In Africa, a step backward on human rights

By Desmond Tutu
Washington Post
Friday, March 12, 2010; A19

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

"But they are sinners," I can hear the preachers and politicians say. "They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished." My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

The writer is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

Farewell (but not goodbye)

To mark the end of this stage of the InterACT! Project, the Theatre for a Change participants have made this final video addressed to all the participants in the UK who shared videos, stories and ideas over the last 6 weeks.



The participants in Ghana have completed a review of the first stage of this project and we are now working on ways to ensure that they can maintain, develop and grow the connections that they have made. We are really excited that some partnerships have already started talking about possible collaborations, visits and projects.

This blog will continue to run in the new year, recording new steps and connections and hopefully featuring new videos made by the TfaC practitioners, their UK counterparts and perhaps even some new participants.

We will also be reviewing ways in which the InterACT! video project can grow and expand - perhaps to even more countries and people.

Please keep checking back and do email us with your thoughts, ideas and questions.

If you would like to support the work of Theatre for a Change, please click here.

A final link

Nii Kwartelai Quartey's final video from Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic Theatre has arrived - and it is the last video postcard from this stage of the InterACT! project.

In the video Gabby introduces some more of her work in depth, including an interview with a project worker with whom she collaborated on a recent project.

As with all of the participants, Nii and Gabby will continue to communicate by email, with major developments, ideas and plans posted on this website.

Looking back

The TfaC participants in the InterACT! Project spent Saturday reviewing and evaluating the project so far, talking about what they've gained and learnt from the videos and how they can continue the project in the weeks and months to come. The UK participants have also been sending their feedback.

I am now travelling to the East and North of the country for the next 10 days. On my return we hope to have a new video from Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic to Nii Quartey and a special one-off video from all the TfaC participants here in Ghana.

In the meantime, if you have been reading this blog and following the video conversations we would really like to hear your feedback. What have you enjoyed and found interesting? What else could we have done? Whose conversations and videos have you most enjoyed?

You can comment on the project - all thoughts and contributions welcome - by hitting 'comment' at the bottom of this post or by emailing me.




Ned

A final postcard from Debra

In this final video postcard from Debra Glazer at Hampstead Theatre to Forster and Amanda, we learn some more about Hampstead Theatre's history, some games that Debra uses with her groups to help them generate text and dialogue and her hopes for the future - including a possible opportunity for the young TfaC facilitators to work on developing scripts in collaboration with one of Debra's groups in the UK.

You can watch Forster and Amanda's last video here.

Didi replies to Susan

Another video postcard drops onto the metaphorical InterACT! doormat, this time to Theatre for a Change's Monitoring Officer Susan Dartey from Didi Hopkins at the Roundhouse in Camden, North London.

In her original video to Didi, Susan showed us round the building that currently functions as the Community Theatre Centre in James Town.

A letter to Diana

Beckie Mills, the Projects Co-ordinator at the Almeida Theatre, made a video reply to Diana Quow's original postcard a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, encoding problems meant that the video played entirely in fast-forward, and there was nothing we could do about it.

So, instead of the video, Beckie has sent Diana this letter:


Dear Diana,

I hope you enjoyed watching me in fast forward – sorry about that!

Thanks very much for your video message, and for sharing one of the exercises you do.

My video showed the ‘Happy Mondays’ group which is made up of 16-19 year olds who have been involved with Almeida projects, and now want to come to the theatre on their own. We were doing several different exercises based on Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, which is a play about gender politics, sexual politics, and subverting expectations.

One of these was a very simple ‘stop’ ‘go’ game, where you have to follow a series of commands (eg, stop when I say stop), and then the second time round, so the opposite (stop when I say go). It’s trickier than it might sound, and is really useful for thinking about breaking free of received patterns of behaviour.

You asked my about challenges in my job.

