Abstract
In 1955, a group of actors from different parts of Africa put on a play entitled Freedom in London. Although promoted as an all-African production, this play was deeply informed and supported by Moral Re-Armament (MRA) and its values. This chapter looks at the forces that explain this extraordinary production history, investigating both the London performance and the subsequent tour. The thrust of my argument is that, despite being, in a sense, ‘by Africans’, Freedom projected the views of those who made the production possible—MRA—and was in fact an example of the way in which the stage image of Africa was misleading even when African playwrights and a cast of African actors were involved.
I am indebted to those connected with MRA/Initiatives of Change at 24 Greencoat Lane, London, and to the MRA supporters who responded to my enquiries, especially those whose letters I have quoted. I am also grateful for the help given to me by the archivists at the Theatre Collection, University of Bristol, and at Wheaton College, Illinois.
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Notes
- 1.
I have not found it easy to view the production history of Freedom except by flashes of lightning. K. D. Belden’s account of the Westminster Theatre, London, confirms that it was put on there during 1955 (1965, 24c). It seems that the play was booked in for an initial run of two or three nights and that this was extended to four or five. Different sources have different numbers, but the figures do not vary substantially.
- 2.
MRA owned what had once been a grand hotel in Switzerland; it played an important role in the lives of those selected to stay.
- 3.
The film, that has a running time of 95 minutes, is on line at http://www.iofc.org/historical-iofc-films. For information about showings in Africa, I have drawn on Peter Hannon, personal communication, 11 October 2004, and Boobbyer 2004. Hannon’s letter includes the following: ‘the film adhered very closely to the play script’. This is confirmed by comparing the New York text of Freedom (1956) quoted on pages 221–222 of Boobbyer 2004, with pages 39–40 of the film-script. One change is the substitution in the film of the title ‘King’ for ‘Obong’. Hannon included an account of travelling across Kenya ‘for three months’ with official support and with ‘a daylight film unit’ showing the film three times every day!
- 4.
As will become clear, I consider these to be of particular value because they show the response of ‘ordinary theatre-goers’, those who were not what I have called the ‘MRA faithful’.
- 5.
The name ‘Asunke’ is used for the Queen in the text, but in the cast list the role is described as ‘Queen’.
- 6.
The surname ‘Palaver’ suggests that John is likely to be ‘all talk’.
- 7.
This and other quotes from Freedom are from the unpublished post-production script for the film. That is dated October 1956 and the copyright is held by ‘MRA Productions’.
- 8.
Azikiwe’s ideas influenced a generation: his newspaper articles were read widely, and his Collected Speeches and autobiographical writings were published. Centring on the idea caught in the title of a continent reborn, Renascent Africa appeared on both sides of the Atlantic in 1937. See below for a comment on Azikiwe’s links with life-long MRA worker and officer in the Nigerian Colonial Service, Hugh Elliot CMG. Boobbyer quotes from the Azikiwe file in the MRA Archive (housed at Dial House, Whitbourne, which I have not seen) on the change observed in the Nigerian leader after his visit to Caux. When next in London he apologised to British ministers. 2004, 219, f/n 37. There are elements of a ‘bio-pic’ in Freedom, and Zik can be glimpsed in Mutanda.
- 9.
Sources refer to the screening of K.O. Mbadiwe’s The Greater Tomorrow in Lagos (1948) for which various claims are made. See Lynch.
- 10.
As noted above, the King is referred to as ‘Obong’ (perhaps ‘the Obong’) in the New York edition of the play. Given the date of the that publication (1956), and the date of the Post-Production script (October 1956), I suspect ‘King’ was preferred for the film.
- 11.
Freedom was an amateur production and was put on in a theatre that was well-known as an MRA space. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that neither Plays and Players nor Theatre World carried reviews.
- 12.
Alan Thornhill Papers, 1927–1988, Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections, file 33. The article headed ‘Freedom’ is handwritten in a spiral- bound note-book and covers less than six pages. It is undated but internal evidence, note reference to ‘this summer’, suggests it was written in late 1955. All Thornhill quotes in the paper are from this document.
