The theatre in Black Africa is a social activity which usually concerns everyone in the society as a collective. In traditional African Society, the theatre helped to bring about the control and the integration of communal feelings and beliefs by promoting the acceptance of common values. During the colonial era, the African theatre was used as a weapon to deal with the excesses of the colonial regimes. Since independence in the 1960's, the focus of most theatrical productions has been on the problems of nation-building. This study describes the operations of the Chikwakwa Theatre from 1969 to 1979 against the background of the massive social transformation taking place in Zambia, generated by the national ideology of Humanism.
The Chikwakwa Theatre has made its contribution to nation-building in Zambia by launching a popular theatre movement aimed at developing and taking to the local people drama which reflects Zambian social reality. The programs of rural drama workshops and the traveling theatre tours form the core of the Chikwakwa Theatre's activities.
The Chikwakwa plays are constructed in the manner of agit-props and have simple plots and themes which are presented with minimum complexity. The Chikwakwa productions address local problems in order to raise the level of socio-political awareness of the mass of the people.
The audience reaction to the activities of the Chikwakwa Theatre has been favorable. The audiences are mainly students, workers and peasants who are mostly spontaneous in their reactions.
This study helps to establish the following: First, there is a growing theatre consciousness on the part of the masses in Zambia. Second, the medium of the live theatre is being used to develop critical awareness among the people and also to foster the Zambian revolution. Third, the attempt to use the theatre to propagate self-dignity, national unity and self-reliance, is a clear indication of a realization by Zambians that a high level of socio-political awareness is a prerequisite for any meaningful modernization.
