Genesis and Evolution of Theatre for Development

 TFD emerged in the late 1970s as a social movement that disseminated information on issues of development at grassroot level in the developing world. It was an offshoot of the travelling theatre movement but nurtured by the adult education movement. 

Chikwakwa travelling theatre in Zambia and the Laedza Batanani theatre in Botswana Zambia are considered precursors of theatre for development (Kerr, 1998), Through international workshops that brought together proponents of the movement, use of TFD spread to Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Cameroons and was linked to other regions of the world. The International Council for Adult Education which housed it as a project promoted its international growth. Ross Kidd who worked for the Council and many other colleagues were instrumental for its global linkages (Kerr, 1995).

Over the years, TFD has been incorporated into extension work of NGOs, development agencies, international donors and ministries of agriculture, health, and community development and embraces participatory learning approaches (PLAs) that have been popularised by Robert Chambers and is buttressed by the Freirian theory of conscientization which has inspired other participatory approaches to human development that include: participatory research (PR) and visualization in participatory programmes (VIPP) and PLA.

In more recent times, TFD has successfully been used to promote girls’ education in Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi (Mwansa & Bergman, 2003). One project considered most democratic in application and appropriation is Tuseme project of Tanzania. The Tuseme groups assiduously follow an intensive workshop approach which has resulted into change of attitude towards sending girls to school

The use of theatre to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS is quite extensive in Eastern and Southern Africa where FIN and AIDs threatens to decimate whole populations. For example, in Uganda, a country considered to be a model of success, the government and a non-governmental organization the Aids Support Organization (TASO) used TFD as a tool for behaviour change. established seven theatre companies made up of people 25 people living with AIDS per group which gave hope to the affected and infected as they saw people infected perform and talk about their lives. The general effect in Uganda was reduction of the rate of infection from 30% in 1994 to 6% in 2004.

In Zambia, TFD against AIDs was first used at the University of Zambia under the project Artists against AIDs which was sponsored by SIDA and lasted four years. The project took theatre to communities. Between 2003 and 2004 the Zambian Defence Units used TFD to break down stigma. Through its two theatre companies reached 6,000 soldiers and their families in 42 camps and bases.