We’ve just finished a big project working with 75 young people form 2 of our partner schools in Islington, creating a contemporary second half to Cloud Nine, set in 2007 in Islington. (Act One is set in colonial Africa in 1879). One of my biggest challenges on this project has been enabling the participants to explore ideas that are controversial, or conflict with what they might believe, and then be open to creating theatre using this work. As a team, we’ve had to be sensitive to individual opinions, but not afraid to question them.

Some of the views expressed have been conservative, some very liberal on subjects such as:

• Sexuality
• The rights of men and women
• Racism
• Parenthood
• Nationality

The participants (all 75 of them) performed their scenes on the Almeida stage on Tuesday 27th November, to a great reception, especially from the cast of the production.

There’s definitely more territory to mine here, but we made an exciting start.

What are you up to at the moment, Diana? Do you have another song you could teach me?

Best wishes,

Beckie

Speedy connection

This is the final video from Marcus Romer and the team at Pilot Theatre to Collins Smith, who sent his second video to Pilot last week.

Marcus writes:

Here on World Aids Day we are able to be part of a potentially life changing project and here at Pilot Theatre we are really proud to be part of it. We would like to continue our engagement with the artists and workers involved and for this to be the spark for future collaborative work. The power of the internet and its capacity to create connections is both empowering and liberating, and artists across the world need to look for new ways of developing dialogue, communication and new ways of working.

This is just the beginning.

Jaqueline's last video to Reggie

This is the final video to Reggie Tetteh from Jacqueline Rice at Company of Angels.

Jacqueline writes:

Vanessa and myself made our final video postcard today. We loved Reggie taking us to the beach so we thought we take him/you all to the River Thames. I felt less nervous this time (and tried not to nervously fidget as much as I did in the last one!). I've made two short films but it was making the video postcard that made me appreciate how difficult it is for actors having a camera in their face. However, being outside in the crisp fresh blue air with a wash of soft sunshine overhead instantly relaxed me. Also I felt a stronger connection to Reggie this time and it was like chatting to a friend.

We hope Reggie/you all like the view of the river with St Paul's Cathedral in the background and that we gave you a tiny glimpse of London, on a sunny day! People were quite curious while we were filming and out of the corner of my eye I could see one couple listening, a dog running around and there was another moment when a man walked over having a blazing row on his mobile phone. But I did my best to remain professional and focussed!

This project has been such fun to be involved with. I have always had a huge thirst and need to communicate with people from all over the globe so when John Retallack offered me the chance to represent Company of Angels I was jumping with joy. I'm endlessly curious and have been reading up about Ghana and now harbour a great desire to come and meet, and hopefully work with you all. We have loved watching all the video postcards. What really hits you, and is an absolute joy to see and hear, is the passion and commitment everyone has for the work they are doing. The warmth each TfaC participant communicates is utterly palpable and is a real warm breeze floating into my sometimes quite chilly house.

I've shown many friends your video postcards and all agree that you are all quite special and doing amazing work and there is a great deal of support here for you all. There was something Nii said about how he came to realise that there are people all over the world doing the same work as him and he took comfort from that. Seeing Reggie's second video and his workshop with the Group of Hope, made me feel that too. And I was really excited that we do have this universal language through our work and there is something that connects us to each other.

I will learn Reggie's dance and song warm-up and will start to use it in future rehearsals as Ned has very kindly written the words out for me. I love the moment in warm-up when each person can do a different action/movement. It was really great to see the interviews with the Group of Hope. They each had a real inner strength (and seemed so relaxed in front of the camera!) and that's great credit to the work you've all been doing with them, empowering and inspiring them.

I felt a little sad that it was the last video because in a sense it feels like it's only just begun. I've been thinking a great deal about TfaC over the last few weeks and want to make sure that we keep in touch and that we can continue to share ideas and experiences. Seeing all the good work you are all doing for your young ones in your community, I have begun to ask myself, Jacqui, how can you help and do more? Your work has inspired me and I am hoping that I can start the new year on a new footing, with some new goals, some new ways of working. And of course a plan of how to get to Ghana to meet you all! Until then, I am very much available on email and adore writing, so please let's stay in touch.

