MOTHERLAND
Motherland is a powerful audio drama where an East African soldier in WWII confronts colonialism, language, and identity. Haunted by the spirit of Swahili, he wrestles with belonging, memory, and the cost of service in a war not his own. A poetic reckoning with history, voice, and the idea of home.
Title: Motherland
Author: Ery Nzaramba
Format: Audio Drama
Based on: Archival sources from The National Archive (UK)
Length: Approx. 25 min
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Synopsis
Motherland follows Shelele, an East African man who, in desperation to save his ailing wife and newborn daughter, joins the British Colonial Army during World War II. The drama opens with Shelele pleading with a local shopkeeper for medicine on credit, only to be directed to the British recruitment office, where promises of pay and stability are offered in exchange for enlistment.
As Shelele is absorbed into the colonial military machine, he navigates grueling training, cultural dislocation, and the brutalities of war on foreign soil. In the midst of the chaos, a mysterious voice begins to haunt him—a voice later revealed to be that of Swahili, the personified spirit of the language, culture, and collective memory of the East African coast.
Swahili, part guide and part conscience, presents herself as a mother figure—the Motherland—offering both nurturing wisdom and harsh truths. Through a poetic and at times surreal dialogue, she educates, challenges, and ultimately mourns the fate of her “children”: African soldiers like Shelele, whose sacrifices are unacknowledged, their legacy lost to the whitewashed narratives of empire.
As Shelele begins to break down under the psychological weight of war, the indifference of colonial officers, and the ghostly revelations of Swahili, he questions the cost of loyalty, the erasure of his people’s history, and the future of his identity. The story concludes with Shelele’s commendation for bravery being read aloud—a gesture of recognition too little, too late. Swahili laments that her children will be forgotten by history, choosing to mimic the language of their colonizers rather than speak their own.