The Sunday Mail
Tsitsi Dangarembga
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
FOR 35 years Zimbabwe has celebrated one Independence Day after another without a National Cultural Policy.
Through those three-and-a-half decades, many voices in the arts and culture sector, some late and some still soldiering on, have cried out for this to be rectified.
This is all about to change as the formulation process, policy review and validation process of the Draft National Cultural Policy, which began in 2012, nears its conclusion.
Though this sounds good, of which it is, not everybody within the arts and culture sector is happy with some sections of the draft and in this light, the Arterial Network hosted a discussion with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture as they presented a document of their position on the draft in the capital last week.
Amongst the various artistes in the room was controversial but renowned author and film producer, Tsitsi Dangarembga, who called for “seriousness and order” to everyone involved in drafting the policy if they expect future generations to benefit from it.
“I have a huge problem that I have always been talking about at every platform lately and that is the definition of art. I am an artiste, I am not a cultural practitioner,” said Dangarembga.
“It’s difficult to differentiate the two but if we want to do things that work on the ground, we at least have to know what we are talking about in the context of Zimbabwe in the 21st century. This culture policy is talking about making money out of the arts, that’s all. I believe a proper policy would have had a section where it mentions the art and strategies on how to develop in relation to the creative economy of the arts.
“Unless we know what we talking about and set our definitions right, we are going to continue talking and yet going nowhere. We have a lot of arts activity on the ground but they are not moving us in a sensible sustainable way because we do not understand what art really is.
“If we are talking about a policy that does not look at the rest of the world, the region or our own neighbours, then what are we talking about?
“Are we talking about the future or are we talking about the past? There is nothing wrong with going back, that is heritage.
“But we are talking about contemporary, we talking about tomorrow, the question of how we use heritage to add value to today is central and we are not addressing it in this policy,” reasoned Dangarembga.
She added: “When I was engaged concerning this policy the question that came to my mind after hearing about this was what do we want to achieve with this policy? Do we want to leave a thriving film and book industry for our children or we are going to leave them 200 years behind the rest of the world?
“When we look at sport, we have made some commendable progress as a nation, though we still we make terrible mistakes, you can see that there is a concept we are trying to follow. We have agreed to become part of the community of sport and the economies of it – we understand that one has to be good at what they do.
“So unless we can do the same for arts and see how it adds value to the society, we can just stop drafting this policy until we are ready and serious about it. The Culture Fund has spent well over US$90 000 in making this policy but we cannot continue wasting such an investment if we are not ready and don’t understand what we are trying to achieve.”
Dangarembga also spoke about the undefined roles of sport and arts administrators in the ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture.
“If we are to have a successful arts and culture sector how can we have someone at administration level handling sport and also overseeing things in the arts? That scenario will never get us anywhere and we need to correct that. We need to have serious sensible people who will lead this process and create a brighter future for our children,” said Dangarembga.
Debate around Zimbabwe’s arts sector, especially the various fields that make up the arts industry, which some argue does not exist, is beginning to gather pace in the country. However, to avoid a situation where a law has to be amended so soon after a new constitution or after being enacted like the labour laws that have caused massive job losses in past few weeks – a lot of input from all stakeholders is still required before this policy document is validated.
