Kemiyondo Coutinho
is the most inspiring and self driven 20 year old you will ever meet. At such a
young age, she is a self driven actress, playwright, female empowerment
activist and student currently in her final year of school. We talked to Kemi-
as she is known by most of her friends- and she shared with us about her
passion for theatre, women empowerment and she also did a breathtaking skit
from her famous play Jabulile.
About Kemi
Kemi always had a
passion for theatre. At the age of nine, she took part in her first play ever.
Acting is one thing Kemi does with a lot of passion and this is visible through
her work. “I liked attention so I
noticed this would be a good way to get attention so I took it on and fell in
love with it.”
Kemi
was born in Uganda 20 years ago. She
moved to Swaziland when she was only 3 weeks old but moved back to Uganda in
2001. However she kept attending school in Swaziland until she finished high
school and later enrolled in University in the Portland, Oregon and The Lewis
and Clarke College to study communication and theatre.
”Of recent I have
become somewhat of a gender/ female empowerment activist and I don’t like to
use the term feminist I’m all about equal opportunities for women. I feel like
there is no balance in African society and there aren’t enough opportunities
for women in Africa. Through theatre I try to empower women, try and make the
voices of women be heard,’’ Kemi says.
It is for this reason that Kemi started her own theatre company called Voices
of Abafaazi, when translated means Voices of Women. Through theatre Kemi tries
to make the voices of women heard. Kemi attends school at The Lewis and Clarke
College, in Portland Oregon where she is currently pursuing two degrees in one;
communication and theatre.
About Jabulile
Kemi started writing her famous one-woman play Jabulile while in high
school as her final project for school. “Opposite the bus station I used back
in Swaziland, there were these women that used to sell fruits and vegetables, and
I noticed they were always smiling especially being women and from a lower
economic status, I looked at these women and realized it cannot be easy to wake
up every morning.” This inspired Kemi to start her research for the play. She
decided to interview the women and weaved the stories of all the women she
interviewed wrote the story of Jabulile and four other market women. In her play Jabulile we meet seven characters.
However there are four main stories. She did this because she believes there is
at least one character that each member of the audience will connect with. Kemi has performed her one-woman play Jabulile
in front of many audiences across the world.
“I first performed Jabulile in
Swaziland at my school, then I performed it a theatre in Swaziland and then it
got entered into the National Arts Festival in South Africa, the biggest arts
festival in Africa and the second biggest festival in the world. I then showed
it at a gender symposium in Portland Oregon and then my school sponsored me to
take it back to South Africa. I did it again at my school in Portland, Oregon
for donors at my school and very recently I it to New York. It was very
exciting as this has always been my dream.”
Her other work
Kemi also recently wrote
another play titled In the doll house. “It’s about African American women and
issues they face growing up as a black girl, so I went into issues, dealing
with hair, the way they believe they should dress in order to feel sexy.” The
play was entered it into a competition and was a finalist. However Kemi says
she will enter the play into the competition again this year because she
believes it can win first prize.
Kemi also featured
in another play at her school titled The Blue Room.“ I didn’t write it but it’s
about a sexual network and showed how people can be different depending on who
they are with. I just auditioned for fun and got a part.” However Kemi feels
that it is important to utilize every opportunity you get to show your talent.
Kemi has also been
working on another play for her Ugandan audience that she hopes to start
showing come September titled Kawuna; tag you are it. The play tells the
stories of 4-5 women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda “ You will meet a
housemaid, a wife a prostitute, a white expatriate, all of them wearing black
and different kind of red shoes to reflect their social class, but at the end
of the day you realize that they were infected by the same man.”
Aside from theatre
Kemi also likes
working with children. During the summer of 2010, she worked at a project in Mulago
Hospital working with children and adolescents infected with HIV/AIDS and
started a theatre group there. “It gave them a sense of belonging and a family
because many of them are orphans. In the future I definitely want to work more
with children.” Kemi also likes to write and analyze the way society portrays
women in the media.
Getting into character
“I have done this
show so much, it’s immediate and I’ve gotten to know the characters so well.” Her
director has also helped Kemi a lot in getting to know her characters in the
play Jabulile. “We examined each
character closely. I learned the way each of them talked, walked and so many
other things.” Kemi also wears a hat while she is performing. “Every time I take off the hat, it’s a
transition from one character to another and with this transition you have to
let go of the other character.” Kemi also visited the women she portrays in her
play several times and recorded them. This helped her learn the way these women
spoke and interacted with the people in their lives. She also interviewed
several educated and upper class women the way they spoke. “You will hear one
story in the play and it’s influenced by about four different kinds of women of
women.”
When asked about
stage fright, “once I get into character, I never get scared. But once it’s
over and I have to take a bow, that’s when the stage fright kicks in!”
The Vagina Monologues
The play the Vagina
Monologues raised many eyebrows in Uganda but Kemi is proud to say she has
performed a monologue or two in the play in Oregon. To Kemi, the play is an eye
opener and she is will gladly do it again this year. Kemi believes it’s a play
everyone should watch and is very determined to bring the play to Uganda and
have it accepted by all Ugandans. “I will
bring it to Uganda one day, even if it takes me twenty years.” Kemi believes it’s
a play everyone should watch because it addresses the fact that women cannot
freely talk about their genitals without it being frowned upon. “The monologue
I’m famously known for, The Angry Vagina talks about issues women talk about
and face on a daily like tampons. If this play can be performed in Nigeria, I
don’t understand why it cannot show in Uganda which is supposed to be more
liberal than Nigeria. This just shows our lack of understanding of the issues
affecting our society.”
To Kemi, this shows how much
writers we are restricted in their work and this is one of the reasons why it
has taken her so long to write a piece to show in Uganda. But she believes as a
writer she has to adapt to different society and different situations. “In my
new play I cannot remain oblivious of the fact that some things will not be
allowed in Uganda so I have to leave them out and this makes me sad.”
Passion for women’s rights and equality
In 2008, Kemi took
on a class which focused on gender. This showed her how handicapped and
vulnerable women are in all societies. She also did a communications class that
opened her eyes to the way the media portrays women and how it is used to keep
black women at the bottom. This exposure ignited her passion for women’s rights
and gender equality. “I believe it is important to make a change the way you
know how and for me it is theatre, and the more you do it the more passionate
you become.”
