The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya Last week in this very paper a friend and colleague in the arts ran an article in which he was very critical of Intwasa Arts Festival for hosting The Great Shakespeare Visual Arts Exhibition as part of its 2016 edition. His criticism was based on a rather, in my view, myopic premise that since Shakespeare was/is a British writer, celebrating him was akin to celebrating colonialism or something to that effect. (Who in his right mind, in this day and age would want to celebrate colonialism?)
Well, how wrong he was.
Frankly speaking Intwasa as an international festival whose mandate is celebrating diversity — diversity of cultures and creativity in its various forms.
By the way William Shakespeare is not the first writer or artiste to be celebrated by the festival. For years Intwasa as a festival has sought to honour and celebrate writers, especially local writers who have contributed to the literary life of the city and the country. These have been honoured and celebrated in different ways. It is a public secret that the festival was the first to honour the late Dr Yvonne Vera for her contribution to writing in this country. For several years the festival ran a short story writing competition whose prizes/awards were named after Yvonne Vera. In 2015 funded by Culture Fund of Zimbabwe under its culture impacts programme the festival commissioned the adaptation of one of Vera’s novels — Without a Name.
The play was launched during the 2015 edition.
In the same vein the festival also sought to celebrate Ndabezinhle S. Sigogo’s contribution to Ndebele literature by naming a prize for Ndebele short story competition after his name. This competition went on for a few years before fizzling out due to funding challenges. Intwasa has also honoured the likes of Isaac Mpofu and Barbara Makhalisa for their contribution to Ndebele literature. A few years back Cont Mhlanga was the guest of honour during the 2013 edition, all because of what he has contributed to the arts in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe at large. For someone looking from outside these efforts might not mean anything, they might not even be enough, but the festival can only do what is possible, given the limited resources it has.
The question my friend the critic and others who think like him asked is: Why Shakespeare? My first and gentle response was to list the above reasons. That the festival is about diversity and that in the past it has celebrated other artistes before. A not so gentle response is: Why not? Doesn’t Shakespeare deserve to be celebrated in Africa? I could be very wrong but I believe festivals are non-political spaces. In celebrating Shakespeare during the festival Intwasa and British Council were actually furthering cultural ties between Zimbabwe and the UK. Of course we cannot ignore our history. However, it is unfortunate when we suddenly sneak our political views into our criticism for obvious reasons. In all honesty, British Council could have celebrated Shakespeare without Intwasa’s help. But this year Intwasa could not have had a 12th edition without British Council support. Politics that does not push us to the next level has no place in the arts. We want progressive criticism and progressive politics.
Anyway the Shakespeare Exhibition sought to examine how local artistes interpreted Shakespeare’s work visually — nowhere in the exhibition is colonialism mentioned or celebrated. And the artistes did amazingly well. I was particularly blown away by Danisile Ncube’s work. His sculptors were inspired by plays such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and Merchant of Venice. Still vivid in my mind weeks after the launch of the exhibition is the Julius Caesar-inspired piece about someone being stabbed in the back. His other piece dubbed Pound of flesh inspired by Merchant of Venice was a stroke of genius. George Masarira also had interesting pieces. But it needs one to actually visit the National Art Gallery and actually see the pieces to be able to really appreciate them. The Great Shakespeare Exhibition runs at the gallery till November. Go and see it.
