Zimbabwe has a host of talented people helping to make it both survive and grow. Kerry Wallace is one of them. He manages one of the best restaurants in the country, dishing up stunning food laced with his special brand of humour. Every year Kerry keeps audiences at HIFA well fed and wowed at his food stall on the green.

Kubatana went inside out with Kerry, ex-garden boy; currently a cook-boy.

Describe yourself in five words?
Another fucker out to lunch.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Kids be free to do whatever you want to do, and be whatever you want to be just as long as you don’t hurt anybody. (Wise words from the musical Hair).

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
Everything.

What is your most treasured possession?
My Ipod with over 10 000 songs on it from the 60s onwards.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being on my own.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
Cruising.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My bald head from the back. And being cut at birth – my circumcised dick.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

What have you got in your fridge?
Café leftovers.

What is your greatest fear?
Well it ain’t dying that’s for sure!

What is your favourite journey?
On my own to Cape Town to see my mother.

Who are your heroes in real life?
John Lennon and Neil Young: peace and love is what they have in common.

When and where were you happiest?
Life’s always been fraught.

What’s your biggest vice?
Alcohol.

What were you like at school?
The Organiser.

What are you doing next?
Hopefully retiring to work in Nyanga or Juliasdale.

The Kubatana offices are on the second floor of an office building near the city centre of Harare. Yip, the women’s toilets are painted a garish pink, and the men’s a bright blue. Go figure. It seems like the whole of Harare is experiencing dry taps today, even whilst we’ve just had a major down pour – the last of the rainy season?

Zimbabwean audiences have been wowed for several years by Alenka Ponjavic who regularly performs at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).

Alenka graciously gave Kubatana some of her time and went Inside Out with us.

Alenka Ponjavic – the princess of the Balkans and Queen of Everyone and Everything and Everywhere else (she really believes this is true), Opera singer and Artist at HIFA.

Find out more about Alenka from her web site: www.alenkaponjavic.com

Describe yourself in five words?
Determined, a bit crazy, passionate, artistic, compassionate (I hope).

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
From my mother: if you’re going to do something, do it properly or don’t bother.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
Stapling a dress together, and singing in it in front of 5000 people. Ridiculous is necessary and very present.

What is your most treasured possession?
My voice.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
On a global scale, a large number of people not having access to basic necessities. Also for us who have these things, I feel miserable that exists.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
I write poetry and paint and don’t have any talent for it.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My nose and my double chin.

What is your greatest extravagance?
I don’t really have any.

What have you got in your fridge?
2 litres of milk that’s gone off, a bottle of champagne and a bit of cheese.

What is your greatest fear?
To be imprisoned for no reason. To be imprisoned innocent.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
No pockets on me!

What is your favourite journey?
All journeys are favourite. As long as they are journeys I am happy, and life itself is a journey.

Who are your heroes in real life?
I make a point of having no heroes. Ultimately when you meet a person who you think is a hero you realise they are just a person.

When and where were you happiest?
The day I got accepted at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study music. Its been a holiday ever since.

What’s your biggest vice?
Addiction to popcorn. I am in the process of developing Popcorn Anonymous. The first thing I checked at HIFA after dropping my suitcase was where the popcorn machine was. Otherwise I would have called Manuel.

What were you like at school?
One of those people who wanted to have lots of results without working too hard.

What are you doing next?
Ordering a carrot cake, my second biggest vice

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.

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.