THE SHOW
Africa's Hope is about looking to the future in the wake of Rwanda's appalling tragedy. Over the course of three months in 1994, one million people were murdered in Rwanda simply because of who they were - men, women, and children. Those who survived were scarred for life. Fourteen years on, an internationally-experienced cast of young and talented Rwandan artists return to tour the UK, telling the story of their country through theatre, dance and music. The cast explore how and why one million people were murdered in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when the Government attempted to wipe out the Tutsi minority and the international community withdrew from the country. While this production conveys the brutality of the conflict, it also highlights the universal lessons of individual responsibility. Looking forward, but also addressing the past, the work of Mashirika above all inspires hope. The Aegis Trust has re-commissioned Mashirika to convey the lessons of the Rwandan genocide as part of its education outreach programmes. This autumn, over 30 schools and theatres across the UK will host the production, with over 1,000 people attending workshops run by the cast. The Company
Mashirika was started in 1997 by performing arts students at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Hope Azeda, Executive Committee Member of ASSITEJ (Association of Theatre for Children and Young People), was one of its founding members. After returning to Rwanda in 1998, Hope established Mashirika in Rwanda permanently. The company currently has a total of 20 artists of varying ages. Mashirika is a pioneering professional theatre company in Rwanda, with local, national and international touring experience. They were invited to perform their play Rwanda My Hope at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005 and soon after at the Contacting the World International Youth Theatre festival at the invitation of Contact Theatre, Manchester. In 2006, they completed a 6-week pilot tour of UK schools and theatre venues in collaboration with the Aegis Trust. Mashirika is constantly exploring new ways to develop, to learn and to create exciting theatre. The artists bring together passions, fashions, moods, moves, sounds, networks, anger, forms, styles, challenges, engagement, words, rhythms, visions and visuals in their theatre... and they are always ready to add new things to the mix. The cast for the 2008 UK Tour consists of Anita Pendo, Angel Uwamahoro, Gloria Tengera, Charles Kayitare, Simon Iyarwema, Emmanuel Habumuremyi, Jean de Dieu Tuyishimire, Arthur Nkusi and Mireille Mupfasoni. Hope Azeda, Director and Choreographer, Costume Design and Original Script Martin Hutchison, Dr James Smith, Dr Stephen Smith, Fergal Keane, Beata Uwazaninka-Smith, Script contributions Rebecca Channon, Set Design Aegis Trust
The Aegis Trust was established in 2000 as a UK charity that works to prevent genocide. Aegis is based at The Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire and at Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda. Aegis has been working in partnership with Mashirika since 2004. Aegis first invited Mashirika to perform with a 100-strong cast in the Kigali Stadium for the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Following the success of this partnership and their shared aims, Aegis invited Mashirika to tour the UK in 2006 as part of its genocide education programme. Fundamentally, Aegis understands the importance of education as the greatest form of prevention - the children of today will make the decisions of tomorrow, from an everyday level to an international one. This is why The Holocaust Centre, Kigali Memorial Centre and Africa's Hope, communicate the lessons of the past to a new generation. Aegis ensures that the testimonies of survivors lie at the heart of their work. The Holocaust Centre in the UK hosts secondary schools every day, to visit the museum and memorial gardens and to hear a genocide survivor speak. Students consider how the lessons from these events should impact on their own behaviour. The Centre also works with a wide variety of organisations, such as police and prison officers. Extensive educational resources for schools have also been developed, such as the Refuge Pack, Learning about the Holocaust and The Holocaust and Genocide: Why Does It Happen? In September 2008, two new projects will be launched. The Journey is a Holocaust Centre exhibition specially designed for primary school pupils. History Speaks is an online school resource, which will offer video-conferencing between pupils and survivors. Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda opened in April 2004 for the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide. Aegis was invited by Kigali City Council to develop the site, which consists of a museum, documentation centre, memorial gardens and Kigali City's mass graves. Over 250,000 victims of the genocide are buried on this site and more are buried every year. Since its opening, the Centre has welcomed dignitaries and visitors from across the world. Tony Blair, Bob Geldof, John Hurt, David Cameron, Bono, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Nathalie Portman, George and Laura Bush, and Chiwetel Ejiofor are some of the recent visitors to the Centre. Dr James Smith and Dr Stephen Smith MBE, Chief Executive of Aegis and Director of the Holocaust Centre, were the founders of The Holocaust Centre and The Aegis Trust. They are both eminent figures in the field of genocide studies. Dr Stephen Smith chairs The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in the UK and is a Patron of the Imperial War Museum. He was Special Advisor to the Imperial War Museum on the establishment of its Holocaust exhibition, and Consultant and Trustee to the Cape Town Holocaust Centre. He was also advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister's Office from 2001 to 2004. Dr James Smith qualified as an emergency doctor in 1993 and initiated the East Midlands Kosovo Appeal during the crisis in Kosovo in 1999. He went on to work with the International Medical Corps in Albania and Kosovo as a volunteer physician. In 2001 he convened the first ever international conference on genocide prevention, in partnership with the UK Foreign Office. He is an authority on contemporary genocide, in particular the genocide occurring in Sudan. He has presented evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on the International Development inquiry into the Darfur crisis, and has had comment pieces published in The Scotsman, The Guardian and The Times. |
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