Hadithi ya Afrika: A collaborative project using dramatherapy and creative writing

Abstract

Hadithi ya Afrika (‘stories from Africa’ in kiSwahili) is an arts-in-the-community project that works with African communities who have experienced a life-changing event or decision, but who wouldn't ordinarily have any voice in the wider world. The principal investigators lead the project volunteers through a series of dramatherapy and creative writing workshops. The dramatherapy workshops create a ‘remembering experience’ in which the volunteers relive their memories of the period of their lives in which they made the decision. The creative writing workshops then teach the volunteers the writing skills to create an interesting and communicable story out of these memories, in a process Hadithi ya Afrika refers to as ‘story-capturing.’ At the end of the story-making process, an anthology is created from the stories about the event that has had such an impact on their lives. The anthology is written in both English and the first language of the volunteers. Sarah Penny was funded by Brunel University to start up the project in March 2011. The pilot project was held at St Francis Adult Education Centre in Langa Township in Cape Town. The six learner-participants in the pilot explored their experience of being educated in the rural areas of South Africa in the aftermath of Bantu Education, and their subsequent relocation to Cape Town in search of a better higher education and career path.