Yvette Hutchison and South African writer Amy Jephta got initial funding to create this network by the AHRC (2015-2017), and then extended it with the help of the University of Warwick. Its aim was to create an international virtual forum for African women creatives to engage with one another, programmers, researchers and any interested parties at low cost via a mobile app. This would facilitate their discovering one another, improve their visibility, access to resources, training and provoke debates regarding their creative products. We used decolonising research methods (Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 2012) that placed African-authored theories and practices at the centre of the study (Bennett & Pereira, 2013) and so encouraged reciprocal knowledge generation that enable participants to remain in control of their own representations and knowledges.

The support and mentoring offered by, and through, the network has empowered the women to apply for new national and international opportunities and collaborations. This has resulted in cultural shifts in theatre programming, cultural understandings within and beyond the continent and the decolonising of curricula via the publication of only the second collection ever of 7 new plays by African women - Contemporary Plays by African Women (Methuen/ Bloomsbury, 2019)

We have also worked with the Africa Writes project, as part of Royal African Society in London, in taking these plays into schools, piloting the creation of an African Theatre education pack for secondary teachers at Stoke Newington School, North London, where 2 Warwick students who are part of the network worked with 20 students from years 7-9 to rehearse two play extracts for a local community event and were programmed for the Africa Writes event on 5 July 2019 at the British Library.

Next Phases:

We complete a film on the project for wider dissemination

The free digital Education Toolkit is launched for use world-wide

The network becomes an independent organisation, run by the women themselves, able to raise funds, run mentoring and festival events.

Feedback:

- ‘the partnership was extremely valuable, moving us into new territory in the curriculum through drama, and offering fresh perspectives for our partner teachers, who gained professional development from observing and participating in the workshops. … The workshops also changed perceptions of Africa and African theatre for those who took part.’ (Africa Writes on school project)

I was just a writer from Zimbabwe who is now in the global world. (Thembelilhe Moyo)

I think it’s important to have the AWPN for a continental connection, which I think is essential to our development as South African theatre makers. These things open perspectives, relationships, partnerships, collaborations and a greater understanding of our place in the continent (Carolyn Calburn, Artistic manager, Arts Admin Collective, SA)