Artist the ruler

By Owen Chirinda

Oftentimes practitioners have complained that the arts industry is not paying, that there is lack of funding and so forth but have they stopped to wonder what it is they deserve funding for and from whom. While most writers have been preoccupied with writing plays that satisfy the tourist, that qualify for HIFA or Reps, who has been writing for society as an audience?

I personally have attended some shows and music events and alas, most of the audience has been other musicians and practitioners. Most people have complained that Zimbabwe’s theatrical and musical strongholds are based in the capital and do not go to the marginalized areas of Zimbabwe but tell u what, the marginalized areas are better of without the NGO funding because it has dirtied our concepts into propaganda and diverted our focus from being appreciative of our existence as Zimbabweans. All I have seen in the plays, in the Hip hop, excerpt in a very few paintings and curving is an element of suffering, or a subtle onslaught on the governments and institutions yet we do not stop to wonder what we want people to benefit from our vocal wares, we have not stopped to wonder who the government is and the consequence of what happens if we are to create a selfless system.

If we want art to be appreciated from within our societies then we have to do community service. So long have we focused on pain and despair, where is the optimism in our work? While we want as much to benefit from our art we are just like those institutions we castigate in the plays and music, acting up just like them, snatching ideas from around us,accumulating wealth from community life and efforts and keeping it to ourselves. Where is the social responsibility in our art,who is going to teach our children about the tales of tsuro na gudo if we keep focusing on the now and not remembering the past? The past that says the commune is forever united and triumphant.

 Marley once said ‘a people without a history is like a tree without roots.’ If we write to get a life then we shall be forgotten like the seasonal purple jacaranda flowers by the very children we want to raise. Poor rooted men are remembered more than rich foolish men. So we at X-pose say enough about the hate pieces already. Viva community service. Unless and until we own up our debts to society,we will not gain credibility for what we do among our people. We will fly to Berlin for premiers, to Amsterdam for concerts, to London for photo shoots yet that memory shall remain scattered across the globe and never with our people. So as we put pen to paper today, characters and rhymes dancing on the floors of our brain, let us keep in mind that our young brothers and sisters' failure today is ours to blame for we are not imparting wisdom in them. We are teaching them to be selfish and hypocritical, to forget our history and live selfishly, they too will forget us and we shall be remembered by the wrong people.