Professor Nikkole Salter Returns to Zimbabwe, Bringing the Next Generation With Her

By Chad Eric Smith, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts

Twenty years ago, Professor Nikkole Salter traveled to Zimbabwe in connection with IN THE CONTINUUM, the acclaimed play she co-wrote with Danai Gurira. This September, Salter will return to the country for the first time since 2013—but this time, she will not be traveling alone.

Joining her will be Tashi Mhoon-Cooper, a senior in Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts with a concentration in Acting, whose participation is being supported by Dean Raquel Monroe’s BADGE initiative.

For Salter, the journey represents both a return and a continuation: an opportunity to revisit a place deeply connected to her artistic development while creating space for another Howard artist to begin building relationships of her own.

“It is deeply gratifying to return with Tashi—to open a door for her into the Southern African market, introduce her to theatre artists across the diaspora participating in the Festival, and, most importantly, pass the baton to the next generation,” Salter said.

Salter and Mhoon-Cooper will travel to Zimbabwe beginning September 19 for the Mitambo International Theatre Festival, taking place September 21–25 at locations throughout Harare.

 

On September 24 at 9 a.m., Salter will lead The Singular Voice: Constructing Dramatic Worlds Through Monologue at George Barnes @ Reps Theatre in Belgravia, Harare. Presented by the Mitambo International Theatre Festival and Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, the performance-based workshop examines how playwrights and performers can construct entire dramatic worlds through a single audible voice.

Rather than approaching monologue simply as a character telling a story, The Singular Voice explores monologue as active dramatic encounter—examining how character, circumstance, relationship, conflict, place and dramatic action can emerge even when the audience hears only one participant in an exchange.

Mhoon-Cooper will play an integral role in that exploration, performing excerpts from the American track of IN THE CONTINUUM—the portion of the play written by Salter—as a demonstration for workshop participants.

The collaboration gives Mhoon-Cooper the opportunity not only to perform internationally, but also to engage with theatre artists working across the African diaspora while experiencing firsthand the relationship between performance, pedagogy and artistic practice.

The following day, Salter and Mhoon-Cooper will visit Harare International School, where they will participate in a staged reading of Jocelyn Bioh’s Broadway play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play.

Salter’s return to Zimbabwe also reconnects her with a region that has remained closely tied to her work as a playwright.

Her first journey there came approximately two decades ago through her work with IN THE CONTINUUM, which centers the experiences of two Black women—one in the United States and one in Zimbabwe—whose lives are transformed by HIV diagnoses. Salter later returned to Zimbabwe through her work with Almasi Arts Collective.

Now, she sees bringing a Howard student with her as part of a larger responsibility to ensure those artistic relationships continue across generations.

“In doing so, we advance the department’s mission to cultivate and expand the African diasporic experience through the study and practice of theatre arts,” Salter said. “Twenty years ago, I don't think I could have imagined this particular moment, yet much of my work as a playwright has been in conversation with the diaspora. In many ways, this journey feels like a natural continuation of that work.”

The trip is supported through several intersecting partnerships. Salter will travel as a Creative Core member of Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, which has an existing relationship with Lloyd Nyikadzino, artistic director of the Mitambo International Theatre Festival. Mhoon-Cooper’s participation is being sponsored through BADGE, with additional connections involving the Mitambo International Theatre Festival, Zimbabwe Theatre Academy, and Howard’s Department of Theatre Arts.

Senior Acting major Khidir Webster has also contributed to Mhoon-Cooper’s preparation, serving as artistic director in the development of her performance work.

 

 

Salter’s journey will extend beyond the festival itself. While Mhoon-Cooper is expected to return following the festival, Salter will remain in Southern Africa through October 4, using the second portion of her trip to begin laying the groundwork for a potential study abroad program for Howard students in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

That forward-looking work gives the trip another dimension. What begins as a return to a place connected to Salter’s own artistic history may ultimately help create new pathways for Howard students to engage directly with theatre, artists and cultural institutions across the African continent.

For Salter, that continuum—from artist to educator, from one generation to another, and from an experience that began two decades ago to possibilities still being imagined—is precisely what makes the return meaningful.