MALALA'S TROUBLED PLAYS AND KENYA'S LONG HISTORY OF CENSORSHIP

Photo/Butere Girls: Echoes of War. 

By Thomas Chemelil 

Cleaphas Malala's play 'Echoes of War' has generated immense heat in Kenya's political landscape with many wondering what the play is all about. However, this is not the first time that Malala has run into trouble with the authorities over his contentious plays. Somewhere around 2012, Malala scripted 'Shackles of Doom,' a narrative that detailed the exploitation of a  marginalized community in whose land  valuable crude oil had been discovered. What follows is a mad rush by an "investor" community to reap from the new-found oil at the expense of the locals.

In order to endear themselves to the host community, the "investor" unashamedly marries a local girl  who would act as bridge between him and the community to facilitate the wanton pillage of the community resources.

Like 'Echoes of War,' 'Shackles of Doom' raised enough political dust with the authorities taking note. Not even MALALA'S brandishing of a court order could make the mean officers moved by his plight.

Yet, nterestingly, this is not the first play to be banned in Kenya. The forefather of banning of literary pieces was none other Ngugi wa Thiong'o and his troop of actors at Kamiriitu who had their plays banned by the authorities.

It was the play 'Ngaahika Ndeeda' (I will Marry When I Want), which Ngugi wa Thiong'o co-authored with Ngugi wa Mirii that would put them at loggerheads with the authorities.

The Kenyatta regime went ahead to arrest the two authors in 1977 when the plays were barely six weeks on show. When they were released in 1978, the two authors opted for the safety of exile in fear for their lives.

'I will Marry When I Want' only's crime was the exposition of the ills that bedivelled post-independence Africa with corruption, nepotism. Ignorance and disease turning out to be the four wheels in which Africa rolled on.

Interestingly, book-banning is not entirely a Kenyan problem. One can arguably claim that arphatheid South Africa holds the unenviable record of suppression of expression with over 26,000 titles being censored. This included masterpieces from writers such as Steve Biko and Andre Brink being removed from the shelves under the banner of the Publications Act and the Suppression of Communism Act.

Although these unfair laws were repealed in 1990 with the end of apartheid, it is sad to note that censorship continues in South Africa in the post-apartheid period. A recent ban on 'From the River to the Sea' , a pro-palestine children's paint book highlights the raw sensibilities amongst governments on works of art deemed critical to the respective regimes or hold positions that may be deemed as unpalatable to the relationship between the country and another.

Many authors have even faced persecution in relation to their works which may be deemed controversial by societal standards. A  case in mind is Salman Rushdie whose 1988 The Satanic Verses elicited hostility from Muslim nations who did not hesitate to put a prize tag on his head.