- 13.
I do this aware of the abundant opportunities for on-line research about MRA and its current incarnation, Initiatives of Change. I am acutely conscious that MRA is adept at promoting favourable profiles of itself. For example, at the time of revising this (5 December 2017), the Wikipedia entry fails to give adequate attention to the criticisms that were and are levelled against the organisation. For example, Driberg’s investigation is not mentioned.
- 14.
This is also credited to Gandhi. At this point, please note that the influence of MRA on Alcoholics Anonymous has been the subject of extensive discussion. AA, like MRA, is involved, of course, in behaviour change.
- 15.
See Gibbs 2017 on the impact of the MRA ‘task force’ in Ghana.
- 16.
I have not found any documentation of the financial resolution of this—for those without independent means.
- 17.
MRA engaged with a ‘dialogue of repentance’. See Hugh Elliot quoted in Boobbyer 2004, 218.
- 18.
Mary McLeod Bethune wanted her 1954 encounter with MRA recorded in the memorial garden of the Bethune Cookman University (for African Americans) in Daytona Beach. The garden incorporates a stone bearing, almost word for word, the lines used in the play. See more at http://us.iofc.org/crowning-experience-my-life#stash.TnWa1oFF.dpuff
- 19.
Facing the Wind: The Life and Letters of Isobel, Marchioness of Graham, edited by Fiona Hannon. The volume includes ‘Travels with a Suitcase’, Isobel’s account of her experiences with the task force (159–166). Among the resources I have not been able to examine, that this points to, are those in the Library of Congress, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2011/ms011142.pdf.
- 20.
See Thornhill Papers.
- 21.
See Grace Young, ‘Return to Achimota with MRA’, The Ashanti Pioneer, 3 September 1954. The words in quotation marks are taken from Lean’s biography of Buchman, available on line. Lean also includes several quotations from Macnicol and Amata. A breakdown of the membership of the second group can be found in Thornhill’s handwritten essay entitled ‘Freedom’ (1955).
- 22.
See Thornhill’s Papers.
- 23.
- 24.
Essentially the same outline is offered by Manasseh’s account as passed on by Peter Hannon (personal communication). Thornhill includes the detail that Buchman held up to the group he was commissioning the example of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which, read and staged, ‘moved the conscience of a nation and abolished slavery.’ For obvious reasons—any notion of Uncle Tomism had to be excluded! This assessment did not make it into Lean’s published version. Thornhill is helpful in other ways as well: he writes that the first discussion was held on the 1st August 1955.
- 25.
Regarding these ‘Quiet Times’ it should be noted that some felt that what God had said to them (the Africans present) was not given appropriate weight. Joshua Nkomo complains that, when he wrote down that God had told him to travel on from Caux, the divine instruction was put ‘on one side’ (1984, 63). In the same chapter, he refers to MRA’s ‘woolly and sentimental’ beliefs, and mention that ‘[…] they talked to me as if I were a baby’. The limitations on travel from Caux have to be taken into account when the issue of ‘MRA as cult’ is discussed.
- 26.
Thornhill provides an account of the discussion, in the course of which—thanks to ‘quiet times’, the suppression of egos and the ‘guidance of God’—agreement was reached. He includes the following detail: ‘the party worked in groups to produce the actual dialogue’. This is at odds with Amata’s account. Incidentally, Karbo drops out of the Freedom story but led an active life in Ghana’s politics.
- 27.
Amata’s recollection is at odds with Thornhill’s at this point, but the broad outlines are not challenged. Thornhill allows four days for rehearsal and then a premiere in the presence of a ‘great international audience at Caux’. That can, I think, be accommodated—in fact it may fit in with Lunn’s account. It is possible that there was a barely rehearsed run-through after 24 hours, and a performance for guests at Caux some 72 hours later. Thornhill dates the Westminster premiere 12 August 1954.
