CHIPAWO and the Danish Fairy Tale

On 8 April 2005 CHIPAWO hosted a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of H. C. Andersen, the famous Danish writer of fairy tales at the National Art Gallery in Harare. A mixed crowd including several well-known Zimbabwean artists attended the event featuring a play, readings and musical performances.

Intercultural Cooperation
If somebody encounters difficulties in grasping the notion of “Intercultural Cooperation”, you can ask CHIPAWO for advice. For sure they know how to make use of and benefit from the mingling and mixing of different cultures across our planet. Their participation in the global celebrations of the life and works of H. C. Andersen clearly demonstrates CHIPAWO’s exposures to the outside world and their understanding of belonging to an international society. And obviously they want to play their part in it too.

The reason for CHIPAWO’s attraction to a Danish writer of children’s stories relates to their long-time partnerships with various Danish friends and organizations, namely the Danish Amateur Theatre Association, Danida and MS-Zimbabwe, as well as several visits to Denmark. This year again a theatre group with graduates from CHIPAWO will travel to Denmark to perform their play The Little Man of Murewa at an international theatre festival in October.

CHIPAWO celebrates Danish Fairy Tales
CHIPAWO appears to be the only African affiliate hosting an event to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. The official website (www.hca2005.com) for the celebrations taking place all over the world, is thus featuring Zimbabwe as the only nation from African continent.

The event was opened with a welcome speech by Mr. S. J. Chifunyise, Chairman of CHIPAWO, who told the audience of his first encounter with the renowned Danish writer when he visited Denmark for the first time. Following an introduction to the life and works of Hans Christian Andersen, the New Horizon Theatre Company went on stage to perform an extract of their play entitled The Little Man of Murewa”, which has been developed from one of H. C. Andersen’s fairy tales.

Later Dr. Robert McLaren, actor and director of CHIPAWO, read another of Andersen’s fairy tales - “The Emperor’s new clothes.” In order to give the audience a taste of the original language, a Danish development from MS-Zimbabwe read an extract of the same fairy tale in Danish.

The show was concluded a launch of Cool Steel, CHIPAWO’s new Steel Band and the first of its kind in Zimbabwe. The audience was obviously thrilled by the new musical sounds, and hopefully we will soon see Cool Steel performing at many other functions. 

“The Little Man of Murewa”
This play is based on the story of “Little Klaus and Big Klaus.” The Zimbabwean adaptation of the Danish fairy tale was written by Stephen Chifunyise and Robert McLaren.

The action is set in the rural district of Murewa in Zimbabwe. The principal part is played by two men of the same first name, Krausi. Va Krausi Chidamari (Lover of Money) and Va Krausi Wenyika (One of the People).

The story follows Andersen’s classic treatment of how the little and weak outwit the big and the foolish. But the play has integrated the moral into the realities of the Zimbabwean society. After his triumph, at the end of the play, Little Krausi, quoting Big Krausi’s words, says: “I thought that we now have the land, we must all work hard so that the country can prosper. But you always just wanted to get rich quick.”

This play will also be performed at the Harare International Festival of Arts.

“The Emperor’s new clothes”
Actor and director Robert McLaren performed a lively and witty reading of the fairy tale The Emperor’s new Clothes. At the end of this fairy tale, an innocent child unveils the truth of the Emperor’s new clothes being non-existent and thus reveals the fact that the king himself was too foolish to realize that he indeed was parading through town all naked!

The audience was asked to air their views and discuss the moral of the story. One comment underlined that one has to trust your own eyes and don’t take things others dictate for granted. Otherwise we risk that a whole people will be lead astray, right until a child tells us were to go! In essence this story tells us, that the rich, educated and powerful so-called ‘upper class’ is by no means wiser than the common man. In fact, sometimes a child gets closer to the truth of life than any grown up person.