The Sunday News
GENERALLY Bulawayo is known as the home of the arts. It is also known as the unofficial cultural capital of the country. Unofficial because Harare and the powers that be that also reside in Harare are yet to officialise this claim and we all know the reasons why nothing has been done yet. The status quo benefits no one but Harare and those that reside in the so called sunshine city.
Yes. Bulawayo is the home of the arts and Harare is the land of opportunities, many opportunities. Bulawayo is where many dreams have died and Harare is the place where dreams come true. Bulawayo discovers and grows talent. It is one place where people are still doing art for art’s sake. In Harare art pays rent and puts food on the table, a reason why the likes of Albert Nyathi, Africa Revenge, Busi Ncube, Dudu Manhenga, Don Gumbo and many others left Bulawayo and migrated to Harare. They needed to survive — to make a living out of their talents.
To be honest it would be myopic for us to blame Harare artistes for the marginalisation of Bulawayo arts and artistes. The artistes in Harare are just trying to make the best out of the situation — their concern is putting food on the tables of their families. Most are not worried about what happens out of Harare. And who can blame them? We believe the blame for the marginalisation of artistes from this region lies squarely on decision makers and those controlling resources that are coming into the arts — Government, NGOs, Embassies and Corporates.
First of all most corporates have their headquarters in Harare. This means decisions makers are in Harare. Bulawayo managers (most of them that is) take orders from Harare. They don’t make financial decisions. You knock on their doors and you are immediately referred to Harare where the answer is always negative. It’s always “Sorry, we have already given something to the arts.” And by that they mean they have already given something to Harare arts and arts organisations. Think of any big corporates in this country and try to remember them giving something substantial to Bulawayo events. Do you remember anything? We bet nothing comes to mind as it is always Harare they give their money to as if they make their money only in Harare.
Our Government is also guilty of the continued marginalisation of Bulawayo arts and artistes. Yes. Government at the moment does not fund artistes. But every year they take them to represent Zimbabwe in different countries. We know of artistes that have been taken to China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries in the last few years.
But how many of these were from outside Harare? How many have come from Bulawayo? We also know of artistes that have been made ambassadors. Yet Bulawayo has groups like Black Umfolosi and IYASA who travel all over the world raising the national flag but are never recognised as ambassador material.
NGOs and embassies too are guilty of the same crime. The marginalisation of Bulawayo arts and artistes. Most NGOs’ decision makers are in Harare. Important decisions on arts and culture are made in Harare. Artistes are contracted in Harare and then parachuted into other cities for programmes. Let’s take for example the circumcision campaign. They had all their artistes, the Harare artistes they wanted first. And then as an after-thought Albert Nyathi and one or two others were added as some kind of tokenism.
Foreign embassies are the worst. Most think Zimbabwe is Harare. They do their small cultural events in Harare, fund a few cultural events there, take the now too familiar and over exposed Harare artistes on cultural exchanges, and they are done with Zimbabwe.
Last but not least is the media. The fourth estate is contributing to the marginalisation of everything outside Harare. It is very rare to read news about Bulawayo artistes in the Herald, Sunday Mail, Financial Gazette, and other so called national publications. How many stories happening outside Harare do you see on our national broadcaster every day? Food for thought!
