Abstract 

‘Tiranya ko Koisani – a play performed at the National Theatre in Addis Ababa in June 2022 – is a story of love and war in the far south of Ethiopia. The play was the first to be written and acted by Mursi people who, six months previously, had no prior knowledge of theatre. This paper will follow the journey to the National Theatre of the South Omo Theatre Company – a partnership including Mursi agro-pastoralists turned playwrights and actors, theatre directors, anthropologists, and filmmakers from four continents. In recounting this tale, we venture backstage to spotlight the multiple forms of brokerage, translation and exchange that facilitate cross-cultural communication. Reviewing the historical role of anthropology in presenting stories from South Omo, the paper goes on to suggest new possibilities for creative collaboration in development and participatory knowledge sharing.

Bio

Dr. Richard Axelby began his academic career with PhD research on agro-pastoralists in the Indian Himalayas (2005). Since that time he has written multiple articles for academic journals and is the co-author with Dr Savithri Preetha Nair of ‘Science and the Changing Environment in India 1780-1920’ (British Library Publications, 2010), with Professor Emma Crewe of Anthropology and Development: Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalised World (CUP, 2013) and of Ground Down by Growth: Tribe, Caste, Class and Inequality in 21st Century India (Pluto Press, 2018) with Alpa Shah, Jens Lerche et al. Richard is employed as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS University of London and is a founder member of the Global Research Network on Parliaments and People. Since 2018 Richard has been working on a series of creative collaborations with members of the Mursi agro-pastoralist community in Southern Ethiopia.