Finding the Footlights; With government support, Kenya's arts scene comes to life.

Byline: Alexandra Polier

Fifty is a bit old to be breaking into a career--especially in Kenya, where the average life expectancy is 43. But playwright John Sibi-Ukumu is doing just that. His new work, "Role Play"--an unapologetic look at racial stereotypes in modern Kenya--was chosen to premiere at the historic reopening of Nairobi's National Theater this fall. Such gratification has been a long time coming for Ukumu, who studied linguistics at the University of Nairobi and then worked as a French teacher. He put off his desire to write for fear of the repressive regimes of presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi; one of his professors, the prolific and outspoken writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, was among those routinely censored, persecuted and tortured by government thugs. "There always has to be a group of people who pay this really heavy price, and then everybody else gets to enjoy the fruit," Ukumu says.

Today many Kenyans are enjoying the feast. Ukumu is just one of a number of artists and writers flourishing under the new democracy of President Mwai Kibaki. His election in December 2002 marked the first time in the nation's 43-year history that an opposition party had tasted power, and it unleashed a wave of national optimism. The government began supporting and funding the arts, sparking a cultural boom. New works by Kenyan writers are filling bookstore shelves and local stages. The Godown, Nairobi's first arts center, just opened, featuring an art gallery, a dance studio with performance space, a painters' studio, high-tech recording facilities and a coffeehouse. "The floodgates have been opened," says Ukumu. "We're moving forward. This is the second liberation."

This cultural resurgence has also inspired the homecoming of an icon: Ngugi, who stepped onto Kenyan soil last month for the first time in 22 years. When the author fled in 1982, his departure signaled the start of a cultural collapse that lasted for two decades. Now the rebuilding has begun. "There has been a huge renaissance," says Rob Burnet, east Africa program officer for media, arts and culture at the Ford Foundation, which recently footed the bill for the Godown.

Binyavanga Wainaina started the renaissance in 2002 with "Discovering Home," the first Kenyan novel to win Africa's top writing award, the Caine Prize. "Wainaina is the driving force of the young literary community," says Burnet. "He really broke the ice." Wainaina, 33, writes bluntly and humorously, sometimes using slang to depict day-to-day life in Kenya. He says the new generation is ...