•A scene from JRT’s production of Karel Capek’s Rossum’s Universal Robots
The Czech Republic is lending its support to a Nigerian arts initiative aimed at fostering social change. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Czech Aid, said a statement, are backing Jos Repertory Theatre’s (JRT) “Beautiful Camp” programme as part of the broader Transition Project. This collaborative effort seeks to empower individuals and organisations through a series of interventions focusing on gender equality, human rights, governance and civil liberties.
The Transition Project, a locally-driven transformation initiative, utilises various strategies to strengthen participants and promote positive societal change. By addressing critical issues through artistic expression, the project aims to cultivate a more informed and engaged citizenry, particularly among Nigeria’s youth population.
The national Transition Promotion programme enables the Czech Republic to coordinate the political and programme levels of its human rights activities. The purpose of the programme is to select, manage and fund projects and activities promoting human rights and transition in keeping with the aims and priorities identified by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and these include education, awareness raising and the sharing of the Czech transition experience.
In the case of the Jos Repertory Theatre Beautiful camp programme, they will be sharing the above aims under the auspices of the arts which is part of her mission statement – using the arts to confront issues that daily affect us hence tailoring Beautiful Camp to local conditions. The programme will also inculcate in youths active citizenship developing their ability to evaluate information critically learning to form their own views. Part of the goals of Beautiful Camp is to show how important their voice is, supporting them in articulating that voice and showing what they can do when they mobilise together.
The Beautiful Camp which has opened is using the arts to intervene in different organisations who will also replicate projects in their different locations.
The project participants are from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria with two participants from each zone. There will be five facilitators who are versed in the above fields who will coordinate and facilitate activities in the four days camp. The first interventions will be done virtually from Jos before the physical camp will take place in Abuja. It will be a three-day interaction with participants from different zones in an atmosphere of games, lectures, spoken word, seminars and community service.
It is expected that the physical camp will be the culmination of a twinning exercise that will see the participants develop their own projects across their different geo-political zones to enrich and enhance the aims of the Transition Project in an atmosphere of equality and non-discrimination leveraging on equal political and public participation using a myriad of arts interventions.
JRT recently toured the Czech Republic with the iconic Vaclav Havel’s play Audience directed by Patrick-Jude Oteh to enthusiastic audiences who cherished and enjoyed the play under the auspices of the Creative Africa festival.
Beautiful Camp has participants from Nigeria’s geo-political zones who will meet virtually and later physically in a location that will be suitable and accessible for all participants. The participants would share dialogue, experiences, future plans and with these they would be able to decide on what projects both suit them as individuals and groups that they can replicate across borders. It is worthy to note that the Transition Project builds on the humanistic thoughts and ideals of John Amos Comenius and Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and the recent thoughts of Vaclav Havel.
Working with the Czech Embassy, Abuja, the physical camp will open in the city of Abuja in September 2024.