“Sound is at the heart of African creativity”. Departing from this statement and responding to the ICAF ’23 theme The Sound of Change, researcher, and theatre maker Bonface Beti (Kenya) provides a workshop for those interested in the ways in which sound and music are intertwined in the culture and history of Kenya. He believes it contributes to the formation, identity, and communication of its communities. Drawing from his current PhD research on “Soundscapes of Peace”, Bonface will look at processes of learning, listening, sharing, and reflecting through sound and art as part of peace building and conflict transformation, whilst focusing on the deeply rooted relationship between the Kenyan context and sound. This includes sound being at the heart of all African creativity, as well as being a way of passing down knowledge, communication signals, and storytelling from one generation to the next. As such, sound can be considered a language of its own, and “a way of knowing”.
Furthermore, Bonface has been working for over 20 years with Theatre of the Oppressed methodologies and techniques, and will bring a selection of these exercises to his playful workshop in which he digs deeper into trauma healing and peace building processes.
About
Bonface Beti has an established background in theatre and arts, trauma healing, peace building, and social justice, particularly in his own context of Nairobi. He is also actively engaged within the wider contexts of Kenya, Africa, and further afield in the US and Canada.