20th December 2016
Cite this chapter:
Breed, A., Mukaka, A. (2016). Theatre for Survival: Art of Creation and Protection (Kubunda). In: Duggan, P., Peschel, L. (eds) Performing (for) Survival. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137454270_3
Abstract:
Tutsi artists-in-exile sought to use performance as a mode of cultural survival, both to preserve Tutsi culture in the countries of refuge and to fuel a militaristic return to Rwanda, ‘the land of milk and honey’. Performance was used to survive displacement and to create a utopian vision of Rwanda, the ancestral land that many young Tutsi refugees had never lived in nor experienced. In Ananda Breed’s interview with Rwandan playwright-essayist Jean-Marie Rurangwa on 25 April 2006 in Kigali he stated: ‘I wrote poems and plays to sensitise the diaspora to go back to their homeland. I have played a big role in Rwandans coming home’. Many of these artists took refuge in neighbouring countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at various historical points when Tutsi were hunted down to be killed, including 1959, 1973 and the genocide against Tutsi in 1994.