By Ashley Zolkov
Three new full-time lecture appointments were recently announced by the College of the Arts as from this trimester.
The lecturers are:
Beatrix Munyama: Lecturer for Dance
Namibian born Beatrix (Trixie) Munyama is a young, dynamic and vibrant persona who studied at the School of Dance at the University of Cape Town from 2003 to 2005 where she was awarded the Dance Teachers’ Diploma in African Dance. She majored in African Dance and other subjects included Principles of African Dance, Ethnomusicology, Dance Teaching Methodology, Anthropology, Contemporary Dance, Jazz, Tap, Spanish Dance, Choreography, Theatre Studies and the Practice of African Music.
Trixie attended the Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, London from 1989 to 1994, and thereafter Leyton College in London from 1994 to 1997 where she studied Contemporary Dance, Drama, Music and Theatre Studies.
Since 1999, Trixie has been connected to the Ongwediva Teachers’ Resource Centre. First serving as Project Manager she worked on the Tudhaneni Dance and Arts Development Project, as well as organizing arts development workshops and networking with various artists and institutions within Namibia. In addition, she served as Arts and Culture advisor to Ondangwa West and East Education Offices and facilitated at teachers’ workshops on arts lesson planning and teaching.
From 2002 to 2003 Ms Munyama taught both theoretical and practical Performing Arts at the Ongwediva College of Education and was also involved in their re-development of course curriculum and teaching methodology.
In the first semester of 2006, Trixie was guest Lecturer at the University of Namibia in the Performing Arts Department where she taught Principles of Music and Dance,
African Dance Studies – a fourth year course, where she initiated course evaluation.
Jackson Mbwayakalola Wahengo: Lecturer for Jazz/Light Guitar
Jackson Wahengo was born in May 1978 in Zambia and grew up in Kwanza Zul from 1979 to 1989. After briefly living in Brazzaville, Congo he moved with his mother to Namibia in 1989.
Jackson attended the Mweshipandeka High School in Ongwediva. Jackson recalls that his aunt played a guitar in church but that this instrument later fell into disuse. Still, he was able to string it with only 3 strings using fishing line! On this he was able to play some traditional music.
Later his brother returned from Cuba with an “international” guitar. Jackson would watch his brother play and copy as best he could. At the time, the only song he could play was the La Bamba and he continued to play this “for a whole year”.
He was often asked to play music but would only play this song! Later when asked to perform at a school concert, the ‘boy with the guitar’ extended his repertoire to include Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry!
After completing Grade 12, Jackson moved to Windhoek and began lessons at the College of the Arts with Eghardt Volschenk from the end of 1998 to 2001.
Jackson says he practised “all day and all night”, often more than ten hours per day. In 2001 and 2002, Mr. Wahengo served as part-time lecturer at the College.
In 2003 he enrolled at the University of Cape Town in the Music Department and was awarded a Diploma in Music (Jazz Studies ) in 2005. His teachers included Mike Rossi, Mike Campbell, Darryl Andrews and Andrew Lilly.
The College of the Arts is proud to have this infusion of new blood and talent on its staff and hope that they will be with us for many years to come.
Lucky Pieters: Head of Department National Arts Extension Programme (NAEP)
Renowned Namibian playwright Lucky Pieters was born in Windhoek in 1969. He completed his Grade 12 through TUCSIN in 1989 and went on to successfully complete a Higher Educational Teacher’s Diploma at UNAM in 1993.
Mr Pieters has been extensively involved in Arts and Drama since high school where he was a member of the cultural group of Jan Jonker Afrikaner.
He has acted in a myriad of productions, by playwrights as diverse as Frederick Philander (Katutura ’59, King of the Dump and Porridge Queen), Athol Fughardt (My Africa My Children and Siwze Bansi is Dead), Dalton Ashikoto (Street Brothers), Francis Nyati (The Oracle of Cindino), Joseph Molapong (The Laughter of Patience and At the Cross Roads) and Lazarus Jacobs (The Missing Link and Mr Haufiku). He has also been involved in several productions of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, including television and movies such as Deadly Unknown, The Other Side and radio plays by Joseph Molapong.
Pieters has written several plays: Echoes from the Slums in 1998, Mogomotsiemang in ’99, Still Loyal in 2003, Botshelo, the Refugee in 2004 and The Grave Manager in 2005. Mogomotsiemang won first prize at Namibia’s national Drama Festival and has been performed in Hanover Germany in 2000, in Zimbabwe and Botswana as well as Northern Ireland in 2001. It was published in 2002.
Lucky has facilitated several workshops including the Community Drama Workshop in 1998 in Drimiopsis, The Street Kid Theatre Workshop in 1999 in Gobabis, Tulimpamwe HIV/AIDS Workshop in Windhoek in 2002, The Child I Carry Workshop which celebrates the rights of children in 2003 as well as several workshops of NAPPA in 2005, The Forum Theatre and Invisible Theatre Workshop, Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS and Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop.
It is obvious that Lucky Pieters has been extensively involved in the community and cares deeply about its development. As a teacher at Jan Jonker Afrikaner High School, he successfully started women soccer clubs at the school as well as at Mokganedi Thabanello Senior Secondary School.
Lucky was Chairperson of the Namibian Women’s Soccer League from 1999 to 2003. The collaboration of Mr Pieters with Terence Zeeman at the University of Ulster in 2001 resulted in a Drama Teaching Manual which is widely used by Namibia Theatre practitioners and the University of Namibia.
The textbook has also been distributed at a regional level. An additional teaching resource book entitled 100 Short Scenes contains scenes written by students of Mr Pieters and was published in June 2006.
Previously employed as Drama lecturer Pieters will now take up the position of Head of Department of NAEP at the College of the Arts.
With his knowledge, experience and concern for community development as well as considerable strength of character, we are certain that Lucky will achieve great success in monitoring, controlling and developing arts programmes throughout Namibia. We wish him every success for future years.