KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
SEMINAR PAPER PRESENTED AT THE KENYATTA UNIVERSITY AVU HALL ON
17TH JULY 2008.
THEME: DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING OF RESEARCH INNOVATION: THE
AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
TOPIC: AN ANALYSIS OF THE DRAMATIZED NARRATIVE OF THE KENYA
SCHOOLS’ AND COLLEGES’ DRAMA FESTIVAL.
BY: KINYA ANNE C50/6506/2003
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ABSTRACT
The study focused on analysing the performance of the dramatized Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’
Drama Festival oral narrative, which employs theatre craft. The narrative and dramatic aspects of
the dramatized oral narrative, and the extent to which they are integrated in performance as well as
the artistic and linguistic devices employed during performance are analysed.
The study was carried out through observation. Viewing of the video-recorded narrative
performances of selected Kenya National Drama Festival was employed. The study was limited to
a sample of five systematically selected dramatized oral narratives. In order to meet the objectives
of the study, performance approach, narrative theory and dramatic theory were adopted to guide
the analysis.
This study was motivated by the fact that studies done on the dramatized oral narrative at the
Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama Festival focus on the possibilities available to the
performers and not necessarily on particular performances. By analysing the Kenya Schools’ and
Colleges’ Drama Festival oral narrative, the study will add a new dimension to the studies already
done. This study will contribute to the appreciation of the role of the dramatic mode of
performance in influencing the oral narrative.
All the selected dramatized narratives involve multiple participants, use of wooden blocks on
stage, and a backdrop that reflects the subject of the story being told. Inclusion of song is also
evident in all the dramatized oral narratives analysed. Three narrative aspects were identified in
the performances; recounting of events that happened in the past, description of events and
actions, and direct communication between performer and audience. At the same time three
dramatic aspects were identified; action happening now, use of dialogue and action, and indirect
communication between performer and audience. Symbols, metaphors, song, repetition, and
ideophones are artistic and linguistic devices that are creatively exploited during the performance
of the dramatized oral narrative to the delight of the audience.
The dramatized oral narrative integrates both dramatic and narrative aspects during performance.
Action is artistically fitted into description. The performance of a dramatized narrative depends
more on description than on action. Consequently, instances of direct communication between the
performer and the audience exceed instances of indirect communication between performer and
audience. The performance of a dramatized narrative involving one main performer integrates
more action with description than those performances involving two main performers. Enactment
of events on stage as well as the interaction between the performer(s) and the audience creates a
sense of past events re-enacted in the present. This aspect gives the dramatized narrative a sense of
immediacy. Allusion to songs, events and actions well known to the audience gives the dramatized
narrative an aspect of currency.
The dramatized oral narrative therefore succeeds in integrating dramatic and narrative aspects in
its performance.
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Introduction
The Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama Festival, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of
Education, is an annual event and occurs between the months of February and April. Each of the
presentations at the festival must go through preliminary sub-festivals at the zonal, district,
provincial and finally the national level in that order. Since the festival is competitive in nature,
trophies, prizes or certificates are awarded to successful competitors at every sub-festival in
accordance with the decision of festival’s judges whose decision, according to the rules of the
festival, is final. Only the winning narrative, as nominated by the judges, in each category of
institutions, primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges, proceeds to the next sub-festival.
The sub-festivals are held at least two weeks between each other to give time for improvements on
the presentations made and further training of the performers (Ministry of Education 2000).
Kenya Schools' and Colleges' Drama Festival is a drama festival which emphasizes the inclusion
of dramatic techniques in the performances. Drama is therefore expected to be fitted into the oral
narrative genre. For this reason, oral narrative performance within the festival, as an act of drama
and theatre, depends upon both dramatic and theatrical aspects as well as upon description of
events in the story. The aspects of drama and narration both of which the dramatized oral narrative
is expected to embrace are parallel. How these apparently parallel aspects co-exist in the same
performance was of interest to this study.
Statement of the problem
The aspects of drama and narrative are seemingly paradoxical in the sense that it appears as if the
presence of narrative aspects would mean the absence of dramatic aspects and the presence of
dramatic aspects would mean the absence of narrative aspects. The extent to which the dramatized
oral narrative is a hybrid of drama and narrative and the implication that this integration has had
not been known. This study aimed at filling this gap by analysing the dramatic and narrative
aspects of the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama Festival dramatized oral narrative to establish
the nature and effect of dramatic and narrative aspects in the dramatized oral narrative.
