A group of 12 puppeteers made up of Comedy Knight members and other entertainers in the creative industry are teaming up to take the entertainment industry in Rwanda a notch higher. The team led by comedian John Naifa Muyenzi, aka Babu, plan to use puppets not only to entertain people but also create awareness on different issues including the current pandemic. As puppet expert Steve Abrams puts it, “All objects have a story to tell, but puppets are objects with rare power.” The local artists therefore believe that using puppets in the world of entertainment, will not only add humour to what they do, but also carry and pass across important information. According to Babu, the German Embassy supported the initiative with seed funding to purchase the puppets, import them and with some local costumes. Comedian Babu (on the left) with the Germany Ambassador. According to Babu, the team had already been rehearsing with the puppets before the lockdown was enforced, and they hope to re-commence the workshops once covid-19 restrictions are lifted. “Our major goal is to find performance jobs soon for artists and others as well, for pure entertainment of not only children and adults, but also be hired for awareness campaigns throughout the country,” he says. The comedian adds that they will continue working with the embassy to create social media content. They also aspire to do several projects, such as content creation with other institutions. Before the lockdown, the comedian and other artists had already started doing tours in primary schools without puppets teaching pupils to respect the guidelines put across by the government to prevent covid-19, and also how to curb the spread of the virus. He explains that the team will be using human-like puppets, performing with the voices of the puppeteers,and sounds that will complete the story telling experience. The puppets also range from grandparents, a doctor, policeman, child, and many more. Although the focus now is on the kids, he says their aim is to target everyone so that the public is educated. How it came about The project of using puppets to entertain people has been there across the globe for decades, especially in European countries. Babu says he had the idea for a long time, and that it was only a matter of time before he put it into action. “I used to watch a Kenyan puppet show known as XYZ, it was so hilarious and it made me want to create something of the sort,” he says. With children, Muyenzi believes it will be of great impact as there isn’t a variety of local content produced for them locally. “The beauty about using puppets to entertain is the interaction between humans and puppets. What we are doing will feature both but it will introduce a new way of using the puppet where the puppeteer is hidden,” he adds. This, he says, is going to resonate with whoever will be watching since the stories that they are going to pick will be interesting, educative and entertaining at the same time.