Global connection

This is Nii's final video to Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic Theatre in London. After watching Gabby's original video postcard, Nii was inspired by the idea that the work he does has a real global connection, with lots of similarities between his practice and that of Gabby and the Young Vic.

In this video, Nii explores a past project which engaged a specific group of people from the James Town community: the fisherfolk who live in small shanty houses close to the sea. He also talks about his current work leading a Community Theatre for Theatre for a Change in Amasaman and discusses to his hopes for his and TfaC's futures.

The video was made on the edge of the eastern side of James Town, the border between 'Ministries' where many Government departments are situated and what was once the Dutch area of James Town, or Ussher Town.

Gabby's reply to Nii's video will appear here soon.

Collins' postcard for Pilot

This is TfaC Monitoring Officer Collins' Smith's second video to Pilot Theatre in York - filmed at the Theatre for a Change office in Labadi, Accra.

Collins was lucky enough to have four different correspondents in Pilot's last video and he was eager to ask them all questions while filming his reply at the fortnightly meeting of Monitoring Offices.

Theatre for a Change Monitoring Officers maintain, evaluate and record the progress of the company's 'In-School' work, which has trained hundreds of trainee teachers to use Interactive Theatre with focus groups in the schools they practice in and the schools in which they eventually end up teaching permanently. Each Monitoring Officer is based at a Teacher Training College, each situated in a different region around Accra.

The fortnightly meeting is a chance for all of them to come together, discuss issues that have come up in recent workshops, develop strategies for future workshops and training sessions and report back on the numbers of people taking part across their regions.

In the video, Collins also talks about how he got involved with Theatre for a Change and his hopes for the future - including his ambition to lead a similar project in Liberia.

Pilot Theatre's reply to Collins' postcard will appear here in the next week or so.

Hope at the beach: from Reggie to Jacqueline

Theatre for a Change Facilitator Reggie Tetteh takes Jacqueline Rice from Company of Angels to the beach for his latest video postcard. With a significant proportion of James Town's population made up of fishermen and their families, it's an appropriate place to start before heading up the Community Theatre Centre.

In Jacqui's last video she spoke about her work developing theatre for a ten-year old audience and Reggie thought it would be interesting to visit the workshop of the 7-12 year olds at CTC. The fact that they have their entire adolescence ahead of them and are unlikely yet to be in danger of contracting HIV/AIDS means they are known as the 'Group of Hope'.

The video also includes a look at some of Reggie's favourite warm ups and interviews with three of the Group of Hope participants.

This is Reggie's last video to Jacqueline, who will be sending one more back before the end of this stage of the InterACT! project.

Read more about the making of this video.

Forster and Amanda at CTC

In Debra Glazer's video to Forster Gomashie and Amanda Enusah last week, she asked them both where they got the ideas for the Interactive Theatre pieces they made and what their workshops looked like. In this reply, Forster and Amanda invite Debra to join them at the James Town Community Theatre Centre for their workshop.



Theatre for a Change's philosophy means that all the pieces that the company produces are rooted firmly in the experiences of the participants and their local communities. In the video, Forster explains how CTC members are encouraged to talk to local people, find stories connected with the theme of the work they are exploring - say HIV/AIDS or teenage pregnancy - and then report back to the group. The group then work together to develop a performance which is then taken back to be performed in schools, community centres, hospitals and sometimes just a roadside space.

In Amanda and Forster's workshop the pair also show some of the games and exercises they use with their group: including 'Fish Bowl', a discussion exercise where the group are invited to step up from the wider circle to discuss issues sat on chairs in the middle of the space.

This video is the last one that Forster and Amanda will make for Debra, who will send her reply over the next week.

Videos from Reggie, Collins and Nii to their respective UK practitioners will follow over the next couple of days.

From Debra to Forster and Amanda

Debra Glazer, Creative Learning Practitioner at Hampstead Theatre, has sent her video postcard to Forster and Amanda in two parts.





Hampstead Theatre was founded to nurture and present contemporary writing talent for its local community. The theatre now produces 11 new plays to over 70,000 people each year at their North London base and often tours these productions to other regional venues.

