A leading academic and practitioner, whose work fundamentally shaped the fields of African theatre and community-based arts, has died at the age of 66. Her career, spanning over four decades, was distinguished by a profound commitment to long-term artistic collaboration across East Africa.
She served as the head of the Centre for African Studies at a prominent UK university for a decade, where she also pioneered a groundbreaking master’s program focused on theatre and global development. Her appointment to a professorship in African theatre was a landmark event, marked by the presence of the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.
Her influential work began in earnest in the 1990s with extensive projects supporting artists and educators in Eritrea following its independence. More recently, a decade-long partnership with a community arts group in Jinja, Uganda, became a defining project. This collaboration championed sustained, dialogical artistic practices as a powerful alternative to conventional, short-term development theatre.
This deep engagement culminated in significant scholarly contributions, including the two-volume “A History of East African Theatre,” a book on community arts and activism in Uganda, and a forthcoming monograph on Somali musical theatre.
Her connection to Africa began after her university studies in England, with a teaching position in the Gambia. This initial experience ignited a lifelong professional journey, leading to academic posts in Ethiopia and collaborative work across nations such as Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. She later guided numerous PhD students, many of whom now hold prominent positions at universities in Africa.
In her final years, her focus turned to domestic political concerns, particularly the treatment of dissent in the UK, which inspired an unfinished book project based on interviews with individuals she described as political prisoners.
Colleagues and friends remember her as a force of nature—a collaborator of unstoppable energy who fully embodied the belief in art’s political power, all while maintaining a tremendous sense of joy and purpose. She is survived by her son, a brother, and two sisters.
