Television of Thursday, 13 February 2014

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

‘Vagina Monologues’ to feature Okyeame Kwame this year

Rapper Okyeame Kwame has been chosen to be part of ‘Vagina Monologues’, which will be staged at the National Theatre on February 14 and 15.

“I’m really excited to be part of this, because it’s an opportunity to grow and learn as well. All that I’m saying is thank you for choosing me and also promise to associate freely with the vagina because that’s where we all come from,” he said at the press conference.

The ‘Vagina Monologues’ by Eve Ensler and directed by Abdul Karim Hakib of the Global Arts and Development Centre promises to be the much needed intervention that Ghana needs.

Ghana is infested and infected with all manner of myths and taboos about sexuality which in my opinion defeats the human being’s right to do and or believe in whatever idea he or she believes in.

We live in a country where five decades after independence, we are still slaves to our own laws and culture. What drives a parent to push his sixteen year old daughter into marriage?

“He will come back. I must speak quickly. I hate my hair. I was sold two years ago. I can’t get out. I am meat. I am an animal” These are some of the words breathed into the characters by Eve Ensler that Mr. Abdul Karim Hakib seeks to bring to life

It speaks volumes of how it feels when an irresponsible man, trying to shed his responsibilities makes an innocent girl feel like. The damage done to their personalities and their psyche never heals. It haunts them over and over and again.

Culture and men are not the only perpetrators of evil against women though. Women are their own enemies too. The products and whatever chemical they put there is an abuse of womanhood.

This clearly shows why one of the female sex organs in the play is angry. “It is pissed off. My vagina is furious and it needs to talk. It needs to talk about all this shit”. It talks to us. The play touches on the needs of life; the simple way of existence and the lessons necessary for all to learn.

The stage show at the National Theatre on the 14TH and 15TH February, 2014 answers the questions that have lingered in my mind for many years now. Tickets are available at Frankies, Koala, Maxi mart, Airport Shell and Silver Bird, Gh 20 for students and Gh 30 for others.