ASSITEJ In Africa

ASSITEJ was established in 1965, as a global alliance linking thousands of theatres, organisations and individuals working in the field of theatre for children and young people.

ACYTA (African Children and Youth Theatre Arena) is an African regional network linking all the Assitej centres situated in Africa. It was established in this form in 2007, but it has a longer history, which goes back to the beginnings of ASSITEJ in 1965 and to efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s to build national centres of ASSITEJ in Africa.

1999 – 2005

The initial efforts to establish a network of ASSITEJ centres in Africa were made by ASSITEJ Zimbabwe (also known as Zimbabwe Association of Theatre for Children and Young People – ZATCYP), which, in June 1999, hosted what was then called SATCYP 99 (SATCYP – Southern African Theatre for Children and Young People Conference). The key figures in ZATCYP who ensured the success of the event included the late Tisa Chifunyise, the Administrator for ZATCYP secretariat and who was also one of the vice presidents of ASSITEJ International, having been voted for at the 1999 ASSITEJ World Congress in Tromso, Norway. Others were: Dr Robert Maclaren, Elizabeth Kabasa, Abdul Makaza and Norman Takawira.

SATCYP, as the name suggests, was intended for Southern African countries, particularly those belonging to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These included: Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania. However, very soon the work was expanded to other countries, and with the support of the then Secretary General of ASSITEJ, Niclas Malmcrona, funding was found from SIDA (the Swedish International Development Agency) to fund the regional network programmes over a period of 9 years.

In December 1999, ZATCYP hosted the ASSITEJ International Executive Committee in Harare. Again, they invited countries from the southern African region. However, they also invited artists from East Africa to join them: Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The membership eventually spread to West Africa with Cameroon and Nigeria becoming part of the network.

In the next years, a number of African countries were able to formally register ASSITEJ centres and make positive progress in their work and programmes. The SIDA funding through ASSITEJ Sweden helped to strengthen the network and its programmes.

Several meetings and workshops were held in various parts of the region. These included: Durban (South Africa – meeting), Kampala (Uganda – workshop), Nairobi (Kenya – meeting), Mauritius (meeting/workshop), Windhoek (Namibia – workshop), Lusaka (Zambia – meeting/workshops), Cape Town (South Africa – meeting), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania – meeting), Ezulwini, Swaziland (meeting), and Johannesburg, South Africa (meeting/workshop).

The first major participation by the region in an ASSITEJ World Congress, was at the 14th World Congress in Seoul, South Korea, in July 2002. The regional meeting held in Durban, South Africa, in early 2002 decided that not all centres could be represented in Seoul due to the limited amount of funds available. Therefore only the following countries were represented: Zambia (Cheela Chilala), Namibia (Frederick Philander), Cameroon (Etoundi Zeyang), Kenya (Ricky Gitahi), Uganda (Jackson Ndawula), Tanzania (Philemon Mwasanga), and Zimbabwe (Elizabeth Kabasa).

After the congress, Cheela Chilala and Jackson Ndawula were co-opted into the newly elected executive committee. The reason for the co-option was that a number of people had been put forward as candidates from Africa; this split the vote and no one received the required number of votes to be able to stand as a full EC member.

2005 – 2008

The region was represented at the 15th World Congress in Montreal, Canada, in September 2005, by the following persons: Cheela Chilala (Zambia), Hope Azeda (Rwanda), Jackson Ndawula (Uganda), Etoundi Zeyang (Cameroon), Onkemetse Clark (Botswana), and David Ndjavera (Namibia). At the congress, Cheela Chilala was elected as one of the three vice presidents of ASSITEJ INTERNATIONAL, while Hope Azeda was elected as a member of the executive committee (2005-2008).

In 2007, a meeting was held in Swaziland (Eswatini). Niclas Malmcrona announced at this meeting that the funding from SIDA was coming to an end and that there needed to be a decision about how the regional network would continue (or not). It was decided that the African centres would rally together to continue the network under a new name, and the name ACYTA (African Children and Youth Theatre Arena) was adopted by the network.

ASSITEJ South Africa which had been founded in July 2007 immediately joined ACYTA. Later in November of the same year, a meeting (and workshop) was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. At this time, elections were held to choose members of the Coordinating Committee of ACYTA. The following were elected: Cheela Chilala, Zambia (Chairperson), Hope Azeda, Rwanda (Vice Chairperson), Sandile Ndzimande, Swaziland (Treasurer), Yvette Hardie, South Africa (Communications Officer).

2008 – 2017

In the 2008-2011 term, the African candidates serving on the ASSITEJ Executive Committee were Yvette Hardie (South Africa), who served as Treasurer of the international association, and Hope Azeda (Rwanda).

A regular newsletter was introduced to report on members’ activities. A website was also developed for ACYTA, with the capacity for each member to update their country profile. This was paid for and maintained by ASSITEJ South Africa. A facebook group was also started in 2009, called African Children and Youth Theatre Arena. This group is still functional.

