‘’We stay when the others leave’’, is a line quoted from one of the lady Africans working in a German NGO Office, in the play World 3.0: The Aid Machinery. In the scene, the young lady explains or rather complains how she does the same kind of work that her European colleague does, but gets half the European salary.

But The Aid Machinery is not a play about how people of different races work and get paid in different offices and organizations. It is a play about the conflicts that arise between African and European communities on the basis of Development Aid. It focuses more on how funds get misused and how a lot of people get negatively affected by it.

In the play, an African village is given money to help construct a powerhouse which will help generate electricity for the whole village. It is the coming of this money that cause a lot of conflicts because of  the people that the NGO must first please with the money, in order to freely work on the project, which in the end does not help constructing the powerhouse.

The Aid Machinery, a nine cast play, directed by Clemens Bechtel and Thokozani Kapiri had its premier on the 8th of June, after having eight weeks of rehearsal. It is a play that brought together different funders of both Theatre and Development Aid to come and witness the reality of Development Aid.

(O’tooli Masanza)

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