- 28.
For other examples of Buchman’s unrealistic expectations regarding the time necessary to prepare stage productions, see exchanges with Phyllis Konstam Austin and Cecil Broadhurst recorded in Lean, 401.
- 29.
The Westminster Theatre had a varied history and, at one point, presented radical plays. Note, for example and in this context, that Toussaint Louverture by C. L. R. James was staged there in 1936. For several decades after World War II, it was owned by MRA and welcomed MRA plays—a significant number by Alan Thornhill. Henry Macnicol’s play entitled Keir Hardie: The Man They Could Not Buy was published as a Westminster Playscript, in 1984.
- 30.
In 1946, MRA set up a memorial fund to buy the Westminster Theatre in memory of the sacrifices made by MRA supporters during the War.
- 31.
‘Delegates’ is probably better translated as ‘deputies’ here and may be seen as referring to elected representatives of France d’outre-mer.
- 32.
Khaly Basile Camara was a Dahomean Marxist with an interest in the theatre and a knowledge of English. It seems likely that the final sentence of the review reflects his view that, according to Traoré, appeared in Tam-Tam , the Monthly Newsletter for African Roman-Catholic Students, November 1955, p. 3739. (Adelugba’s translation omits the details of the source.)
- 33.
A study of the experiences of the cast during and after the tour would make a fascinating study. However, it falls outside the limits of this chapter and I shall just record the names, nationalities and roles of the company as they appear at the end of the film. The cast included Ifoghale Amata (Nigeria, Mutanda), William Nkomo (South Africa, Palaver), Matthew Elebesunu (Nigeria, King of Bokondo), Elsie Chiwuzie (Nigeria, Queen of Bokondo), Eunice Opperman (South Rhodesia, Mrs Adamu), Christine Awuma (Ghana, Mrs Mutanda), Councillor Kezia Fashina (Nigeria, Mrs Palaver), and Onumara Egwunwoke (Nigeria, Bulani). Two of these performers (Opperman and Chiwezie) are mentioned by, respectively, Fiona Hannon and Lean. This is not the place to dwell on the film, but, as the credits indicated, it enjoyed support from high-profile individuals. These included: Sir Ladipo Ademola (Alake of Abeokuta), Adeniji Ade II (Oba of Lagos), Aladesanmi II (Ewi of Ado Ekiti), S. Akisanya (Odemo of Ishara), and Okosi II (Obi of Onitsha). A newspaper interview with Amata’s son, a Nollywood actor, provides insight into a Nigerian Buchmanite family. See Bibliography
- 34.
The career in the colonial service of Hugh Elliot has already been mentioned and must be closely scrutinised. A devoted supporter of MRA from his Oxford days, Elliot went into the colonial service where he held a series of posts in Nigeria that enabled him to ‘remain close to’, ‘track’, ‘groom’, ‘mentor’, ‘monitor’ and, perhaps even ‘run’ Azikiwe. Elliot had to leave Biafra after the outbreak of the Civil War, and his subsequent work (with MRA) included extensive involvement in Zimbabwe where he may have arranged talks between Ian Smith and Robert Mugabe. See his obituary in The Independent, 11 September 2004, and his book Darkness and Dawn in Zimbabwe (1978).
- 35.
Queen Elizabeth visited Nigeria between 28 January and 16 February 1955.
- 36.
Personal communication. Hugh Elliot dated his letter to me ‘24 August 1995’, but I think he wrote it in 2003 because I replied to him during September of that year! He was unreliable about some things. For example, in addition to mis-dating his letter, he wrote that the film was ‘dubbed into about 20 languages’—that is, I would say, an ‘MRA-amplification’. Having said that, I think Freedom was probably screened widely in Kenya and may have been presented quite widely in Nigeria.
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Gibbs, J. (2018). Freedom, London 1955: A Story of Modern Africa Written and Acted by Africans, or Perhaps Not. In: Morosetti, T. (eds) Africa on the Contemporary London Stage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94508-8_2
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