with comedy and lovely speeches so eloquently spoken. It is from here that we learn a few things about the prison and some inside jokes. The reason for the name Gereza ya Mama, is because the officer in charge has been a woman, whom they refer to as a mother who is caring and looks well after her children, in this case the inmates.

Everyone rolls over with laughter when Madam Chuma is nicknamed Mrs. White due to her introduction of the white made ugali in the prison when she took charge. From the cheers and applause it is quite clear that they love and respect her.

A few speeches are made before the cast takes over the programme. During this time the hall gets full as more prisoners walk in. A majority are seated on the jungle green colored plastic chairs. Those that were not lucky to get seats have to sit on the floor while others are forced to stand at the back and on the walls of the hall, each yearn for the show to begin.

Madam Chuma is the last person to speak, she is cheered on as she addresses the gathering, “Many a times we come to this hall to perform as visitors sit and watch what we present, today we will be the ones seating and our visitors will perform for us.” She ends her remarks by saying, “He who never leaves his mothers house thinks of her as the best cook Kigezi Ndoto is an opportunity for us to learn a new recipe and use it to better our lives.”

The show soon starts and we can’t help but wonder about their reactions especially so during the dance bits. Being prisoners kept away from the outside world and from the touch and feel of a woman one only begs to ask if the traditional dances will provoke their sexual needs.

Many people do confuse traditional dance as being provocative or sexual in their steps and costumes, a good example being the fellows in Lamu. Today due to the media and the idea that sex sells, anything traditional is often confused to depict sexual interest clouding the important massages that heritage carries. Traditional dances are very deliberate in their message and what they represent; a time when being half naked was the norm and much the way of life.

The dancers did not change their costumes however they did changed the way they wore them. This time they had covered most of the midsection only leaving bare their backs. This was partly due to the experience in Lamu but mostly because it was a men’s prison and there was no telling how they would react.

It is both surprising and remarkable for us that the prisoners at Shimo La Tewa are very calm and seem to follow the story. Even in dance they appear very well behaved a fact that gave the dancers even more confidence during the movements. They only clap and cheer due to the artististry of the dance moves and the stories they tell certainly not because they have been aroused. They listened wholeheartedly right through the whole show and are moved by the performance and the dances than any audience we have encountered.

The inmates clearly understand what the dances signify. There are three dances in the show, created both to move the story forward as well as to tell the story in a different way. The first dance appears at the beginning of the show. These are a series of arm stretches and movement that were created by Wyoma, the choreographer hired from the USA for the original performance. They dancers begin softly and break into chaos creating the effect of Creation on stage. We see the beginnings of the earth and the elements, fire, wind, water and earth represented not only by the movements but also in the colors of the costumes. Chaos has the dancers running, jumping, falling and turning, with the sound of animals which each performer had had a chance to choose as best symbolic of their inner self.  Sounds finish off the dance, with the human cry and laughter of pain and happiness, the moans of birth and sexual passion.

The second set of dances occurs right at the hub of the show. These dances are derived from different parts of the world. One is the chakacha from the coast which involves movement of the waist line.. The dances here celebrate  heroes and depict a war setting. The dancers use the walking sticks from various tribes such us the Maasai and the Turkana as props.  Acting a battle scene the sticks are held as spears used in times of war. The war dance shows the kind of suffering our heroes went through and the sacrifice they gave for the generations to come enjoy freedom and emancipation from colonial rule.
 
The final dances are very celebratory and they embody ushirikiano or togetherness. The setting in the show is sunset after a day’s hard work. They celebrate our lives and our successes. They show of a world that is happy and a people that know who they are and self-assured of what they are doing in this world. Most of the steps here are gotten from dances that were created by Roseline Odhiambo with the help and contributions from the entire cast. The segeremata dance from the Baganda is also represented. The tempo of the drums is usually fast and the beats derived from various communities. The steps in the dances are equally fast and rigorous. The movement is highly synchronized and in harmony with the drum beats and music. The dancers exit the stage in a snake like movement ending the show on a very high and leaving the audience charged up yearning for more and more.

