Coastweek story on Migritude

From the current issue of Coastweek:

"POWERFUL CANTOR OF OUR KENYAN BEING"

Poetry come alive. Dynamic movement and sound. Rich compelling images.

Stunning saris. Acting infused with beauty and power, that wakes you like the shock of cold water.

This is Migritude, Shailja Patel's one-woman spoken word theatre production.

After a standing-ovation world premiere in San Francisco, and packed shows in Italy and Vienna, Migritude is on a Kenyan tour, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.

It will be presented at the Aga Khan Academy, Likoni, on Friday June 22nd and Saturday June 23rd, from 7,00 p.m.

All proceeds of the show will go to the Red Cross relief effort for survivors of the recent coastal floods.

A third generation East African Asian, Patel is also a daughter of the Swahili Coast, with a father born and raised in Pemba, Zanzibar, and a mother born and raised in Mombasa.

In Migritude, she appears on stage carrying a battered red suitcase, which holds her trousseau of eighteen heirloom saris.

In the 65 minutes that follow, the saris are unfolded, to reveal hidden histories of Empire in Kenya and India, from the late 19th century to the present.

The word 'Migritude', a play on Negritude and Migrant Attitude, asserts the dignity of outsider status.

'Migritude' lays open the experience of imperialism and colonization, the demise of the hopes of independence, in a remarkably honest story of one Kenyan 'wahindi' family.

CNN describes Shailja as "the face of people-centered globalization."

The San Francisco Chronicle calls her "A Voice of History."

Feature articles on her work in the Kenyan press, laud her performances as "mind-blowing and thought-provoking," "defiant and courageous", and "master of the spoken word."

The story of the so-called 'Asians' of East Africa has been told many times before from various perspectives.

But Migritude is something completely new in Kenya: political history told from a personal perspective.

It re-asserts the history of all Kenyans - the history we did not learn in school - in theatre that is hilarious, beautiful, heartbreaking.

Yvonne Awuor, Kenyan winner of the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing, says Patel:

"opens Kenyan wounds to the winds of truth which actually soothe.

"She causes us all to contemplate our place, descriptions of each other, roles and history.

"Shailja is a powerful cantor of our Kenyan being."