None On Record: Waafrika! (an original audio play)

In this week’s None on Record podcast we listen to Nick Mwaluko’s play WAAFRIKA (Part 1).

WAAFRIKA is set in a Kenyan village where Awino, the favorite daughter of a local tribal chief named Odhiambo, has left her home and gone to live with Bobby, a white woman and former Peace Corps volunteer who has decided to stay on in Kenya. Bobby is an out, and outspoken, lesbian; she wants Awino to embrace her new found sexual identity with vigor and pride. But Awino knows that while Bobby is buffered from the facts of African life by her American sense of privilege, such a step is fraught with peril. Homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty.

Playwright: Nick Mwaluko
letters@noneonrecord.com

Two women — one white, one black — fight to survive in a place where being gay is punishable by death. Written by African playwright Nick Mwaluko, Waafrika brings us into a frightening terrain giving a deeper dimension to the international struggle for lesbian and gay civil rights, as well as our world and ourselves.

WAAFRIKA

CAST OF CHARACTERS

AWINO: A Kenyan woman of extremely dark complexion; early twenties A boyish woman with a husky voice who often passes for a man. She wears army boots, men’s trousers, a man’s undershirt and a large over shirt to hide her small breasts. Her head is bald. She often wears a baseball cap.

BOBBY: A white American woman in her thirties. She is canonically attractive according to western feminine aesthetics and mannerisms. Feminine, delicate, petite, and ultra-sensitive yet tough against what she believes to be social injustice, particularly against marginalized communities.

CHIEF ODHIAMBO: A heavy-set Kenyan man in his late forties. He is stern in appearance and reverential in manner. He wears traditional clothes befitting his honored status as Chief. His clothes are brightly colored with lavish embroidery put together by fine gold thread. He walks majestically on stage with a staff-like wooden cane or walking stick in hand.

MAMA MUGABE: Chief’s second wife

MAMA OPIO: Chief’s fourth and youngest wife

Recorded in New York City

Photo Credit: Zanele Muholi
Photo Credit: Sulai Lopez (Nick Portraits)

Here is the cast of WAAFRIKA:

Zainab Jah (Awino)
Amanda Boekelheide (Bobby)
Ahmat Jallo (Chief)
Jennifer J. Joseph (Mama Mugabe)
Ebony JoAnn (Mama Opio)