Establishing Puppetry as an Artistic and Cultural Medium in Eastern Africa

According to this article, efforts to establish puppetry as an artistic and cultural medium in Eastern Africa, beginning from Kenya, are at an advanced stage. The author defines puppetry as the art of narration in which the story unfolds through the use of images, sound and movement. In February 2004 Kenya hosted the second International Puppetry Festival in Nairobi dubbed "Edupuppets 2004, a puppetry festival combining performances with skills-development workshops". According to this article, puppetry is being used by approximately 750 puppeteers across Kenya to create awareness about diverse issues such as AIDS, malaria, prostitution, reproductive health, civic education, environmental conservation, and corruption. Performers act as conversation starters or catalysts promoting discussions, seeking solutions and acting on problems.

Bojan Baric of Puppet Theatre Sampo of Finland said humans can create a positive vision of the world using puppet theatre. "By using theatre puppets we can learn to accept and respect cultural differences, " he said. And Singapore-based Bocic-Stanisic contributed, "Puppetry is one of the best means of communication as it enables people to pass across messages they otherwise would not communicate due to cultural inappropriateness, taboos or embarrassment."

However, the author and organisers of Edupuppets 2004 have found that there are a great number of challenges to using puppetry in East Africa. According to the article, unlike Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have neither a tradition of puppetry nor any professional puppet theatre companies. Edupuppets 2004 coordinator, Lawrence Keboga, said Kenyans had helped train artists from Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia in puppet theatre and Keboga was hopeful that the genre would take root in the region. However, despite the benefits Kenya stands to gain from puppet theatre, the organisers stated that the Nairobi City Council had denied them permits for mounting publicity banners around the city that would have invited participants to the event. Keboga said, "Puppet theatre may not be African, strictly speaking. But its visual value integrates the oral nature of all Africans." Taking issue with the mass media for being apathetic to the genre, Keboga said, “They haven’t understood the nature and dynamics of puppet theatre due to the newness of the genre here."

Another issue noted in this article is that puppetry is sometimes perceived to be only suitable for children. This means puppeteers must work extremely hard in cultivating an adult audience for this genre of the performing arts. Edupuppets 2004 sought to showcase new works in puppet and object theatre as well as to feature puppet art skills and development workshops to enhance the skills of puppeteers and puppetry appreciation by the public in entertainment, education and therapy.