Ryan Calais Cameron's The Afronauts turns Zambia's real 1964 bid to reach the moon into a Royal Court statement about who gets to have ambition.
Ryan Calais Cameron, author of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide, opens The Afronauts at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square on Saturday 14 November 2026. He co-directs with Monique Touko.
In 1960, Edward Makuka Nkoloso, a schoolteacher and veteran of the independence movement, founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy. He trained a dozen cadets, among them a 16-year-old girl called Matha Mwamba, rolling them down hills in oil drums.
Nkoloso meant to put them on the moon before the Americans or the Soviets. He applied to UNESCO for £7 million and planned the launch for Independence Day, 24 October 1964, from the Independence Stadium in Lusaka. Permission was refused.
The story is usually told as a joke. Cameron treats a newly independent country announcing a moon mission as a statement about what independence is for, and about who is allowed ambition.
His earlier play transferred to the West End with six actors and almost no set. The Afronauts plays at the Royal Court to Saturday 19 December 2026.