A key component in Hampstead's commitment to new writing is their Creative Learning Programme, which provides opportunities for people to express themselves through drama and scriptwriting. The programme aims to help participants develop creative potential and personal, social and communication skills.

Debra’s role involves delivering, project managing, and co-ordinating many of these projects, half of which take place in house and half which take place out at schools and community settings.

The Creative Learning Department works in schools throughout the day (lunchtime writing clubs) or after school hours (scriptwriting club), to improve literacy and make new writing meaningful and relevant to as many young people as possible. The stories and plays produced are performed by professional actors in Hampstead's dedicated Creative Learning studio theatre, ‘The Michael Frayn Space’. They also deliver projects in a variety of settings, including hospitals and community centres. Debra is currently running a project with young people at The Royal Free Hospital School, which is just down the road from the theatre.

Hampstead aims to make the work available to people of all ages and from all aspects of the community. Debra has run adult devising and performance projects for anyone over 18 and worked with ESOL students from a local college, using drama games and improvisation to support literacy.

The heat&light company (Hampstead Theatre’s youth theatre), consists of budding writers, performers, directors, stage managers and technicians. The company produces twelve performances a year which are produced in ‘The Michael Frayn Space’. heat&light is broken into four age groups: 11- 14, 14 – 16, 16 – 18 and 18 – 25 year olds (not in full time education).

This term Debra is working with the 14 – 16 year olds, who have written short plays with playwright Richard Cameron, in conjunction with Graeae Theatre Company. She is also working with Gabriel Bissett Smith, who is currently under commission to write a 50 minute play for the company to begin rehearsing in the New Year.

Jacqueline's message to Reggie

The third video postcard to arrive from the UK is from Company of Angels' Jacqueline Rice, who has sent this message to Reggie Tetteh.

Company of Angels fosters and produces new and experimental theatre for young audiences both by producing shows and by initiating innovative projects that directly involve young people.

Jacqueline recently directed My Days as part of their ‘Young Angels: Directors, Writers and Designers programme in collaboration with Drama Centre and the Soho Theatre, which brought together young creative professionals to collaborate on new work for a young audience. Jacqueline has also directed work for Shared Experience's Youth Theatre who with Company of Angels shares the aesthetic of communicating through ensemble work using movement, song and dance to create distinctive and daring work that gives theatre for young people a new dimension.

One of the beliefs that Company of Angels was founded upon is that the political and emotional centre of social change frequently revolves around children and young people.

Jacqueline sets out to inspire and empower the young people she works. The work can be demanding and often about the serious and sometimes very adult challenges they face in their young lives, but that together, we can work through these issues, find answers as a team and do our utmost to enter into a world of beauty. And of course, have a great deal of fun at the same time too!

Gabby replies to Nii

Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic Theatre has created this video reply to Nii's postcard that we posted just over a week ago.

Gabby is the Audience Development Co-ordinator for the Young Vic Theatre, as well as a Director and Producer for Eat the Cake Productions. Her role at the Young Vic involves developing new audiences for the theatre through funded ticket schemes, targeted participation projects for local residents, families and vulnerable adults, and developing partnership projects with a range of community groups.

She is also responsible for all aspects of community project management: targeted outreach, strategic planning and liaising with directors, technical staff and outside companies.

Gabby works with a very diverse range of adults and families, and many of the projects involve people aged from 7 – 85 from totally different backgrounds with different levels of theatre experience. One of key aspects of her work involves bringing together people from diverse cultures and communities. She is currently project managing a Chinese / African fusion reworking of The Christmas Carol with 20 adult participants from all backgrounds.

The Young Vic has also introduced large scale community productions in to its programme. These shows such as Tobias and the Angel (2004 and 2006) and Ma vie en rose (2007) have become a yearly commitment are an opportunity for local residents aged 7 - 80 to perform alongside professionals in a full scale production.

