Dedan Kimathi, the man whose name struck fear in the colonial settler community is rarely portrayed as vulnerable. The legacy of the Kenyan independence hero depicts a man who is tough through and through.
Well, that’s until today (October 25,2024) when the soft side of the revered Mau Mau leader will come out on stage at the Woodcreek School theatre in a play that runs to October 27.
Using guerrilla tactics, he led a resistance campaign that culminated in Kenya’s independence. Over the years his legacy has
The play, directed by Lewis Xavier seeks to go beyond the typical heroic narrative and delve into the emotional turmoil that shaped the independence struggle leader.
“My style of telling stories is not from a heroic perspective, but rather to see the human side of these heroes. We focus more on Dedan the hero, but we don’t understand what he went through to become that hero and voice of reason,” Mr Xavier says.
Dedan Kimathi, the military and spiritual leader of the Mau Mau uprising, is often remembered as a towering symbol of Kenya’s resistance against British colonial rule.
His arrest and execution were celebrated by the colonial regime, marking what they thought was the end of the independence struggle.
But Mr Xavier’s exploration is about the man who experienced immense psychological and emotional torment during the fight for freedom.
His interest in bringing this personal side of Dedan Kimathi to life began when he realised how fragmented and scarce the history about him was.
“We have built up from different narratives because you’ll notice that whatever research we collect from different sources is varied, based on personal opinions and perspectives. Combining all those different stories to create one imagination is what we did. I can’t confidently say that we got the story 100 percent accurate, but it is based on the footprints left by Dedan,” he says.
For Namiri Chiroma, who plays the role of Dedan Kimathi, embodying such a complex character required him to connect with his own vulnerabilities, an unusual and challenging task.
“I had to tap into my emotions, which is something I don’t really do that often because it’s a taboo for men to get ’emotional’,” he says.
To fully immerse himself in the legend’s mental state, Namiri visited Karura Forest caves, a place similar to where Mau Mau fighters like Kimathi once hid and strategised. It was in this setting that he began to grasp the weight of Kimathi’s struggles emotional, mental, and physical.
“For you to become a leader and a fighter, you need to also become a man. And becoming a man is about the struggles, the hardships you go through, how it affects you mentally, and how these emotions can overwhelm you and break you,” he says.
Namiri hopes his portrayal of Dedan Kimathi will resonate with today’s generation, especially Gen Z.
“I hope that my generation understands what Dedan Kimathi went through and how he did.”
Meanwhile, Loreta Joachim, the student production director, has been diving deep into historical research to capture the essence of Dedan Kimathi and his contemporaries.
“Although there is not too much information, I picked what I could. I went to multiple websites to learn about the other main characters, the setting, and the time. So, I could be a bit knowledgeable about what those people were doing,” she says.
Loreta is a self-proclaimed literature nerd who has found comfort in theatre while living away from her family for the first time.
The play presents a significant challenge for the young cast, as Mr Xavier notes, but it is a necessary one.
“You need to teach them that there are people who have gone beyond them, before them, and what they would term as limits just to advocate for justice, for rights, and equity,” he says.
