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Who we are
Our Vision
At Masoka Productions, we imagine a world where African culture is respected and well represented on the global stage, and cultural diversity is globally celebrated.
Our Mission
We are on a mission to share Africa with the world, and the world with Africa! We will do this through story and play.
About Us
Masoka Productions is an African storytelling (theatre) company based in South Australia. We showcase and celebrate the beauty and richness of Africa, its people, cuisines, cultures and traditions, in the form of story and play.
We are a unique theatre company, in that our performers are not necessarily professional actors, and our performances are inspired by the real experiences / stories of our performers. We work with local communities and groups, whom we train in traditional African storytelling / theatre, to develop confident and mesmerising storytellers.
Our Story
In 1996, a war broke out in Congo (DRC), forcing the family and community of Masoka to escape to a neighbouring country, Tanzania, where they were welcomed into a refugee camp. This camp was their home for the next eight years. To keep alive the children’s imagination and sense of “play”, stories were told around campfires at night—stories of where they came from, where they presently were, and where they were possibly headed. Stories were a means of protecting especially the children’s innocence, while also educating and preparing children and the youth for the realities of “life” ahead. Through stories, important information was conveyed, and a sense of identity and place was preserved, from one generation to the next, from one land to another.
Eight years after settlement in the refugee camp, Masoka and her family were granted protection by the Australian government and, in October 2005, they migrated to their third home in Australia, marking an end to their journey of homelessness—their journey as refugees. Then began a journey of cultural confusion and a terrible sense of displacement. Fifteen years later, the vision of Masoka Productions was born.
Below is a picture of Masoka and her village friends, in the Lugufu Refugee Camp, in Tanzania