Objectives of the study
The aims of the study were to:
a) identify the dramatic and narrative aspects of dramatized oral narratives within the context of
the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama Festival;
b) Analyse how the dramatic and narrative aspects are integrated in a dramatized oral narrative
and the effect of the integration on the overall performance; and
c) analyse the artistic and linguistic devices employed during performance.
Research questions
The study sought to answer the following questions:
a) What dramatic and narrative aspects are evident in the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama
Festival oral narrative?
b) How are the said aspects integrated in a dramatised oral narrative and with what effect on the
overall performance?
c) What artistic and lingustic devices are employed in the performance?
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Theoretical framework
In undertaking this study it was methodologically imperative to have a solid definition of narrative
and drama in order to permit consistent application. Narrative theory was sufficient in providing
guidelines on the definition and discussion of a narrative and narrative aspects while dramatic
theory catered for the definition and discussion of drama and dramatic aspects. Interpretation and
analysis of the dramatized narrative, however, requires that one should capture the aspects of
performance. This led to adoption of the performance approach.
The study defines the narrative as involving the telling and description of past events to an
audience. On the other hand, drama is taken to mean the enacting of events by actors before an
audience. Narrative aspects are taken to be the following;
a) recounting of events that happened in the past,
b) description of events and actions resulting to;
c) direct communication between performers on stage and the audience.
Dramatic aspects are taken to be the following;
a) presentation of the story by means of both dialogue and action rather than by description
resulting to;
b) indirect communication between the actors on stage and the audience, and
c) the aspect of action happening ‘now’ as opposed to actions that happened in the past.
Research methodology
The study was carried out through observation. Viewing of the video-recorded performances was
employed.
The study was based on oral narratives performed during the Kenya National Drama Festival. The
National level of the festival was selected since performances at this level have gone through all
the stages of the festival and at this level dramatized oral narratives from all the provinces of
Kenya are presented. Sampling from the Zonal or District sub-festivals would ensure better
national representation. However, by the time a performance is presented at the National subfestival it has gone through additional rehearsals and includes ideas borrowed from adjudicators’
comments and/or other performances in the preliminary sub-festivals and as such better represents
a dramatized oral narrative that has been exposed to the complete festival. For this reason,
therefore, the National sub-festival was selected.
The study was limited to a sample of five dramatized oral narratives. The selection of the
dramatized oral narratives to be analysed was done in two steps. The first step involved the
selection of the year of performances. This was done through systematic sampling. All the years
since the introduction of the dramatized oral narrative in the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama
Festival in 2000 (Ministry of Education 2000) were arranged in order starting with the most
recent; 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000. Each year was then assigned a number and the
years corresponding to the odd numbers were chosen, that is 2005, 2003, and 2001.
The second step involved visiting archival centres such as Kenya Institute of Education (K.I.E)
and Media Centres to acquire the recorded dramatized oral narratives during the selected years.
All the dramatized oral narratives collected were viewed and all those audible in terms of the
quality of the recording were noted down. Eleven dramatized oral narratives were found to be
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audible. Of these, five were randomly selected for analysis; Kharusi, Titanic, Olupanga,
Afterbirth, and Machungwa.
The recorded material was viewed and transcribed into scripts. The dramatic and the narrative
elements, as well as the various artistic and linguistic devices in relation to the tenets of the
respective theories, were noted down
Research findings
The use of description is a dominant aspect in the performances. All the performances are
characterized by description of events and action rather than by the presence of the action and the
events themselves. The discourse of the performer brings into being a verbal equivalent of the
action of the characters in the story. The use of description as discussed accounts for a narrative
aspect in the performances. The performer(s), however, accompany these descriptions with action.
In this sense therefore, action as an aspect of drama is also present in the performances.
In all the selected performances action is artistically fitted into description. In this way the
narrative aspect of discription and the dramatic aspect of action are integrated in the performances.
The action present in the performances is brief and sandwiched between descriptions.
Consequently, the dramatized narrative involves more description than action.
Resulting from the extensive use of past tense, the events of the stories being told are understood
to have occurred at a time before the story was told. However, enactment of events on stage as
well as the interaction between the performer(s) and the audience creates a sense of events reenacted in the present. This aspect evident in all of the five selected narratives gives the
performance and the story a sense of immediacy. Since the action present in the performances
appears in the present, the dramatic aspect of action happening ‘now’ is present in the
performances. Allusion to events and actions well known to the audience as already discussed
gives the performances an aspect of currency.
Through the enactment of events the paradoxical aspects of narrative and drama, recounting of
events that happened in the past and action happening ‘now’, are thus integrated.
