Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Editor Sanatu Zambang:
Abdul Raafi Fishbone is set to travel to Accra with other creatives to stage the Interrupted
Dream’’ play at the 2023 Pagya festival. Interrupted Dream is part of the Tampuli Zugu series which was written and directed by Abdul Raafi. It explores the different themes that we experience every day in our society. In this series, he implores different techniques to communicate his theme. Some of the techniques include spoken words poetry, and silent performance. Etc.
The 2023 Pagya festival is the first time that Abdul Raafi would be presenting a work though
he had previously attended the festival last year. For Interrupted Dream, he will be going with
two poets, Genius Hakim and Asmaila Rahinatu and Fatima Sumani, creative director at
Fatsu Fashion House as costume design.
Sanatu Zambang took the opportunity to interact with one of the cast members, Asmaila
Rihanatu to share with us about her character, what people should take away from the play
and what she thinks of Pa Gye. Speaking about her character,
‘’I have now decided to put myself in the character completely because I don’t view the
character as a bad person as people see it. I just view the character as someone who is confident and someone who believes in herself and someone who believes in her tradition and African beliefs and norms. That is just how I see it. I don’t see her as a bad person.’’
‘’I don’t want people to see witchcraft as something which is bad. People who eat people all
those things. I don’t want people to begin to associate witchcraft with women.There are men too who are accused of witchcraft. Mostly it is the women who get more of the blaming and suffer the more. I just want people to see this woman as a young lady as a human being and
then people are entitled to their own opinion and views if they watch the play. But for me, I
just feel witchcraft shouldn’t be a bad thing.
‘’I have not had the opportunity to be in this before. I think, it is a lifetime opportunity and it will do a lot for people in the creative space. For me as a young person, it will give me space to find myself more. I think the art of writing is a journey you find yourself and discover who you are and the extent to which you can go. So it is a learning process. It is going to be an honour to learn from people who have been in the space for a very long time.’’
Asmaila Rahinatu
Rahinatu also appealed to the organisers of the festival to come up North. According to her,
there are young and creative people who are looking for this kind of opportunity to explore
their talent so as to be heard and seen as well. But because we do not have platforms of this
kind here, most of them are not able to
Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra is a three-day literary arts festival featuring activities
such as readings, panel discussions, performances, book launches, literary prize awards, art
talks, art and literary exhibitions, film screenings, and many more.
The festival engages all literary forms — fiction, poetry, spoken word, comic and graphic
novels, creative non-fiction and literary blogging.
The festival also offers booksellers, publishers and independent authors space to showcase and sell their books. Writers, poets, literary performers, academics, editors, illustrators, librarians, literary agents,
bloggers and many other literary practitioners from Ghana, Africa, the Black Diaspora and all
over the world find a welcoming space to showcase their works and fraternise during the
festival.
