Teaching society through drama

STEVEN TUMUSSIME meets Mukanyandwi and talks about her passion for drama “Our play talks about pretence or hypocrisy eating up our societies. Through the play, we expose such vices,” Alphonsine Mukanyandwi begins in an interview last week. Mukanyandwi is one of the characters in the play Haranirakubaho which was launched recently in Kigali. “The world is unfair and People kill themselves and sometimes you wonder why a man kills one another,” she says sadly. Through the play, we teach people to love each other. She says pretence and hypocrisy is dangerous because once people find out, enmity becomes the order of the day. “Yes, sometimes people laugh at us during the play and end up missing the message.” She says the play also focus on how to help people who live with diseases like AIDS or Tuberculosis by telling them that they can still live for some more years. She speaks about the Haranirakubaho with passion. “It’s an interesting play. When you begin watching it, you may not wish to go a way because it has some strong themes,” Mukanyanrwi says. Mukanyandwi is liked by many. I meet Mukanyandwi first in a taxi. Everybody in a taxi is excited to talk to her. She speaks loudly and makes us laugh. She repeats loudly: “Sometimes we talk in the play and people just laugh yet what we talk about is real.” Mukanyandwi tells me about her childhood. “It was a sad childhood and there are certain things I don’t want to remember. I always look a head,” she says. Ends