Atem drama, whose victory?

For Ignatious Kaphinde, leaving the corridors of Tsabango Secondary School in 2007 after sitting his Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) pushed him away from the glory of being a star in the annual Association of Teaching English in Malawi (Atem) secondary schools drama competition, but it was never.

Kaphinde helped his school register three consecutive victories in 2005, 2006 and 2007 as national schools drama champions. Despite being main actor, it was his scripts and directing that made his school kings of the stage.

To maintain the love he had with school drama, Kaphinde in 2008 adopted SOS Secondary School as its director, taking the institution to be among finalists in the Atem schools national drama competition where it finished fourth.

This year, Kaphinde returned in Atem with Kaliyeka Community Day Secondary school where he wrote and directed the play titled The Confession, taking it from the zonal, regional to national finals.

Kaliyeka now flies the Atem flag after coming out champions during the national finals held at the Don Bosco Secondary School Hall in Lilongwe recently.

“It feels great that your script and directing wins a competition like Atem. In any competition you plan to win and when I win it tells me where I am and this boasts my curriculum vitae and confidence that I can do more,” says Kaphinde who has also produced The Black Angel and The darkest Hour movies with the Msonkhamanja Transformation Theatre.

But in a competition, which also wants to develop the students’ talent, who owns the glory when a director and playwright who was outsourced wins a school a championship?

Kaphinde believes he owns the victory being the owner of the script and director of the play. However, he is not the only outsider who writes stage play scripts for schools participating in Atem competition because rarely do students perform these roles. Usually, it is the teachers and outsiders.

Renowned actors such as Macarthur Matukuta have been approached several times to assist some schools.

But drama lecturer at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, Smith Likongwe, says the practice of engaging outsiders does not do justice to the competition.

“Atem rules allow schools to source plays from books and any other sources and encourage students and teachers to help in creating scripts and directing the plays. However, it does not encourage use of outsiders in writing scripts and directing plays, but it is happening. Unfortunately, this happens to a competition whose objective is to groom actors. These actors will need script writers and we need to allow them write and direct their own plays. In that way, we create a better future for the theatre industry,” says Likongwe.

He argues that when an outsider’s play triumphs, victory belongs to the outsider because whatever the students do on stage is the plan of the playwright and director.

Hudson Kelvin Gareta, drama patron at Likuni Boys Secondary School, says it is high time students took over responsibility of producing script and directing their own plays.

He says he doesn’t believe the students have benefited much in many years he has written plays and directed for the institution.

“It feels good to me that I have won because the fact remains that it is my play that has own. We only share the success when we consider stage performance by the students and it represents individual talent ignited by the script writer. The rules say actors and teachers should work together and we can just be monitors as we watch the students write and perform their plays. This will also promote equal competition because nowadays you see people coming to sell their plays to schools,” says Gareta.

Former Atem vice-president Humphrey Magunda says there is no reason for outsiders or teachers to write plays for the students. He says the objective of the competition is to nurture the students into playwrights and directors.

“There was a circular communication which all participating schools got and I wonder that this is still happening,” says Magunda.

Atem president Fanuel Mapira blamed it on the rules of the competition, which do not precsibe who should write plays.

“As Atem, what we want is that students should write and direct the plays with the help of patrons. We write letters before the kick-off of the competition in which we ask schools to use plays written by students but this is being disregarded. It’s hard because even if we emphasise on that, they can cheat us by use of fake names on the script,” Mapira said.

Lifting the Lid on HIV and Aids

Circumcision does not promote risky behaviour by African men

With Muza Gondwe

Malawi slept on scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision despite conclusive evidence that circumcision can reduce the risk of female to male HIV transmission by up to 60 percent. One of the reasons was the perception in the higher ups of the HIV unit, I particularly remember Mary Shawa’s statements, the then Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and Aids in the President’s office, pointed to a reluctance to promote circumcision fearing it would lead to men falsely believing that circumcision provided complete protection from HIV transmission and, therefore, would increase risky behaviour.

A recently published study conducted in Kenya allays these fears. Conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago researchers, the study found that men do not engage in riskier behaviour after they are circumcised.

The study, published in the journal Aids and Behaviour, is the first large study to assess risk and male circumcision. The study was conducted during the implementation of the national, voluntary medical circumcision programme in Kenya. From 2008 to 2010, 3 186 uncircumcised men from Nyanza Province participated in the study. Half were circumcised and the other half chose to remain uncircumcised.

The men, between 18 and 35 years old, were assessed every six months for two years. They were asked about their perceived risk of acquiring HIV, sexual behaviour, and condom use. All participants, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, were encouraged to attend HIV testing and counselling services at clinics where they were exposed to HIV educational videos playing in the waiting areas. Participants did not receive direct risk-reduction counselling during visits.

Sexual activity increased equally in the circumcised and uncircumcised men, particularly among the youngest, those 18-24 years old. But despite an increase in sexual activity, all other sexual risk behaviour declined in both groups, and condom use increased. Risky behaviour, which included engaging in sex in exchange for money or gifts, sex with a casual partner, or having multiple sex partners, declined considerably among both groups.

Men who were circumcised often perceived they had lessened their risk of acquiring HIV. Thirty percent considered themselves high- risk before circumcision while just 14 percent considered themselves so after. Among those who chose not to be circumcised, 24 percent considered themselves high-risk at the beginning of the study and 21 percent still did at the end. However, the differences in perception of risk did not translate into differences in risky behaviour over the two years of the study.

The researchers suggest that this study “provides the best evidence to date that concerns about risk compensation should not impede widespread implementation of voluntary male medical circumcision programmes.”