The Sunday News
ALL things being equal, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, a quasi-government department under the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture should not be competing with small arts organisations for funding from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), embassies and the corporate sector. All things being equal the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture itself should not be getting funding from NGOs such as The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust so as to fund creation of long awaited national cultural policy. All things being equal there should be money for important things like a national cultural policy.
A national cultural policy is a critical document, a blueprint for the arts and the cultural sector. It sets guidelines and informs on the directions our culture and the arts should take. It is an important document that every nation that values its true identity should give top priority. A cultural policy should not come as an afterthought. To be honest if the culture of this country is as important as our leaders want us to believe it is, then the ministry should not be seen going around from one embassy to another, one donor to another with a begging bowl – almost the same way our poor individual artistes and community organisations are doing. Of course, there must be a big difference between a government department (quasi or not) and small arts companies or community arts groups. There must be even a bigger difference between small community artistes, their community organisations and a whole government ministry. Unfortunately, in this country, all things are not equal and that is why the ministry continues to get financial assistance from NGOs like The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust.
I just remembered that even our constitution, the most supreme document, was crafted with the help of foreign aid. Foreign money to be specific. So I guess there is no big deal there except that where the arts and culture are concerned certain questions beg to be answered. For example, if the Government, through the ministry cannot fund something like the creation of a national cultural policy then what will it fund? We know it has not funded anything meaningful in the sector. Also if it’s really true that culture is the soil of the nation then our Government should be prepared to put resources towards culture, and what better way than to fund the creation of a national cultural policy – a document to form the basis of a nation’s identity. Also if the ministry cannot fund a critical process such as the creation of a cultural policy document then what can local artistes and the whole arts sector expect from it? Is there any hope that Government, through the ministry, will ever put resources towards the arts? Or is everything just rhetoric – just to keep the artistes hopeful. Let us not forget that hope alone does not put food on the table. Hope does not create jobs for artistes. But resources do.
More than twice The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe put money towards the process of creating a national cultural policy. There is nothing wrong at all with that. One just expects Government to be doing that – funding critical national processes. I know the quickest answer will be Government has no money. Others will quickly point at the current economic situation. My honest feeling is that a national cultural policy is much more important than some of the galas our Government pours money into. Music galas are one day events and suspending them for a year so as to fund a national cultural policy would be a noble idea. I am raising this issue here today because it has taken over five years for us as a country to come up with a cultural policy. And five years is a life time!
