Shujaa Stories: Unsung heroes come alive in the first original Kenyan ballet

It would be a mistake to assume a show starring seven-to-twelve-year-olds would not be an entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Shujaa Stories: A Celebration of Kenya through Ballet proved that point last weekend at Braeburn Theatre in Nairobi where Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) brought together a slew of creatives to produce the first original Kenyan ballet.

The stories were impressive enough for the former Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi to come and serve as the narrator of all 12 Shujaa Stories.

He would share each one before a small team of DCK dancers would come out, bedecked in colourful costuming, and dramatise through dance, what each shujaa story was all about.

“This show is a collaboration of many people among whom we have felt especially honoured to be working with,” DCK’s founder and artistic director, Cooper Rust tells the BDLife.

“We are especially thrilled to have brand new music composed for us by Andrew Tumbo who also assembled five brilliant instrumentalists to perform his Shujaa music live during the ballet,” she added.

Noting that there are so many outstanding Shujaa stories, she added that this is the first set of legendary beings, including superheroes from all over Kenya and beyond. They represent everyone from the Kamba, Embu, Nubian, and El-Molo to the Luo, Kikuyu, Giriama, Maasai, and Makondi.

But as Cooper discovered there are so many more amazing unsung shujaas, she realised that dramatising shujaa’s stories would also be an innovative way of rousing greater interest in that form of dance. This means there are likely to be several more shujaa stories coming up next year.

In the meantime, of those that were dramatised through dance last weekend, only a few were well-known before DCK dancers (whose ballets had been choreographed by members of the senior DCK company of dancers) interpreted their tales.

They included legends like Wangu wa Makeri and Maketilili wa Menzi, both of whom were leaders who ‘broke glass ceilings’ long before ‘feminism’ was understood.

Wangu’s (Jamila Yunus} appointment as ‘Headman’ in Murang’a was unprecedented but generally accepted until she made demands in defiance of men’s double standards. After that, she became a freedom fighter for women’s rights.

In contrast, Mekatilili (Rebeccah Sun) led a full-scale struggle against the British who meant to take over her Giriama people. She was a visionary and fierce freedom fighter whom the British arrested twice, but twice she escaped to fight the occupation of her people’s land. She was finally exiled to Somalia, but her tenacity and freedom-fighting spirit live on.

There were several other women shujaas whose heroic moments are told and dramatised through ballet. They included tales about Queen Amanirenas, archeress and leader of her Nubian people who eventually came and settled in Kibera; Syonguu, another prophetess, this one from Ukambani, and my favourite, Anyango Nyalolwe, (Nyokabi Ochieng) daughter of the Lake (Victoria).

Her magical powers were only revealed after she married a humble fisherman and helped him to get rich. He misused his wealth on drink and more wives. Anyango warned him but he didn’t listen. So when she left him, she went with her co-wives and returned to the lake while her husband lost everything. Moral of the story? Respect your wife and listen to her wisdom.

But the shujaa stories were not only about women. Many of the prophetic men are just as colourful and courageous as the women.

For instance, Ireri wa Irugi, (Edwin Kiarie) the prophet of Embu foresaw the coming of the British in a dream. He had even seen them coming with a peculiar animal that had an iron mouth. It was that ‘iron mouth’ that was used to overpower the Embu people. But still, they remember Ireri’s prophetic vision and voice.

Then there was the story of the star poet, Muyaka Bin Haji who was a skillful pioneering word master from the Coast. All very different in their capacity to serve their people, these stories also serve in the wider process of decolonising Kenyans’ consciousness, That’s because most of these shujaa leaders came to light either before or during the early days of colonial development in Kenya; before people were persuaded that colonial culture was superior to African ways of life. In the final analysis.

The Shujaa stories were an enchanting event that brimmed over with artistic excellence, seen in the beautiful backdrop, colourful costuming, and performances by children whose passion for ballet is being cultivated by the day at DCK with their loving disciplinarian, Cooper Rust.

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