The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
CULTURAL mobility, especially cross-border mobility of cultural professionals has become a major source of income for artistes and those working in the sector. This mobility has also greatly enhanced the viability of the creative sector and in many an African country this is now the lifeblood of the creative economy.
The mobility of artistes and cultural workers is mostly influenced by the need to seek new and viable markets, better conditions for artistic growth — this includes the search for better training opportunities. Sometime artistes move into other countries to exchange works of art and to collaborate. In Zimbabwe most of the so called successful artistes are those that have been able to move around the region, to Europe, Asia and America performing, selling their art work, holding workshops, and teaching in classrooms. These cross border artistes and cultural workers have done much better than those whose business is done strictly within Zimbabwe’s borders. In all honesty this cross border mobility of cultural professionals has and continues to enhance the viability of the creative sector in more ways than one.
Zimbabwean cultural professionals travelling out of Zimbabwe have had challenges. Many have failed to travel simply because they could not meet the travelling requirements of the countries they intended to visit. However, it is travelling into Zimbabwe by foreign artistes that have become a serious cause for concern — especially for arts event managers, cultural promoters and the sector itself. Bringing foreign artistes into the country has, to say the least, become unsustainable. Only promoters or event organisers with deep pockets can afford bringing foreign artistes into the country. For those pursuing a developmental agenda that avenue has become unsustainable.
An activity which used to be simple has now become complicated, taxing and expensive. Now getting a foreign artiste into Zimbabwe whether for a cultural exchange programme, arts festival or simply as part of arts promotion is no longer a simple stroll in the park as it used to be years back. Then an artiste could just drive in or jet in (depending on how fat the promoter’s wallet was) without any hassles. If at all an artiste got deported in those days it was for other reasons — mainly that the artiste would have been either very critical of Government or the ruling party or would have been found on the wrong side of the law. But nowadays most of the deportations concerning cultural professionals are about temporary work permits and in most of these cases it is not that the promoters were not aware of the requirements but because most find the process too cumbersome and expensive.
Five hundred American dollars is very reasonable is you are bringing in big artistes and big bands. For a promoter bringing in Joe Thomas, John Legend, Hugh Masekela, Baba Maal and other big names to Zimbabwe that amount is very insignificant. For shows that are going to be attended by thousands of people paying top dollar for the event, so 500 dollars is nothing. The challenge only comes in when the 500 dollar fee is a blanket fee for every artiste coming into the country. For a poet who is coming to perform for 30 people or for a writer who is coming to do a reading to a closed group, or a painter coming for an exhibition that will attract 50 people, or for a community theatre group still looking for audiences 500 dollars is too much.
This cumbersome process is having a negative effect on the mobility of cultural professionals into Zimbabwe and as a consequence festivals and many promoters have stopped looking for any foreign artistes for their events.
The process of clearing takes one into four Government offices — National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ), Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), Censorship Board and Immigration. There must be a way of having all this done by one office — perhaps just NACZ has to do all the clearing in consultation with the other offices. And also there should be a blanket fee for everything/ the whole process. The business of parting with money in every office is not conducive for the survival of the arts.
True, artistes should be cleared, they must follow procedure, but as a country we must create a conducive atmosphere to attract artistes and their work into Zimbabwe and this could also lead to collaborations and local artistes also getting opportunities outside Zimbabwean borders.
To be honest the current requirements are just too many and too stifling. A promoter has to move from one office to another, from one Government department to another — this is time consuming and expensive, more so if you do not live in the city where all those offices are. I strongly believe that promoters and cultural practitioners should start advocating for the creation of a one-stop shop for mobility information and services. This could lessen the burden and make life much easier for those in the business of importing cultural products and services in Zimbabwe.
