Danai Gurira plays the character, Michonne, on AMC’s series “The Walking Dead”
Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright, Danai Gurira, talks about giving African women a voice. “Eclipsed” is a Tony-award winning Broadway play about African women by African women.
The play breaks the barrier of being the first Broadway play with an all female creative team of any color. The writer, the director, and the cast are all female, as well as all black.
Dana saw an article in “The New York Times” about women rebel fighters in 2003 at the height of the Liberian civil war. They were “formidable, frightening women of war.” She wanted to tell the story of these African women in war and give these woman a voice.
Mike Walter, of “Full Frame” on CCTV America, talks with Danai about the process of bringing the story to life through her researching and writing the play.
11:35 minute video by CCTV America
Dana is asked to talk about the emotional period of putting the story to paper.
The thing that is very important… I immerse myself in all the research, all the voices, all the experiences that I can and really allow myself to really be soaked and saturated with it. And then I have to allow myself to, and this is going to sound like an irreverent term, but I have to allow myself to play.
Because I have to allow characters to come to life that are full and rich and real and alive and whose voices I can hear, but they’re their own voices. And so that involves a myriad of emotions and the play involves a myriad of emotions.
I am showing women who are fully formed. They are women who have chosen to survive a brutal war zone and they have chosen to do it through ways you might find surprising.
You have to allow yourself to play and that means you navigate through several different experiences emotionally and yes, sometimes it should bring you to tears. You should weep and you should weep a lot.
Mike Walters asks “Do you ever think there is going to be this barrier and who is going to care about these women or did you just know I’m going to make them care?”
When you are born black and female…. the who is going to care question comes up, but you have to just ignore that. You have to have what I sometimes call your fairy god mommas, you know… your Maya Angelous, your Harriet Tubmans, your Cicele Tysons, … whoever.. but they are women who have broken barriers in the past. So that’s your legacy. That has to be your legacy.
You have to say “I care about this and I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities and I’m going to put it out there.” I believe there will be a response and I’m going to do it and that’s definitely something I decided before I even started creating narratives.
I saw the lack, I saw the dearth of narratives that covered from where I was from and I was going to put it out there. I can’t second guess it or edit responses before I create it. I have to do what I’m called to do just to be a creator of works. I have to trust that the right people will come along and receive those works and will champion those works.But I can’t stop myself before I start because then I’m denying someone of their voice.
Dana speaks four languages: French, Shona, basic Xhosa, and English. She currently best known for playing the character, Michonne, on the AMC show “The Walking Dead”.
Wikipedia entry for Danai Gurira
Wikipedia entry for play “Eclipsed”
In 2003 Christian and Muslim women joined forces to work for peace. Leymah Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work leading the women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. They helped bring about the end to the ongoing brutal civil war by bringing sides to negotiation.