Theatre for peace in East Africa: The quest for ‘cosmic equilibrium’

Abstract

Theatre for peace as a practice has been used in post-war and other situations of violence in East Africa. However, it has not received as much scholarly attention as other applied theatre forms that target health issues such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, civic education and human rights and ‘development’. An international theatre for peace workshop that took place in Kisumu in 2011, organized by Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Entwicklungshilfe (AGEH) from Germany, spurred me to begin thinking seriously about the manifestation(s) of theatre for peace in East Africa. This article is part of that thinking, and sets out to map out some activities in the region.