In a typical Malawian setting, it is not unusual to hear someone say they are working hard to afford soap or salt (ya sopo ndi mcherein the vernacular Chichewa). For many, soap is not just a toiletry. It represents the hope that one day life will feel clean, stable and manageable.
This simple but powerful reality anchorsUntil I Afford Soap, premiered at Madsoc Theatre in Lilongwe over the weekend. Written by Norwegian playwright Sunniva Roligheten, the play was inspired by a Ugandan story. At the centre of it all is Amos, a mental patient living on the margins of society.
Three children visit him near the swamps, undeterred by the smell or his unsettling presence. The three insist that he tells them stories. He begins cautiously.
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One story ends. They demand another. Laughter fills the stage at first as Amos repeatedly tells the children he was not there when it happened, yet after each story he insists that he knows it did.
But slowly, the tone shifts when Amos stops telling fictional tales and begins narrating his own life story. He tells the children that his parents’ decision to celebrate a wedding was the “biggest mistake of their lives,” a celebration funded by a loan that haunted the family for years. Poverty tightened its grip.
There was only enough money to educate the last-born to secondary school. Responsibility fell on him at a tender age. He sought help.
He did not succeed. He worked in the mines. He tried teaching.
He never saw a payday. Throughout, Amos complained about his body odour, a symbol of the shame and hardship he carried daily. He made it to university where he battled politics, financial strain and isolation.
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