There were meetings of ACYTA in 2009 and 2010 in South Africa, and at the May 2011 World Congress and Performing Arts Festival, two Africans were again elected to the Executive Committee. They were Etoundi Zeyang (Cameroon) and Yvette Hardie (South Africa). Yvette was elected by the General Assembly as President of ASSITEJ, the first African president in the history of the organisation. There was a full delegation of African delegates to the 2011 Congress, which included Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana (on last day), Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe. The following proxies where held: Mali to Benin, Togo to Cameroon, Angola to South Africa. Observers were Pamela Udoka (Nigeria) and Roman Kanobana (Rwanda)

At the meeting in 2011, the following ACYTA leadership was elected: Etoundi Zeyang (Chair) and Yvette Hardie (Deputy Chair).

In 2012 ACYTA met at the FATEJ festival in Yaounde, Cameroon, and in 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2014, ACYTA members met at the ASSITEJ World Congress in Warsaw, Poland, where Yvette Hardie was re-elected as President of the Association. Unfortunately there were no other Africans elected to serve on the Executive Committee. As a result of this fact, it was decided to engage a series of rotating counsellors from Africa to the EC. People who served in this capacity included: Phylemon Odihambo (Kenya), Pamela Udoka (Nigeria), and Hamadi Dimassi (Tunisia).

Projects involving ACYTA between 2014-2017 included:

From Idea to Action (ASSITEJ Zimbabwe, ASSITEJ Mozambique, ASSITEJ Zambia, ASSITEJ South Africa, ASSITEJ Sweden): 2015 – creation and touring of new productions about children’s rights

African Youth Theatre and Dance Festival (June 2015): participation from Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria, and Cameroon – writing and performance of new plays for children

EC Meeting at FATEJ festival, Cameroon, with participation from Tunisia – in collaboration with ASSITEJ, a playwriting workshop was held

Magnet Theatre’s Early Years Project (South Africa), which involved sharing a process of making work for very young children – this introduced a number of African practitioners to this work from across the continent and resulted in new productions for early years, a number of which were showcased at the 2017 World Congress.

Cradle of Creativity, the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival, May 2017, Cape Town – the first major ASSITEJ event to be held on the African continent – an ACYTA meeting and Shaping Stories (a playwriting workshop for French-speaking African playwrights) were elements within the broader programme. There was participation from 642 South African and African delegates and artists coming from Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The participation of these African and South African delegates/artists was made possible with thanks to Pro Helvetia, Goethe Institut, RMB, Wesgro, the National Research Foundation, the provincial governmental departments of Limpopo, Northern Cape, Western Cape and Free State, ASSITEJ (international), IFAS and Scenes d’Enfance.

This was of course the largest delegation of African delegates at a Congress to date. An ACYTA meeting was held at the Congress, where plans were made for further collaboration, but no elections were held at that time. It was decided to retain the present leadership of ACYTA.

2017 -2024

For the 2017-2021 term of the Executive Committee, two Africans are elected to serve. Yvette Hardie (South Africa) served her final term as President, and Pamela Udoka (Nigeria) was elected to the EC.

During this period, ACYTA meetings were held at Cradle of Creativity festivals in 2017 and 2019.

Of course, COVID would have a devastating impact on African centres of ASSITEJ and on theatre for young audiences globally. A series of online presentations of ASSITEJ centres were held by ASSITEJ SA during COVID. These can be found archived on the ASSITEJ SA Facebook page. They allowed for us to be introduced to each of the African national centres of ASSITEJ and to hear about how each country was coping with the pandemic.

There was also a continental storytelling project which was driven by ASSITEJ South Africa, called Stimela Sendaba, which invited storytellers from a number of countries to record traditional stories for performance at the National Arts festival and online.

A whatsapp group was created (ASSITEJ in AFRICA) to facilitate communication between African centres and to ensure that new African artists were brought into the conversation.

For the 2021-2024 term of the Executive Committee, Pamela Udoka (Nigeria) took up the role of Vice-President and Lalu (Selloane) Mokuku was elected from South Africa. Yvette Hardie stepped down as President (with Sue Giles from Australia taking over), but continued in the role of ASSITEJ South Africa Director.

ASSITEJ delegates from 16 African countries met at the Cradle of Creativity in August 2023, for the Babel project – “The Art of Listening in TYA” and in May 2024, a group of African delegates representing ACYTA and ASSITEJ in Africa, met in Cuba at the ASSITEJ World Congress, where they released the Cuba statement.

At this meeting in Cuba it was determined that there should be a revitalisation of the ACYTA network and that new leadership and structures were needed.

For the term 2024-2027, Selloane Mokuku (South Africa) has been appointed Vice-President of ASSITEJ, and Carole Karamera (Rwanda) has been elected to the Executive Committee.