If there was a raging storm in the proverbial teacup, it is this furore about the Butere Girls High School play Echoes of War. Likewise, suppose ever a tiny proverbial tail wagged her giant dog. In that case, these young girls are causing panic and consternation from school classrooms to Jogoo House B to Upper Hill, the seat of the Teachers Service Commission. There is, of course, one place I haven’t mentioned, which I know you know, for reasons I know you do.
I hear that a handful of little girls were 30 or 50? No worry. 13-17 years old. Little people, as V. S. Naipaul, would refer to them; can set a whole giant, broad-based government jittery, and have them run around stark dash dash, is funny to the extreme. See here: we are talking about a government with elaborate administrative structures, highly paid functionaries, elaborate special branches, and the like. I don’t want to mention our tough soldiers and police officers with tons of usable and reusable tear-gas canisters here.
It thus beats logic that something that happened in public, right from the village level to the national level, could catch all these people so annoyingly flat-footed and have everybody hit hard by this storm brewed in a teacup. As someone said, most of our public officers operate from cosy public dining rooms and bedrooms; what they can do best is to eat and sleep (pun intended).
So, what possibly went wrong in this Butere Girls rigmarole? If the public functionaries mentioned were not eating and sleeping busily, what happened? Or is the unkind reference to eateries and bedrooms accurate? Pray, say what really went wrong, somebody.
A provincial director of education once banned a play; was it Musingu? I don’t remember well now; my weed-choked memory…wooi!). There are those who were privy to the scenario. It was at the provincial competition if I am not wrong. Moi’s time. The PDE’s reason? Sitaki kupoteza kazi yangu.
And he was right. If that play had proceeded to the nationals, the poor man would have lost his job, thanks to a terse phone call ‘from above’. That was Moi’s way; you had to worry, aaaolah! Listen to this: ‘Bona veve naruusu yiyo ndrama naeda bele veve ikiona? Veve iko akiri kweri ndani ya kijwa?’
Let’s soberly reflect on what was and what should have been before we ask ourselves some salient questions.
Outsourcing
The play was written by someone who was not a teacher at Butere Girls High School. Well, from TSC Circular No. 14/2018, directed to all teachers but specifically to principals and head teachers, no person who is not a teacher registered by TSC is allowed to do what Malala was doing. So, ab initio, we see what some are saying is a blatant violation of a directive from the employer, something TSC views with a singular exception.
That being as it may, I must hasten to aver that this provision has been largely ignored by a number of schools. Many schools that excel in co-curricular activities use what has come to be popularly referred to as ‘mercenaries’. These are people who seem to have an aptitude for specific co-curricular activities. They have a packed CV to back them up and are highly sought after by schools which wish to excel in those areas in which the mercenaries specialise. Top on the list are drama, music, and other items/genres related to them, such as narrative and dramatised poetry. The other areas are football, volleyball and basketball.
I believe that most, if not all, field officers know that using external coaches is happening. They may not sanction it, but they know it. We must assume they turn knowing glances from the whole thing. After all, is it not known that they get promoted when their areas of jurisdiction excel in these activities? And the teachers and the heads of the schools involved? Who doesn’t need a promotion, anyway? Thus, turning a blind eye to the whole thing is now popularly called acting smart. Ukweli…urongo?
What I must laud is the bravery of the principal. She knew what was going on, hopefully. She must also have known the nature of the play. She was also aware of the circular. One must be brave enough to dare the bullets, as I have put it in the poem with the same title.
But I don’t fault her. Her daring candour did those girls a lot of good. It was well-intentioned, and given the opportunity, I would do exactly that.
Faults galore
Another person I won’t fault is Malala, a person who was likely not aware of the circular above. He has every right to write and produce plays. Every single right. It is enshrined in the Constitution. And he has every right to produce any play, so long as it adheres to the law. As a thespian and literary figure, I know what is called Libel Law. I also observe literary ethics vis-à-vis the idea of diction. A writer cannot use abusive language and must guard against lampooning. I cannot talk ill of the disabled, for example, by reason of their being disabled.
Did Malala, as a writer, flout any aesthetical provision? If he did, I, as a trained adjudicator, would have flagged down this production and outlined the reasons: quod erat demonstrandum.
The school administration might have been at fault for doing something inconsistent with the provisions of the circular referred to, even though I sympathise with their situation. As I have said, many schools could be using outsiders. The Butere case is like what Chinua Achebe referred to in No Longer at Ease: the case of Rat and Lizard, who went swimming, and Rat dying of the cold due to her hairy body. They were referring to Obi Okonkwo, who did not know the acceptable modus operandi for taking bribes. What many schools do is flaunt a teacher as the author, producer, and director. Nobody would have raised issues. But Malala…! It is really a case of Rat going swimming in her hairy coat. Let that remedial tuition lesson be well-learned.
Another mistake lands on the field officer’s desk. Did they watch the item right from Zonal competitions? Didn’t they see the essence of raising a red flag? If they didn’t, who saw?
Mistake number three: Who was the caller from above, and who ordered the students to be sent home? I ask because we need to dispense with that culture. My psychology professor talked about the confusion in the children being a product of the confusion in the adult world. We must show our children that we are not more confused than they are. This is contra natrum.
The festival organisers came in fourth place. They knew the provisions. This whole thing is a function of the Ministry of Education. How could it reach this stage? What faith do the children, whose education they are superintending, have in their ability to execute their mandate? That this could have happened at the national level raises many questions, most of them bruising.
Lastly, regarding the CS Education and the CS Internal Security, the concerns you raised were open to questions. CS Migos Ogamba claimed the girls were given a chance to perform, but they refused. Let him and his functionaries find out if anybody believed this. For CS Murkomen, the apology over teargassing the girls was timely, but did it have to happen? People would only be happy with having those perpetrators arrested and arraigned in court.
BTW, if Malala had written a script about weather changes, drug abuse and premarital sexuality, would people still be horrified? Tafakari.
By Nashive M. Syeunda
