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Mthabisi Tshuma, [email protected]

CENTRE For Talent Development (C.T.D) will this year use the Day of The African Child commemorated annually on June 16 to celebrate children in Africa as well as to inspire action toward addressing challenges that children in Africa face on a daily basis.

Through its popular platform, Literature Performance Based Workshops, the theatre organisation will this year stage two theatre performances at the Bulawayo Theatre.

The Day of the African Child was first instituted in 1991 in memory of the 16th June 1976 student uprising in Soweto, South Africa. Known as the Soweto uprising, an estimated 20,000 students took part in the protests against the poor quality of education they received and demanded to be taught in their own languages. The police fired teargas and live ammunition on demonstrating students and the official count is that 176 protesters were killed, but actual estimates are much higher.

The two pieces to be showcased on the day are entitled Shadows on the Horizon, an adaptation of Stephen Mpofu’s collection of short stories, and the hit play by the late Bertha Msora, I will wait.

C.T.D director, an award-winning playwright, Thabani  Moyo said: “We believe the gathering will help to create mass awareness of the Day of the African child and the role of the young people in the development of Zimbabwe. Young people make up the greater part of the cast because one of the organisation’s objectives is Youth Empowerment through performing arts.

“The motivation is to remember the lives of those young people who died fighting for an education that will improve black lives by taking ordinary level learners and teachers to Bulawayo Theatre so that they can share and learn in a different environment,” he said.

TH Moyo said as C.T.D, they believe that this will give the learners an opportunity to revisit what they learnt in the class and interact with peers from different schools.

“After the performances, learners will engage in live educational debate. They will cross-pollinate ideas. June 16 performances are also in line with taking the performances on a country-wide tour that will end in October when learners sit for examinations. As C.T.D, we believe that these tours will boost the appreciation and consumption of literature by our young people.

“Young learners will also appreciate the power of theatre when integrated into the learning process. As C.T.D we will take time to remember and promote educational rights of children in Zimbabwe and in Africa in general,” he said. – @mthabisi_mthire