Earlier this year, Gabby travelled on a Research and Development trip within the Rio Branco / Amazon region of Brazil. During her time there she spent time in the Amazon, met with an indiginous community and ran theatre workshops with Brazilian non English speaking participants aged 12 - 50 years.

Pilot Theatre's postcard to Collins

The first video postcard from the UK arrives from Sarah, Marcus, Ebony and Mandy from Pilot Theatre in York to the TfaC Monitoring Officer Collins Smith. See the postcard that he sent them last week.



Pilot Theatre is a national touring theatre company based at York Theatre Royal.

Established 25 years ago the company has a growing International reputation for innovative use of new technologies within their work. They create, produce and tour new work for young people, run paricipatory programmes of work and are part of magic net a european cultural theatre exchange programe.

Pilot Theatre currently have two shows running: Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy, adapted by Marcus Romer and their new Christmas Show, Fungus the Bogeyman.

Over the next week Collins will be watching the video and responding with his second video postcard.

The end of a long first week of the InterACT! project, during which time I've travelled across Accra and beyond to meet with the practitioners working for Theatre for a Change in colleges, schools and local communities. I've been 2 hours north to Amasaman and 3 hours east to Ada to meet with Nii and Collins and I've spent 4 days at the James Town Community Theatre Centre, making videos with Diana, Forster, Amanda, Susan and Reggie.

The thing that has struck me most during the week is the passion that every single one of the TfaC practitioners has for their work, their projects, the people in their local community. Reggie giving up his job to concentrate on his work for TfaC; Nii spending both Saturday and Sunday every week with his participants; Diana's commitment to the rights of women and girls in James Town.

It hasn't all been plain sailing - video encoding problems, internet outages, the terrible traffic jams that have plagued Accra after the local council shut down one of the main bus stations in the middle of town. All these things have made the week longer, more exciting and more challenging that it might otherwise have been - and seeing the final videos up on the site all the more rewarding.

The UK participants now have a week to respond to their first video postcards. I am travelling to Kumasi in the Ashanti region but will be back on Thursday to upload the responses onto the site.

All the participants here are really excited about seeing how their partners in the UK react to their first videos and we'll be meeting on Saturday to watch the responses and workshop ideas for their next set of video postcards.

All comments and feedback on the project are really welcome - please contact us by leaving a comment under any of the posts or by emailing us.


Ned

From Diana to Beckie

The sixth and final video postcard comes from Diana Quow who has sent her message to Beckie Mills, Projects Co-ordinator at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.

Diana fulfills a dual role for Theatre for a Change, working both as a Monitoring Officer overseeing and supporting the work of the practitioners at James Town Community Theatre, and as a facilitator for group of her own in James Town.

Diana lives in James Town and is a passionate campaigner for the rights of women, as well as for HIV/AIDS prevention and the reduction of Teenage Pregnancy.

Diana's group meets every Friday afternoon after school at Sacred Heart Technical College, a secondary school in James Town. She recorded her video at the main CTC building today before travelling up to Sacred Heart to meet her group who demonstrate the warm up song at the end of this video.

Beckie now has a week to send a reply back to Diana, who will send another video back to Beckie in the week beginning 19th November.

Click here to see Diana's video on YouTube.

In the company of Reggie

Reggie Tetteh is the fifth Theatre for a Change practitioner to send a video postcard - his goes to the Director, John Retallack, and the whole team at Company of Angels.

Reggie is a facilitator at the Community Theatre Centre in James Town, where he has lived all his life. He leads the 'Advanced Group' - a focus group comprised of long standing members of the theatre and the facilitators who run other all the other CTC workshops.

Last week Reggie took the Advanced Group to perform at a sewing/tailoring school in James Town for girls who are not currently in full time mainstream education. They performed and invited the audience to take part in their newest piece, about a girl who takes an older lover after her father loses his job and is unable to support her any more.

John has nominated the director Jaqueline Rice to represent Company of Angels by recording a response to Reggie's video postcard. Her video will appear here on Friday 16th November.

See Reggie's video on YouTube.