HIFA is made as magnificent as it is because of the assistance of a wide variety of people from artists, to caters, to people to guard cars. Here is a Kubatana inside out interview with Richard, who guards cars every year at HIFA.

Take a bow Richard.

Richard Chimunda – Postcard & Bag artist

Describe yourself in five words?
Freeman, social, Touring Game Parks.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I mustn’t be boring and I must dress nice. Life is too short to blend in.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
Having sex with chicks.

What is your most treasured possession?
Talent for football.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Poverty.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
Going out with my friends and reading novels in the park, Romeo & Juliet because its about love.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
Being discriminated against because I’m a Dreadman.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Watching movies in town. They’re $5.

What have you got in your fridge?
I don’t have a fridge.

What is your greatest fear?
Being in water; I cannot swim.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
My wallet and my ID card.

What is your favourite journey?
It is still to come. To Europe to see my arts.

Who are your heroes in real life?
My grandfather, because he is the father of my father.

When and where were you happiest?
When I’m playing soccer.

What’s your biggest vice?
Making bags and postcards.

What were you like at school?
My classmates liked me. I was better in English than they were.

What are you doing next?
I don’t know.

This video shares a clip from the HIFA performance Burn Mukwerekwere Burn, which discusses xenophobic violence in South Africa through the story of two Zimbabweans caught in the middle of it.

ABQ 8021 Licensed to Ziuku in Ardbennie

The man driving this kombi tried to run me off the road last night on Borrowdale road at 9;30. He crept up to my bumper then suddenly switched on his brights. When I took my foot off the gas and slowly began to reduce my speed he switched on his hazards and did not decrease his speed. He changed lanes as if to pass me, but returned to my lane. I got his license plate number when he finally passed me.

He had a kombi full of people all going to Hatcliffe, and was speeding. Meanwhile our legislators are more concerned about having every motorist in Zimbabwe install a fire extinguisher in their cars.

How many more tens of thousands of people must die in kombi related accidents before dangerous drivers like this are taken off the road?

BabaGilbert comes home unable to contain his excitement; a well placed friend of his has given him good news. After years of being reduced to scrounging to make ends meet selling chicken feet and airtime he and his wife are about to make a quick recovery. His connection has told him that the Zimbabwe dollar is about to make a comeback. The Unity Government and the multicurrency system ruined his dealer business, but things are about to change. When the Zim-dollar comes back BabaGilbert is going to make it bigger than before; he is going to open a bank.

Next door lives a teacher, Justice. His girlfriend, Happiness Dube, won’t let him forget that she is their primary bread winner. Happiness has managed to maintain her business through the transition, doing deals in town during the day and drinking and partying all night. For Justice nothing has really changed since the days of the dollar. He is still underpaid, unable to buy his girlfriend a decent engagement ring. Scorned by Happiness and convinced that the dollar is about to make a comeback, Justice quits his teaching job and joins Baba naAmai Gilbert Merchant Bank as a manager.

Colours of Dreams is an hilarious tongue in cheek portrait of those Zimbabweans who prospered in the last days of the Zimbabwe Dollar.

Photo by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

The xenophobic violence in South Africa has grabbed headlines in South Africa. Gangs of angry young South Africans frustrated by poverty and unemployment took to the streets of townships like Kayelitsha in Cape Town brutally assaulting and killing hundreds of foreigners.

Burn Mukwerekwere Burn is the story of two Zimbabweans caught in the middle of the maelstrom. The play is at times brutal in its honesty and assessment of the reasons why there are an estimated three million Zimbabweans resident in South Africa. As they attempt to journey to safety, they reflect on the predicament they find themselves in and characters are forced to deal with their own tribal differences.  Njabulo is a Shona teacher reduced to carving trinkets for foreigners to buy. Farai, is Ndebele and a trader in South Africa to restock in time for the holidays.

Written by Blessing Hungwe, featuring himself and Michael Kudakwashe, this narrative is the woven perspectives of both protagonists, trying to survive a night of horror in South Africa. Ultimately they come to understand that the things that bind them together, a love of country and life, are greater than the things that keep them apart.