Words rather than action are the principle medium through which the message reaches the
audience in all the five narratives. In this sense therefore, communication between the performer
and the audience is direct, accounting for yet another aspect of narrative in the performances.
Both visual and verbal symbols are used in the performances. The symbolic props and drawings
on the backdrop are visual symbols. Words are used to create verbal symbols. The use of visual
symbols is an aspect of drama while the use of verbal symbols is an aspect of narrative.
Repetition of a word, phrase, sentence structure or song is evident in all of the selected narratives.
This kind of repetition is an aspect of narrative. Repetition of an action each time a word, phrase,
sentence structure or song is repeated is an aspect of drama.
The performers imaginatively integrate ideophones with description and actions to suggest
meanings and to convey certain impressions by creating mental pictures. Integration of ideophones
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with description is an aspect of narrative while integration of ideophones with action is an aspect
of drama.
Song is used in the performances to mark out the major episodes in the story from each other, to
heighten the mood in the story, to develop plot, to elicit audience involvement as well as to create
suspense.
Conclusions
Three narrative aspects were identified in the performances; recounting of events that happened in
the past, description of events and actions, and direct communication between performer and
audience. At the same time three dramatic aspects were identified; action happening now, use of
dialogue and action, and indirect communication between performer and audience. There is no
chance of a conversation in a performance that involves one main performer. Where dialogue
occurred in the story the performer enacts the conversation by playing the role of the two parties
interchangeably. Consequently the performance involving one main performer integrates more
action with description than those performances involving two main performers.
It is important to note that the dramatized narratives integrate both the dramatic and the narrative
aspects identified during performance. The said dramatic aspects are credibly fitted within the
narrative aspects identified. As earlier mentioned, the action present in the performances is brief
and sandwiched between descriptions. Instead of words being used to clarify the details of the
action as would be expected in drama (Dace, 1972: 3-13), it is the action that clarifies the words in
the selected narratives performed at the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama Festival. The
presence of both description and action in the performances accounts for the presence of direct and
indirect communication between the performer and the audience respectively. Although the stories
told are understood to have occurred in the past, the inclusion of action as well as the interaction
between the performer(s) and the audience creates a sense of events happening in the present. In
this way the paradoxical aspects of narrative and drama are integrated. Allusion to songs, actions,
and events known to the audience in the auditorium give the narratives an aspect of currency. The
next chapter will focus on the artistic and linguistic devices employed during the performances.
Symbols, song, repetition, and ideophones are artistic and linguistic devices that are creatively
exploited to the delight of the audience. The backdrop and props metaphorically represent various
items and scenery. The use of visual symbols is an aspect of drama while the use of verbal
symbols is an aspect of narrative.
Repetition of a word, phrase, sentence structure or song is evident in a dramatized narrative.
Repetition is exploited to allow the performers to move to the desired position on stage, to create
humour, to create a sense of rhythm and order in the performance, for emphasis, and to entice the
audience to participate in the performance. Repetition of a word, phrase, sentence structure or
song is an aspect of narrative. Repetition of an action each time a word, phrase, sentence structure
or song is repeated in a dramatized narrative is an aspect of drama.
The performers of a dramatized narrative imaginatively integrate ideophones with description and
actions to suggest meanings and to convey certain impressions by creating mental pictures.
Integration of ideophones with description is an aspect of narrative while integration of
ideophones with action is an aspect of drama.
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Song is used in the performance of all of the selected narratives, N1, N2, N3, N4 and N5. Song is
used to mark the major episodes in the story from each other, heighten the mood in the story, to
develop plot, to create suspense or to elicit audience involvement.
In light of this discussion, it is evident that performers at the Kenya Schools’ and Colleges’ Drama
festival aim at exhibiting their competence in communicating the message they intend to.
Attention in not on what is said but on how innovative and captivating and timely the artist’s skill
of varying the techniques of communication he/she employs is.
Recommendations
This study was limited to analysing the dramatized oral narrative of the Kenya Schools’ and
College’s Drama Festival and therefore did not focus on the effects of the nature of the festival on
the performances. There is therefore need to undertake a study to establish whether the
competitive nature of the Kenya Schools’ and College’s Drama Festival affects the creative
freedom of performers.
Students and oral narrative directors need to consider the implications that the integration of
dramatic and narrative aspects has on the dramatized narrative when composing or performing a
dramatized narrative.
This study concentrates on the analysis of dramatized oral narratives performed at the Kenya
Schools’ and College’s Drama Festival. There is need for further study of other genres like the
dramatized verse in the Schools’ Drama Festival.
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