By Boera Bisieri
Published May 16, 2018
“If you have to persuade people to believe that art can be a career option or that the arts are important, then there is a problem,” Daisy Okoti, a writer, says.
It is to tackle concerns such as the ones Okoti raises here that Sanaa Talks (Art Speaks or Conversation on Creativity), an interactive television show that brings creative people and consumers of the arts together to discuss the status of the creative sector in Kenya not only exists but also goes into the second season from May 16, 2018.
Cecimercy Wanza, the producer of Sanaa Talks that airs on Kenya’s Kenyatta University Television (KU TV), contend that society needs to appreciate art more and that the best way to do this is for people to understand the challenges that artists go through just to entertain society.
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Wanza explains the idea behind the show is to demystify the arts by bringing the audience behind the curtains so they may have a better understanding of the makers of art.
“I believe holding talks about art and shedding more light on it is giving society a refined understanding of what art is and what it takes to produce it. This goes a long way to making them appreciate art and artists,” Wanza says.
Season two of Sanaa Talks is eliciting excitement among creative people.
“Anything that exports our trade to persons who do not understand our trade is definitely most welcome. Sanaa Talks is that thing,” says Steve Maunda, a movie director.
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Talking about art is just as necessary as it is important. Conversations create awareness and awareness triggers action.
Willies Otiato, an arts enthusiast, says, “Art informs and shapes cultures; it is a career opportunity and a form of human expression that should be treasured by its consumers to ensure that artists get remunerated for their work.”
“Through conversation about the arts, the wider society gets to listen to the people who write, make movies, sing, act, paint, sculpt and learn not only what drives them but also the challenges they face,” observes Ogova Ondego, managing trustee and creative director of Lola Kenya Screen movie platform for children and youth in eastern Africa. “Through such conversation creative people could form alliances with members of the society on whose behalf they create; such alliances could be used lobbying policymakers to look into issues that affects not just artists but the entire society.”
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Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) has banned a movie written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu from being shown at home despite the fact that it was selected to be screened alongside the official competition at Cannes Film Festival in France (June 8-19, 2018). KFCB said the film, RAFIKI, glorifies homosexuality that is outlawed in the East African country.
Such action by KFCB provides artists and consumers the opportunity to define art and suggest how well to practise it on Sanaa Talks.
“Though artists occupy a position that enables them to provoke debate on issues too delicate to address in other fora, there is a limit to which one can go to in pursuit of one’s artistic expression. We don’t have to antagonise society just for the sake of being antagonistic,” Ondego says.
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Otiato says that the society is ever changing and we need to be exposed to various issues so we can know how to ‘feel’ about them.
It is for pressing issues like this that Sanaa Talks is coming back on both KU TV and Facebook every Wednesday from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM with repeats on Fridays at 2:00 PM.
The audience will get the opportunity to interact with the panel in real-time.
