The contrast could not be greater: in front of a jet-black background stand four actors in radiantly feminine clothes. This visual reflects the content of the play "the women are coming again, performed at the gymnasium as part of the herzogenaurach cultural days. It is about africa, about the contrast between black and female, between rich and poor, and about the reasons for it.
It's like a computer game. A black sow, the omnipotent "gamemaster at the back of the stage with two bright spotlights, constantly gives new instructions to the four and decides whether they will advance to the next round. The players are not subject to any rules in their plans. Anything that maximizes profit is permitted, including theft, robbery and genocide. The owling stucco tells all aspects of the past centuries since the first conquest attempt.
The four actors natascha menzel, jean-theo jost, dimo wendt and H.G. Frieze of the theater ensemble berliner compagnie were stooges of the big corporations and olmultis, bankers and landowners, warlords, colonizers and slave traders.
One violated the rule of the game "no pity", he had to change sides, went from being an exploiter to being exploited, from being an oppressor to being oppressed, from being a conqueror to being conquered, and stepped down to become a "black man" to return to the stage.
This blackening was done under the whole bandwidth of performing skills. The passages that remain in the memory of the visitors are certainly the ones that contained atrocities and were described by the performers. Atrocities committed against the people of africa, for which, as a member of the white race, one had to be ashamed for all eternity.
A gross misunderstanding
Author helma fries and director elke schuster have made several trips to africa. The experience gained and knowledge of sites and people alike were incorporated into the piece.
Fries and schuster were motivated to write this piece by the observation that there is a gross misunderstanding in the public between, on the one hand, a very strong emotional involvement due to the distress spread by the media and, on the other hand, a catastrophic lack of knowledge of the real causes.
In surveys, when asked about tools to fight hunger in the world, food aid, development aid or better nutrition are almost exclusively mentioned government leadership called. Most of the citizens do not associate the miserable situation with the current world economic rules set by the EU and their own government, nor with the european colonial history, nor with their own consumption.
Africa was exploited during the colonial era, and even today, large corporations are helping themselves to the treasures of the black continent, even the illegal diamond trade is experiencing a new flowering. Foreign investors are buying up huge amounts of land and water reserves in africa. The result of this "land grabbing will be increased destruction of the environment and even less food security for the population.
War for raw materials
The monoculture cultivation enforced by the colonial power has made many african countries dependent on the food supply trade in coffee, tea, cocoa and cotton – products whose prices fluctuate widely on the world market. Even though commodity prices have risen again in recent times, what african small farmers receive for their products is barely enough for their livelihoods.
Cell phones and computers, the whole wonderful digital world we live in, contributes to the endless prolongation of wars in africa, because the raw materials needed for these devices are a great source of money for warlords and transnational corporations.
And all this, all these present violations of africa by europe, happen after 100 years of colonial rule and 300 years of slave trade. At least 60 million african people were killed in the slave trade, according to the latest research, which also includes the deaths of slave hunters.
The prolonged applause at the end of the play was probably more for the rough acting performance than for the ouching journey through the history of africa and europe.