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Theatre as Action: Imagining Peace and Stability in South Omo (2020)

A film by Olisarali Olibui, Tesfahun Hailu, Shauna LTosky, Alexandra Genova and Ben Young: Theatre as Action: Imagining Peace and Stability in South Omo

This collaborative project between researchers and creative artists uses performance and theatre to explore and imagine what political representation and integration of ethnic groups in Ethiopia might look like against the backdrop of radical reforms and recently renewed commitment to democratisation. The project focuses on the Mursi (Mun), a group in the peripheral areas of Southern Ethiopia who have never had a Member of Parliament in the House of Peoples’ Representatives and remain excluded from local, regional and national politics.

Olisarali is a local leader who travelled to Australia to learn English. He returned with a video camera which he used to portray Mun life and culture. Olisarali then participated in an intensive theatre training workshop, organised by Wolkite University and the South Omo Theatre Company, which became a milestone in his theatre training and where he experimented with song and storytelling as a medium for teaching others about his culture and people. Olisarali is now working with Tesfahun Hailu, from Mekelle University, to script and stage a play written in the Mun language, and performed by Mun people, at the national theatre in Addis Ababa. This film depicts the first stages.