On Friday, April 23, 2015, the world celebrated the UN International English Day and events were organised in recognition of renowned English author William Shakespeare. Many people believe that this great writer still lives through his works of drama and publications. Experts feel Rwandan publishers should draw lessons from him. The New Times’ Solomon Asaba caught up with the Deputy British High Commissioner Zoё Compstone and Sheilagh Neilson, the British Council Country Director who highlight the purpose of these events.

Excerpts:

Is there any particular reason as to why Rwandans should care about the life of a man who lived over four centuries ago?

Ms Compstone: Today the world not only celebrates the life of Shakespeare, the Day is also the United Nations International English Language Day. UN has seven days that are designated for globally important languages. I find this very fitting in the reality that Shakespeare was an amazing user of the English language, not the one that I speak or we speak now but his type as evidenced in his writing. When you do research you will find an amount of language created by him.

Is this the main reason why many refer to him as a wordsmith?

Ms Neilson: Apparently he created over 1,700 words that became part of the English we use today, and more so the relevance of this to Rwanda is that because there is an ongoing transition to the usage of English, there is need to understand more about the history of the language which has such an important character in its evolution.

You have called him a wordsmith meaning he coined many English words and inspired others, are there any words that you can say still stand out?

Neilson: There are a couple of phrases such as a ‘foregone conclusion’, ‘waiting with baited breath’… it is lots of them but, most importantly, he inspired a number of writers such as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner that are responsible for literature today. It is such tremendous effort for someone who wrote 38 plays, 150 foul Sonics, and 410 features like films created in multiple languages.

Two years ago, the Globe Theatre, a place where it is thought he kept most of his works was resurrected and from ruins, it was reconstructed. A group of actors called the Globe Players were chosen to be the symbol of this.

These actors came to Rwanda in early February this year during their world tour; they played Hamlet at the University of Rwanda in Huye before proceeding to Burundi. The reason for this was that, about three years ago, the Globe Theatre looked for foreign productions of Shakespeare and after the selection, they toured South Sudan and performed in a South Sudanese language. Furthermore, these plays have been played in other languages such as Shona, Xhosa and Swahili, among others, and this is one way Shakespeare’s works reach out to many.

On the issue of language, shall we have a Shakespeare in Rwanda, considering the fact that you have a full year of activity, with the aim of promoting reading and writing? What should Rwandans expect of it?

Compstone: Why not, everything is possible, all we need is having a translation of most of his works; I think one of the comedies like Romeo and Juliet can do. We have a number of links on our website, there are a series of events and we are looking for partners.

We have been in touch with the Goethe Institute and Alliance Francaise, you realise Germany has good literature as well and France, but we have also reached out to the universities, the Ministry of Sports and Culture where we also look into playwriting. We started discussions to see that we can move the idea of productions and link up with other organisations that are interested in promoting literature.

Elsewhere around the world, people are familiar with Shakespeare’s kind of writing but here it is different, its more about exposure, how do you intend to improve this culture in Rwandan universities?

Compstone: In the rest of East Africa you realise most of the people are familiar with this kind of literature and in Rwanda we are glad that the culture is picking up. The most amazing thing is that the majority of countries have Shakespeare’s books in the curriculum although there is still more potential for Rwanda to include this in the literature.

One idea that we have heard about and this builds on what is more prevalent here, there are many debating clubs which have done immense training even at the East African level, we can further initiate some competitions from some of his plays. Although most debaters have lost interest, those that still have interest can find new things. The things Shakespeare talks about are universal and concern everyone.

These kinds of publications, one may argue, are written in difficult English, probably this could be the reason why very few Rwandans would be interested in reading such material, what lessons do you think our local publishers can draw from these kinds of works?

Compstone: Most children in native English speaking countries also can’t read such English on their own but rely on their teachers to explain these books, it is hard but the publishers have already made those supplementary books and then the rest lies in the hands of the teachers to make sure that language come alive and interest the students to understand it.

This is what makes a good professor or teacher.

Do you think local writers here need to base their improvement on such publications?

Neilson: They have to learn a lot from this, you don’t want them to write like he did but he had the skill of universality of each theme and every time he wrote on something like brotherhood, love and death. All those things that make us human, he wrote about. He was writing for the stage which made him connect with the audience.

The Ministry of Education recently launched a curriculum and among, other factors, necessitates the language of instruction from primary one to three to be Kinyarwanda. How does this compare to the education system in the UK?

Compstone: We have a monolingual system of education in the UK, but we learn foreign languages such as French and German. I studied French at a young age and it was compulsory, I proceeded with French and Spanish until I was 18 but the rest of the subjects were in English.

A lot of changes have come by and right now Chinese languages such as Mandarin have been introduced. This change is to favour people who come from different languages backgrounds because in bizarre situations you find that children need to learn their mother tongue in order to communicate with their grandparents or relatives.

Here in Rwanda, the ministry made a brave choice and I believe the curriculum is very good work although the switching is going to be hard. It is a very strong curriculum and there is always a lot of work involved from moving one step to another but it is good that Rwanda wants to align its self with the rest of the East African Community.

Should there be an initiative to promote these books and how accessible are Shakespeare’s collections in Rwanda anyway?

Neilson: The internet is one place you can access these publications and I wouldn’t dismiss the fact that online everything is available and people can get whatever they want. However, there opportunities through the events and we are hosting things like the movies.

The public library (Rwanda Library Services) has some books and a few simplified ones for children. The national director of the library was complaining sometime back that there are many English books than Rwandan books there; maybe we need to get some kind of Rwandan synopsis of Shakespeare with pictures that are attractive and make them accessible to a wider range of readers.

Obviously with reading, the Rwanda Reads project is another big aspect of promoting literacy, promoting the love of reading and staging here in Rwanda, I am hoping that we can discuss more with the College of Education about translation, research and how to stage. We can also work with other embassies some of which have made several films like the Japanese who have several series.

The other big thing is that we are looking for a mass participation project, we are hoping through this year to engage half a billion people and, in autumn, we are going to invite people to come and record their favourite stanzas from a particular play and these will all be uploaded onto the internet as part of the global project.

Have you read any of our local publications for example those published in English, and if so, what do you think about our local writers?

Neilson: I would love to see a lot of local writers being more visible. They need more publicity. This is a good opportunity to bring people together to see how we can link up with what Shakespeare’s themes are and what our writers here are discussing on round-table but learn that one thing which makes a Rwandan pick up a pen and write something.

Contemporary writers in the UK rarely work alone; there is a chain of people they work with. With this kind of arrangement what advice do you have for Rwandan authors?

Neilson: I think the Ministry of Sports and Culture has a lot to do with this. I understand there is going to be a cultural village to be set up on the outskirts of Kigali and also understand there are plans for a theater here and people would love to get involved in that. Children themselves love plays and I believe even the new curriculum has cross-cutting classes on dance and music to help students be more creative.

Do you think the themes for writers on the continent expire quickly because they agitate for one thing and when it surfaces they become irrelevant?

Compstone: We talked about universality even on the stage where we enter and go off at some point.

Shakespeare also believed there are seven stages in life, for example, what happened in colonial times was a massive spark for many writers because they wanted a voice to speak about something and if people want to say something they find ways to do that. We all have some creativity; I prefer singing if I want to be creative but writers should find universal topics that can last.

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