"When I returned to Rwanda," says playwright and performer Hope Azeda, "the country was on its knees. It was in ashes and was trying to rise. As an artist, your instinct takes you there – what can I do?"
Rather than shy away from the genocide that had blighted the country, Azeda approached the subject head-on. Her first play, The Firestones of Sehustitwa – written while she was still at university, in Uganda – was an allegory for the internal social conflicts of Rwanda. For Africa's Hope, which was commissioned in 2004 for the 10th anniversary of the genocide, more than 1,000 performers drew on personal testimonies from the war. Its running time of 100 minutes represented the 100 days of the genocide, and it played to more than 25,000 people in Rwanda alone.
“The subject matter is very difficult,” she says of her work. “But I was more scared of the outcome – what is going to happen? I remember the first performance I did. It was the 10th commemoration of the genocide. It was looking at genocide through the eyes of a child. I didn’t want to talk about adults. We had messed up everything enough.”
"I thought to myself, what is a child asking about this? Because they are part of our memorial week – when the week of April comes, students stop going to school, clubs close, everything happy stops." "For me, it was the eyes of a child questioning why it happened. What happened on that day?"
Her plays since have dealt with other topics plaguing people in Rwanda – from sexism to Aids – in sites ranging from refugee camps to open football pitches and village halls. In 2015, with a grant from the African Leadership Initiative, she set up the annual Ubumuntu Arts Festival, bringing music, dance, art and theatre to the amphitheatre at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It attracts about 5,000 people per day. "The shows run at 6pm, but people start arriving at 4pm," she laughs.
"It's still very challenging," she says. The memorial "is not a place that people are accustomed to. It's very special in Rwandans' hearts because there are people buried in this space."
Azeda chose it not only for its symbolic value, but also because the performances give Rwandans a way to engage with the conflict both individually and as a group, or through what she calls “public introspection”. “The set is well-dressed, the scenography is there… It crosses into your own internal conversation,” she says.
Indeed, spaces have become of utmost importance to Azeda's work, in part because of Rwanda's lack of dedicated spaces for theatre and performing arts, which has meant she has had to improvise. "In Uganda, I grew up in an environment where there was infrastructure. But when I went back to Rwanda, there's no infrastructure," she recalls. "So spaces become key characters in the works I create. Wherever I go, I make up a space. It has made me not become a slave to what I don't have, but a solution-based thinker. If this is where I am performing, where will the audience be? If we don't have a source of power, I bring the scenographer, the set designer, and we design that space as it is."
Azeda is not only building a performing-arts network in the country, but is also helping to rebuild the country itself. Despite this role, she seems to make a point of not taking herself too seriously. When we meet, she says to look out for someone with "a hairstyle like that of Minnie Mouse". During her panel at the CultureSummit in Abu Dhabi last week, she described the "child-like faith" that motivated her to take on each new project. Her eloquent and impassioned argument in the power of conviction and straight-up gumption was met with spontaneous applause by the audience. Afterwards, as she moved through the conference atrium, people kept telling her how much she had inspired them.
Azeda accepted the praise politely – I had the feeling she was used to this. After Abu Dhabi, she was heading on to Edinburgh, to participate in a conference about theatre, and she has been an artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a member of the Lincoln Centre Theatre Directors Lab in New York, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Now married with two daughters, she was raised in Uganda to Rwandan parents who fled the country during the revolution before the war. Her family were scientists, and her mother and father worked their way out of a refugee camp into the house where she was born, as one of 11 children. "I kept having to prove I was not on doom's path," she jokes of her decision to pursue a career in the arts.
"I joined a Catholic boarding school, where everyone had to dance ballet," she recalls. "I didn't know there was a dancer in me, but discovered I was a performer." She went to Makerere University in Kampala, studying music, dance and drama, writing The Firestones of Sehustitwa while there.
Azeda was so young when she wrote The Firestones of Sehustitwa that, when she was asked to perform it, she had to create a theatre company for the production. Mashirika Performing Arts is still going strong as a site for Azeda's work, as well as a production company supporting Rwandan and African playwrights and performers.
Though her work has expanded beyond being a playwright, it hasn't moved on from its core belief in the power of theatre to represent and collectivise the trauma of the Rwandan experience in 1994. I ask how Africa's Hope answered the question of what happened.
“The performance ends without the answer,” she replies. “Because I use testimonies of children. The piece is about their hopes and dreams. This is what they went through, but what are their hopes? You deal with memory and then you deal with hope.”
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Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
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BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
HOW TO WATCH
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
England squads for Test and T20 series against New Zealand
Test squad: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes
T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Pat Brown, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, James Vince
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
The specs
The specs: 2019 Audi Q8
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 340hp @ 3,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 2,250rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
if you go
The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow.
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
The specs: 2018 Ford F-150
Price, base / as tested: Dh173,250 / Dh178,500
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 395hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 555Nm @ 2,750rpm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 12.4L / 100km