After the show Dominic Msyoka who works as a Prison’s Officer and has served for one year says that the inmates have had their time well spent while watching the show that has had a profound impact in their lives. “The show…” he adds, “helps people to begin the journey to identify their dreams, it also connects us to our history and makes us revere our traditions so important to our lives that we should never abandon them”. As for the prisoners he is extremely pleased that many declared they do not wish do go back to a life of crime. “This means that my work as a reformer is being enhanced by the production.”

Usatad Melostinda who was the MC of the day and works as a teacher in the prison where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape says from watching the show he regrets the choices he made in life. Having served his sentence for just one and a half years so far, he is more than ever encouraged to pursue his dream of being a journalist. While in prison he established the Zindukeni TV, although done in skit form it is a source of news and entertainment for the inmates. He commented saying “Many people believe that good things only come from the West, today we have learnt that there is sweetness in our own traditions and cultures.” To keep his dream alive the Madam Chuma orders that he remains the MC even for future events.

The group also meet with Abdi Simba who is serving life in prison and is the chairperson of the group Crime Si Poa which has twenty one members in Shimo La Tewa. Abdi was transferred from the Kamiti Maximum Prison where he and eleven other inmates serving life sentences began the group Crime Si Poa back in 2007 hoping to sensitize others about the grave effects of crime. He says, “We had lost all hope in life of ever being free men, we felt like we were dead only left to drag around this bodies kept alive by the system. Our only companion, the steel bars and the four walls so this group was a way to give meaning to our lives.”

It is not easy for Abdi and the members of his group. Many other inmates think that they are informants for the government and are suspicious of them making their lives hard in prison. From watching the show he says that more than ever he is encouraged to purse his goals of teaching against crime, “We have reached the complete end of crime and only death awaits us and this is nothing I would wish even upon my worst enemy.” He hopes that someday the government will allow them to reach out and spread their massage even outside prison facilities. The lesson that he will never forget he says is  “Know yourself and declare to yourself that you can, only if you know yourself and believe that you can then nothing that you set your mind to do will be impossible for you.”

The last person we speak to while in prison is John Ndun’go also jailed for life after being found guilty of robbery with violence and he tells us the he has been in prison since 1993. Ndun’go unlike other inmate is in navy blue uniform that are only given to prisoners who have lived in prison for more than three years and have not been involved in any unlawful acts or misconduct and have completed various courses in prison. The government recognizes them as Trustees and they are so much trusted that they help the prison police with maintaining order and they can even be released to the public on their own to run errands and come back. 

John tells us that the message the show carries is huge, “Everyone has left this hall thinking about their lives, where they went wrong and lost the way. I know people will begin to trace their footsteps and discover where they went wrong and hopefully change their lives. There are those of us with talent but we don’t use our talents instead we run for the easier things in life. There is a message that has been lodged deep in the minds of inmates.” He concludes that, “ Those of us who have lived in prison for long have learnt a thing or two and we can only hope to be freed to use our gifts and talents to make the world a better place each day at a time.”
 
The show at Shimo La Tewa has been most successful and a confidence booster for the cast. Thanks are given to Fredrick Okado and Leonida who both worked to put together the show.  For Fredrick who works with a human right organization, Muslim For Human Rights (MUHURI) the most important thing he picked up from the show is the identification of self, “Prisoners now have a sense of self, and only when you begin to question who you are and identify yourself can you know your rights and achieve your dreams.”

As the Kigezi Ndoto cast and crew leave the prison Mkamzee paints a very interesting picture in our minds through her words. She says, “I feel like even though they are imprisoned, watching our show has left the men here more free than those we met in Lamu, who seem like they were left more imprisoned by the strong contrasts between our show and their culture.”

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