kweku Daniel Etsibah

DAAKYI :  ON THE THRESHOLD OF A NEW CENTURY

Once again a new day is with us a new dawn of  opportuinties challeneges and indeed of realisations. Realisation that ‘tide and market come and go’ and the only thing really constant in this ever changing world is change itself! These thoughts rush through my mind on each new year eve and when ever I hear the word “daakye” from the Twi language of the Akan people of Ghana meaning “future”.

Daakye is said to be the synthesis of many ideas and the deep meaning embedded there in deserves my focus at this juncture.

 

Much as “da” means day hence another page another occasion the word “daa” also captures this idae and stretches it yet to another level that means “everyday”. “kye” means “break” and also “capture”, “catch” or “to make static”. All these ideas are juggled in my mind each time I hear the word thus I reinterprete it in my mind thus the codification of a means that captures the everyday and yet has the dynamism to break existing barriers to recreate new ones that embrace new challenges of the next day.  I guess it bothers on and exists in that continuum: the juxtaposing of opposites in that paradoxical paradigm that plagues human existence too.

 

There is one moment that has always presented this word more vividly to me not because it was placed side by side theatre but it possed a provoking thought.  After each TFD project I have thought to my self when we re-visit in the future -daakye will we see this problem solved? This discourse led me into the daakye of the Tfd form itself with the fast development and urbanisation of our African communities. In this I possed attest question in my thesis as to how TFD will thrive in such a communitie in Ghana ie Airport or Cantonments.  These communities are well endowed with infrastructure and good sanitation which often than not seems to be the focus of many projects. Of course their problem would be different and so the approach than a rather street / open performance since its a more individualistic settlement. I am sure in Anyinsah’s attempt to employ this concept in the UK he must have faced these challenges. But my concern really has been how can we use Tfd to address other personal developmental problems that bother on emotions, ideologies-racism, etc.

 

 I believe that even in the Ghanaian traditional communities these personal development problems exist although the larger social problems engulf them but made bare in developed countries where infrastructure etc seems to be already solved. In this I still see the key in theatre. theatre in its broadest sense as finds root in the African communities the composite form of dance, poetry, music, dance, etc. Indeed I know that there exists music therapy that seeks to heal etc through music. My association with the Bible reveals this ancient art in the King Saul and David encounter as recorded in 1 Samuel 18:10. I know also of dance therapy among others and I personally attest to how my introduction to dance freed me off many inhibitions. My experience with Oh Nii Kwei Sowah  with a project termed “Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges” in the United States and in the Institute of African Studies have revealed how the traditional games etc have also contributed to aid racial tolerance and intermingling etc.

 

Having said that I also need to make mention of the role of Instant Theatre as practiced by R.C. Gregory and his Word and Action organisation is able to use theatre to enter into the reserves of its audience to draw up their past experiences-not personal necessarrily. His volumous story trends gathered like Zodiac among others attest to this. It also captures the fantasies and imaginative ability of its audience in short it captures the pysche of its audience. This is in many ways similar to what exists in our communities where the storytellers plot is often times altered by the participating audience who intrude to introduce a new line.

 

This millieu then present me with the the power of theatre in many situations, it is based on this knowledge and facing the future -daakye that I seek to explore another dimension of tfd which also addresses the inner contents of the communities as opposed to the outer. This is not to belittle any part since indeed we are both but my aim really is to explore the dynamism of this approach in Ghana with such concerns. For often times TFD has been seen just as mere art but I beleive it is a science also that is therapuetiv and should be in many respectives share approaches with psychology-clinical or industrial. The pysiological exercises embedded in the delicate steps of the dance, the aerobics synthesised into the rhythm and the games sequences of games that bother on concentration etc is a viable tool to heal.

 

In this I declare that TFD is also therapuetic and a component of Theatre-therapy. Looking into daakye I see the addressing of such issues by students and pratitioners in Ghana and Africa as a whole as we begin to get out of the outside and work our way inside! Indeed after a great storytelling session we go inside to sleep feeling cured and educated we go into the unknown sleep and await the birth of the next day when we will appropraiate our acquired and accrued knowledge. As it is dark now, perhaps its time to go inside and see how I fare with this new trail! Daakye will tell!