The Sunday News
Raisdon Baya
THIS past week I came across a tweet by one artiste where he was screaming “give me $100k. All I need is 100k. Not motivational talk or seminars, or workshops.” I quickly related to that tweet and I know a lot of Zimbabwean artistes who came across the tweet related to it too. The last five to 10 years the buzz words in the arts sector have been creative economy, arts as a business, and entrepreneurship.
Artistes have been encouraged to treat their art as a business and earn a living out of it. All this is said with good intentions.
However, it has all been mere rhetoric. All artistes have been getting is nothing but words. But business needs capital to start.
Workshops are not capital.
Motivational speeches from politicians are not capital. Artistes need money to start viable businesses. Well, not all of us need $100k but money we all need.
Politicians in this country do not trust the arts. They also do not understand the sector. This is why there is no political will to push art-related matters at higher levels. A big example is just the National Arts Policy. For over six years now the country has been talking about this important document. More than three ministers have passed through the ministry and nothing has come out. This non-commitment to the arts is also found among our businesspeople. Big businesses. They too do not trust artistes. They do not believe that local art is business.
Here are some examples of what business thinks of art, especially local art in this country. A year or so ago Kwese TV launched its Iflix project in Zimbabwe. This is basically a video on demand initiative where people can use electronic gadgets to watch content wherever and whenever. Iflix has no local content. It sells mostly American content.
When it was launched local artistes were told a channel for local content would soon be established. A year has gone and no local channel has been established yet. My take from this development is that the powers that be at Kwese TV and Iflix do not believe there is business to be made from selling local content. They can say anything in their defence but this is the truth.
Last week another video on demand product was launched by TelOne in Bulawayo. The product is called Digital Entertainment on Demand (DEOD). Again there was an apology from TelOne for the absence of local content on their product.
There was a promise to set up a channel for local content soon. Again local artistes are expected to rise up and applaud the new development. How do local artistes applaud business ventures that sideline their products and promote foreign content?
How does one applaud an initiative that tells you your products are not good enough for the platform?
Unfortunately, Kwese TV and TelOne are not the only ones that show lack of respect for local artistes. ZBC itself is known for its negative attitude towards local artistes. ZBC is known for not paying artistes after using their products or services.
As I write this article a lot of artistes are owed for their work by the national broadcaster. Other media houses are also guilty of the same attitude towards artistes. We know quite a number that do not pay royalties for the music they play on their stations.
Artistes can only make business out of their work with the help of other businesses, especially established ones. In other countries the majority of money coming into arts is from broadcasting and distribution. If big businesses like TelOne, ZBC and Kwese continue to treat artistes the way they are doing then local artistes have a long way to go. We surely cannot be talking business language on one hand and acting different when it suits us.
Zimbabwe needs policies that protect local artistes first. There should be policies that say one cannot sell foreign content alone in Zimbabwe. Local artistes need to be protected or else they all will die in poverty and become material for comedians.
