An hour with Wakanyote Njuguna

Nga¯ Aho Whakaari Maori in Film, Video and Television Inc Presents:

An hour with Kenyan writer and director Wakanyote Njuguna in discussion with filmmaker Merata Mita.

The place of the cultural practitioner in a post colony Land, language and ‘Telling our own stories.

Wakanyote Njuguna is a prolific writer and director of some of Kenya’s most seminal works and a respected and much loved political activist advocating the return of Kenya’s native languages. He has an international reputation as a playwright whose comedies and dramas have been widely produced,
published and broadcast by national networks including the BBC.

Wakanyote has been a valued contributor at festivals, seminars and workshops in Germany and France, as well as African countries such as Uganda and Botswana. Besides his writing, acting and directing, he is also well-known as a painter, curator and commentator on the arts and was co-ordinator of the Nairobi Art Studio at the French Cultural Centre, and of the Banana Hill Studio.Like many Kenyans, he is fluent in three languages, does translations from English to Kikuyu and Swahili, and was a founding member of the Kikuyu Language Development Board.

Wakanyote Njuguna as been brought to Aotearoa by the Africa Connection Aotearoa Trust whose kaupapa is to promote understanding between African New Zealanders and the wider community, and to foster cultural exchanges between African and Kiwi artists.