2015 marked the 40th year of Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara, which caused thousands of Sahrawi people to seek refuge in the Algerian Sahara desert. An estimated 165,000 Sahrawi refugees now live in the Tindouf Camps, yet their situation is little known in the UK. On the 9th November 2015 I organised a conference alongside Kaya Hayon-Davies to explore the situation and the role that the arts are playing in the struggle for liberation at the University of Manchester. Dr Alice Wilson, from the University of Durham provided a useful introduction to the situation, and David Stothard and Becky Finlay-Hall – directors of Olive Branch Arts (http://olivebranch-arts.com/) – spoke about their theatre and drama-based projects in the refugee camps. Becky Warnock, Projects Manager at PhotoVoice, was also invited to speak about a participatory photography project she ran with children in the camps in 2011. I’m not an expert on the situation, and also want to avoid speaking for those who are deeply entrenched in this conflict. I’d urge you to check out the films Sons of the Clouds: Africa’s Last Colony and The Runner. Both give much deeper insights to the conflict than I can hope to. A few blogs also exist, such as Sahrawi Voice and Sahrawi Women – both are maintained by refugees living in the Tindouf camps.
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I was really excited last week to find out that a funding application I had put into ACE and the British Council's Artists' International Development Fund has been successful!! If you're interested in working internationally, take a look and apply - it's a really fantastic opportunity to get collaborating with others across the globe. I've been talking to Maxwel Okuto from Amani People's Theatre in Kenya for quite a while now - initially I was just hoping to find out more about their work. But, as we kept emailing back and forth the initial ideas for a collaboration between us starting forming. The funding will enable Maxwel to come to the UK later this year, and for me to travel to Kenya. Amani People's Theatre was founded in 1994, and focuses on using theatre in peace education, conflict resolution and reconciliation. This will be a fantastic opportunity for me to develop my own practice here in the UK and overseas - especially given APT's focus on drawing on Kenyan performance forms. More news on exactly what we'll be doing to follow!!
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Bobby SmithI'm a theatre maker and community educator, working mainly through applied theatre and Theatre for Development but also film and photography. Currently researching for a PhD, and looking for reasons to procrastinate...this blog is one... Archives
May 2017
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