Gbagba by Robtel Pailey

While out walking with Kavita, I bumped into Luca who was on his way to Miami Beach. He told me there was a children's play being staged at the Monrovia City Hall. He would send me the e-mail about it and, encouraged me to take Kavita with me.

So, I went to City Hall today and, sat next to Luca and Leslie. Kavita was being picked up from school in Sinkor by our office manager who needed to submit some paperwork to a client. I asked her to drop Kavita at the City Hall. 

Luckily, the programme had not started and, I met Janneh at the front and brought Kavita back to the auditorium. Kavita was quite excited to see so many children in the hall and in fact, the organisers were waiting for more school children to arrive. 

The event finally kicked off and, it was quite enjoyable despite the non-functioning air conditioners. 

As I've said before, cultural events like these are too few and, it's always a pleasure to attend them. 

Robtel, the playwright herself, introduced the event, how she transformed the book Gbagba into a play and, all the support she received in bring the play to the public. 

The play was fantastic because it was being performed by children who were really very good! It was so cute and adorable to see them enacting the typical scenes of deceit, bribery, 'sifarish,' and thievery. For sure, there is a powerful message and aim here: to educate children against the destructive nature of corruption because there is more hope in children than older generations. 

At the end, Robtel had the audience pose questions to the actors. It was a good session and, during one exchange, the actor responded that police would stop taking bribes if their salaries were increased. At the very beginning, Flomo Theatre (they had trained the kids in their acting) did an amazing skit to warm up the audience that was an allegory for stealing. The conclusion was that in Liberia, greed is crippling society and seems to have no limits. Even a highly-paid official continues to steal. 

I think the play was a good place to start talking petty bribes and corruption which we see in the every day scenes of life in Liberia. Even an outsider, someone with privilege and buffer to the every day struggles of life in Liberia, is a witness to how bribery, corruption, favours and dishonesty permeates life. The play was fantastic in how it portrayed these on point scenes! 

However, I missed the more nuanced understanding of how and why corruption works in Liberia. Is it because there is poverty, inequality or just a leadership and power structure without a moral compass?  Maybe this could also be explored a little, in a subtle manner. Because at the end of it, what's the real toxic and diseased impact? A police man making hardly $ 200/month that takes petty bribes of a few Liberian dollars or the excess, corruption, and bad policies at higher levels? But perhaps this complexity cannot be explored/debated at a children's level. Let the children understand and passionately defend against dishonesty of all types, big or small. 

I found a TED video of Robtel explaining Gbagba which means 'trickery.' 

I really loved watching the play and, how much it resonated with the audience. The play was simple but extremely clear in terms of how corruption weaves its way in every day life. 

Although it was being performed by children, Kavita was more engrossed in playing games with the girls sitting in the row in front of us. 

While we were going home, she complained that they had not let go on stage.