Kenya- Cleopatra as Milestone

In March 1996 Tonny Kimani, a CNN employee, asked Peter Daino to walk with him at 9 P.M. down Kenyatta Avenue (The Main Street of Nairobi). As they walked down that long avenue Peter met at every street corner a male prostitute. Tonny knew each of them and would greet them and joke around with them. They called Tonny, Cleopatra. The next day Tonny asked Peter, “What are you going to do for these guys? You’ve helped the female sex-workers, so how are you going to help the male sex-workers?” Peter said that he did not know what they needed. The women had met at the Marianist Parlor for six months and over this time shared their problems, needs, hopes, and dreams. How can these men meet and share in the same way about their lives.     CLEOPATRA

“A Musical!” Tonny said. “We will write a musical about Cleopatra. She will judge the modern day criminals who are ruining Kenya. The judgments will take place in her throne-room. I will ask all the guys you saw on the street corners to be actors and dancers. If I invite them I know that they will come. And, dear Peter, I will be Cleopatra!” Tonny had great prestige among the male sex-workers, maybe because he was unashamed of his sexuality, and because he was a successful well-paid person in the media. Most of the male sex-workers did come to the audition and all were accepted into the show.  Peter helped to write the play and he got funding from the Dutch Catholic Church to stage it. The plan was to spend half an hour at the end of each rehearsal to talk about the problems these young men were facing and what the church could do to make their lives better. There was also a full day set aside for a workshop at the Benedictine Monastery in Nairobi for a longer, more in-depth conversation.

Cleopatra was the first gay play ever to be staged in Kenya and there was great opposition to it. After rehearsal the actors and dancers were often jumped outside the theater, and roughed up by homophobic thugs. A few of the dancers were severely beaten. The director of the Musical, after having air let out of her tires almost nightly, was so afraid that she finally resigned, and Tonny took over as the director. The rehearsals took place at the National Theater where the show was going to be staged. The theater manager received many threatening phone calls, she was told that the theater would be burned to the ground if the show went on. BUT THE SHOW WENT ON!

In order to make it possible for Cleopatra to know about the criminals ruining Kenya Peter had written into the play a character called Brother Mario. He was a Marianist who thought he had been Cleopatra in a former life. The show opens with Brother Mario speaking to a psychologist assigned to him by the Prior of his Order. Brother Mario is telling the psychologist about a dream he had... “I see myself sitting on a splendid throne, raised up on a painted dias, 20 steps above the prisoner-dock where the oppressors will be judged..” Then the lights go up on the scene Mario has described and for the rest of the play Cleopatra holds court and rights the wrongs of Kenyan society, punishing: land grabbers, corrupt politicians, and those who persecute gay people.

Peter gathered together the suggestions made by the male sex-workers and presented his report to the Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi. Peter told the Archbishop that the greatest need was for a safe meeting place where the men could gather and keep discussing how to make their lives better. The place where they had been meeting, the public toilet, was not a safe place, and robbed the men of their dignity. Peter mentioned vocational training but did not emphasize it. He also did not recommend the Dignity approach but the Courage approach because he was afraid the Archbishop would reject Dignity. Peter did not especially like the philosophy of Courage but he thought it was in reach, it had the best chance of being approved.

The Archbishop received the report and NOTHING happened. That was 1997 and 15 years went by and the Catholic Church did nothing. Tonny and some of the dancers did start an organization called ISHTAR. It was the first gay organization in Kenya. ISHTAR still exists and it advocates for the rights of gay people. The most important right is the right not to be arrested for being gay which is against the law. A person convicted of being gay can be put in prison for 7 to 14 years.