The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe —
FORGET about the manger laden with donkeys and sheep or an angel in a glowing white gown appearing to the Virgin Mary during the B.C era — replace that with a current set-up, and Christ Jesus the Messiah being born in the modern society.
How do you think people would react to hearing the news of Mary being a mother-to-be? Such was the case at Theatre in The Park on Saturday evening as Chipawo children staged their annual Christmas play in front of a packed auditorium comprising mainly of parents and various players in the arts sector.
It was very interesting to note how a Christian family would choose to follow African traditions as opposed to enquiring from God when faced with such a perplexing situation of having their virgin daughter pregnant.
Interestingly, this is a very common trend in most African societies. Another key point that was revealed in the act is how society usually ridicules Christians when they mess up.
People tend to give demeaning tags to Christians, especially when they fail. But are they not human too? Even the Bible says, “. . . a righteous man may fall seven times but he will rise again. . .” In this instance, Mary in the ghetto was mocked by women in a typical way of how events in modern societies unfold.
The 90-minute long production, which was captivating because of the unique twist to the storyline, was spiced up by surprise collaborations that saw Children Exposure Zambia (Chieza) and local dance group, Elysium joining Chipawo delivering amazing traditional dance routines.
The dances included muchongoyo, chekamwenje, machobani, and skola. In short, it was all about preserving cultural heritage.
“Every year we present a Christmas play for Zimbabwe. So this time the children thought of Mary the mother of Jesus, what kind of a woman she was, and dwelling much on the challenges she went through when society discovered she was pregnant before marriage and worse more in a very enigmatic way,” said Chipawo manager, Chipo Basopo.
“After taking time to decipher how the whole scenario would unfold in a modern Zimbabwean society that is reeled with discrimination of the girl child, the children and I then came up with this production, which not only reminds people of the essence of Christmas but also conscientises them on not to marginalise the girl child.”
Basopo highlighted that collaborating with 19 Zambian children was a great learning experience for Chipawo children as it added a fresh flair to their annual production.
“The children from Zambia are under Chipawo World, which has chapters in Zambia, Namibia and Botswana. So each year, the four countries host festivals and all of us attend.
“Chipawo children where in Zambia in October and this December Chipawo hosted them. There was a good exchange of cultures, which resulted in the creation of this production from scratch,” revealed Basopo.
Speaking on their collaboration with the Hillary Indi led dance group, Elysium, Basopo said, “We are both in the same industry and the partnership with Hillary was a great move for both Elysium and Chipawo. We shared and learnt from each other. We are hoping to continue working together in 2017. This will be of advantage to our young people and the arts industry at large.”
The year 2017 promises to be a busy one for the Chipawo team as they have already lined up a number of tours.
The major highlight will be the 20th anniversary celebrations for the Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ), to which CHIPAWO is an affiliate.
