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Karl Schembri
In the year and a half he has been in Malta, 12 months of them detained at the Hal Safi barracks, Erick Nyandu has read with astonishment all the angry and hateful things said about immigrants in the press.
With not much of a voice to counter the tidal wave of racism, he and his fellow refugees have endured the relentless onslaught in silence, and at times fear.
Now, together with eleven other men and women from Congo residing at the Marsa Open Centre, he has decided to break the silence, with drums.
I meet them at the Drama Centre in Blata l-Bajda, where today they will be holding their last performance of Katanga! – a lively and colourful theatrical piece celebrating African tribal music and traditions. But tonight’s show is only the beginning of a great project they would like to launch.
“Most of the people do not understand who we are, what happened in our lives, why we’re here,” Nyandu, who works on a construction site, says. “Integration for us is a bit hard, and I know that normally it is very difficult to get people to listen, but we’re doing this because through music and drama people can understand quickly, and I think that if we show the people what we are, they will open their door.”
It is an uphill climb, combating intolerance, irrational fears and outright hatred, but Nyandu and his group are determined to take their show out in the open, with pride.
“We want to go to schools and hotels, we would like to reach out and show as many people as possible our music and traditions, our feelings and stories. For example many people do not know that in our culture it is the bridegroom who pays for the wedding, not the bride as is the tradition here.”
That is why in the piece called “Petite Cherie”, which is “all about flirting”, a man is so attracted to a married woman that he declares to her that if she was to have him he would be more than happy to pay back everything that was given to her at her own wedding. She refuses flatly.
Other pieces are about war and love, hunting, tribal conflicts, death and hope.
Theatre director and Drama Centre coordinator Mario Azzopardi, who is one of the producers of Katanga!, says it is about time to stand up to the wave of racism.
“Just coming for the show is a statement of solidarity at this point,” he said. “We want to pay homage to the expressive, creative power of the Africans whom fate pushed on our shores. This project is a statement in favour of their inalienable right to express their own culture, and a statement of solidarity with black people who are unfortunately the victims of prejudice and misconceptions.”
Today’s show starts at 7pm.
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/04/16/editorial.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/22005/10/23/t3.html
www.integrafoundation.org
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