Zambia meets Lethbridge to create A Chitenge Story

A half decade ago, when she was a theatre student at the University of Lethbridge, Makambe K. Simamba made a pilgrimage of sorts to her birthplace of Zambia.

It became the template for her solo show A Chitenge Story, which opens March 20 at the Pumphouse Theatre, in which Simamba returns to Zambia to confront her childhood abuser and to reconnect with her Zambian self.

It’s tempting to say Simamba went home to Zambia, but by that stage of her life – after leaving Zambia at seven, living for a decade in the Caribbean with her family, before emigrating on her own to Canada, “where are you from?” wasn’t such an easy question to answer anymore.