The origin of popular theatre in Botswana

 Popular
theatre begun in Botswana in 1974 with a programme that was called ‘Laedza
Batanani’. The idea came from Ross Kidd, an expatriate adult educator working
for the University in the northern part of the country (the Bokalaka). The
origins are described by him in the first publication on popular theatre in
Botswana.

Laedza
Batanani developed out of a concern to deal with the problems in the Bokalaka
of limited community effort, low participation in public meetings, and apathy
or indifference to government extension programmes. There was a desire to make
a fresh attempt to involve people in their own development, to substitute
self-reliance, participation. and co-operative action for over-dependence on
government and excessive individualism.

Goals of the Popular Theatre

The twin goals of participation and
self-reliance called for a way of bringing people together to discuss their
problems, agree on changes that need to be made and then take collective
action. This goal of people meeting and working together is summarised in the
slogan ‘Laedza Batanani’: ‘The sun is already up. It’s time to come and work
together’. A forum of this sort of activity has traditionally been provided by
the `kgotla‘. What was away of breaking through the indifference towards
kgotla meetings, helping to revive this forum as a major focus for community
decision making and action. It
was felt that traditional methods used by extension workers were inappropriate
for this task.

Extension workers are more concerned
with providing services (e.g. health care, dehorning cattle) and information
than with motivating people for active participation in their development.
Their messages are often based on external prescriptions rather than a local
assessment of local needs and demands. Their messages and workers seldom
coordinated- each officer works in isolation preaching the narrow message of
his own department. 

Participation in the Theatre

Few participate in their programme. For example, the
agricultural and health clientele are largely restricted to Master and Pupil Farmers and those who attend the clinic. Faced
by these problems, Ross Kidd decided to experiment with an adult education
method that would use theatre and small group discussion method that would
develop a joint inter-agency approach to extension work. The idea of using folk
media came from a UNESCO/IPPF conference in 1972 which had advocated the use of
folk media in family planning communication programmes.

Popular theatre arose as an attempt
to overcome specific problems in Botswana that were making adult education
development policies ineffective. The thinking behind the experiment was shaped
by the ideas on education and development that were current in the mid-1970’s,
particularly those expressed in the writings of Friere and Nyerere Some of the
intellectual origins of popular theatre are therefore the same as those of
participatory research. 

For this reason, there are significant parallels
between participatory research and popular theatre. However, popular theatre is
not a research approach. It has evolved in the search for more effective adult
education method and therefore lies within the broad tradition for adult education,
which is a different historical tradition to that of social research.