Here’s a press release from Magamba. Get on down to the Book Cafe this Thursday!

MAGAMBA CULTURAL ACTIVIST NETWORK AND PAMBERI TRUST TO HOST MUSIC FREEDOM DAY IN ZIMBABWE

THURSDAY 3 MARCH, **7PM** *

*THE BOOK CAFÉ *

Music Freedom Day will be celebrated in Zimbabwe on March 3rd at the Book Café in Harare. The event organized by leading arts organisations Magamba the Cultural Activist Network and Pamberi Trust will feature a fantastic array of Zimbabwean artists who support the message of freedom of musical expression. Music Freedom Day is an annual event where musicians, music clubs, cultural institutions, broadcasters and media join Freemuse in the celebration of freedom of musical expression. Magamba is a grassroots organization using arts for positive social change while Pamberi Trust runs two of Harare’s leading arts venues aswell as various arts projects.

Artists on the line up include Comrade Fatso & Chabvondoka, Alexio & Shades of Black aswell as Outspoken & the Essence. Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka are an explosive, genre-busting, insurgent band that defy musical boxes and modern day apolitical pop music. As Zimbabwe’s leading protest band Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka launched in 2008 their much-acclaimed album, House of Hunger, praised internationally but banned by the Zimbabwean authorities because of its outspoken criticism of the repressive regime. They have performed extensively, having been invited to perform at festivals all over the world.

Alexio Kawara and Shades of Black are one of the most exciting acts from Zimbabwe’s new generation of artists. Alexio’s fresh urban musical mix is extremely popular. His song Shaina catapulted him to fame in Zimbabwe.

Outspoken is a spoken word emcee from Harare, combining soul-stirring lyrics with an Afrosoul hip-hop sound. Outspoken fuses classical and African instrumentation with hip hop beats to deliver a message of inner reflection and hope, using his poetry and music to challenge the increasing hopelessness in our globalized world. Outspoken performs regularly across Southern Africa aswell as Europe and the USA.  He is also the frontman for “Outspoken and the Essence” – a powerful Zimbabwean band that fuses hip hop, reggae, and soulful African rhythms set to release their album this year.

* For further info contact:*

Comrade Fatso (co-organiser and artistic facilitator of Magamba): farai.magamba [at] gmail [dot] com

Outspoken (co-organiser and projects facilitator of Magamba): alphaintellect [at] gmail [dot] com

He speaketh
From the mouth of babes he sounds
Grown men with twisted minds applaud
From the depths of a world past
“Free, free, at last”
He punches his fist in triumph
An urchin laughs, a belly laugh
That wrenches the stomach of his pit
The enemy yonder spits
What is is now?
“You should know.”
A voice speaketh from a place unknown
How long is it going to last?
From the depths of a world past
This will last an eternity
So long as man breathes
This is our way of African tithing
An arm and a leg perchance?
A whole life wasted on hate perhaps?
He speaketh
From the mouth of babes he sounds

Yesterday’s update from the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) below described what happened in court yesterday in the case of Munyaradzi Gwisai + 44 others who have been charged with treason following a discussion meeting Saturday 19 February.  They are currently appearing in court again today. The Magistrate instructed everyone who was standing to leave, and closed the doors to the court.

The arrested Comrades were scheduled to appear in court today but to our surprise when the time was up for the matter to start we saw a different female magistrate on the bench who advised us that the magistrate who is presiding over the matter was in  a meeting with the Chief Justice. The matter was therefore postponed to tomorrow as the meeting was said to take the whole day today. All the magistrate had to say was that she knew nothing about the case and was not going to hear any petitions from the defence lawyers.  We are therefore going to court again at 11:15am tomorrow. We however visited the male prison and gave them food in the afternoon but we failed to give the females their meal as they were still at the court at the time we visited the prison. The officers refused to accept the food on their behalf.

This statement from Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) describes the harassment currently being experienced by their members:

Seven members, two beaten, all spending night in custody in Bulawayo and were denied food brought in by relatives.

At noon, today 28 February 2011, three Men of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) members were arrested in Entumbane at a member’s house. Police came into the house where the members were meeting. They made the men present; numbering about 15, hold out their hands. They then arrested Proud Pandeya, Noah Mapfuma who they said had black hands, and according to them this is a sure sign that they smoke cannabis. At this point Gift Nkomo walked in and was also subsequently arrested. They were taken by these plain-clothes police officers to their local police station. One of the police officers fisted Proud four times in the face when they were arrested. They were released them after 2 hours. At five pm, police officers then came to re-arrest them and tried to arrest a fourth member who was not at home. The were said to be being taken to Bulawayo Central Police station for questioning but the feeding team could not locate them there.

At 4pm today, another 4 members were arrested, three women and one male.  They were arrested in the Mabutweni suburb of Bulawayo at the home of  Sitshiyiwe Ngwenya. They were sitting in the house and counting burial society contributions. The four who include Joyce Ndebele, Moreblessing Dube, one a nursing mother, and the male member Kholwani Ndlovu were arrested by plain clothed police officers from Western Commonage police station. They were loaded into a white van and taken to Western Commonage police station in Mpopoma south. The lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights was unable to see them as they were being relocated to Bulawayo Central police station.

Relatives, who sacrificed to buy food at a food outlet, as there was no electricity to cook food, arrived at the police station to give the food to the activists but were detained for an hour. Police Officer George Levison Ngwenya, threatened to arrest them for bringing ‘bought’ food but another police officer told them to leave with the food. Kholwani was obviously in pain from being severely beaten and him and the three women arrested at Mabutweni were seen by their relatives in the Law and Order department and were being made to answer profile questions and were due to be relocated for a third time to Sauerstown police station along the airport road.

WOZA leaders wish to express concern for members arrested and for the two male members beaten by police. We also express concern about the whereabouts of the 3 members arrested in Entumbane who were not to be found at Bulawayo Central police station.

WOZA is currently consulting members on the introduction of a development programme to be entitled Demand Dignity – Demand Development. This programme is based on the works of Mahatma Ghandi who combined an obstructive and constructive programme to mobilise independence to the Indian people. The CONSTRUCTIVE (productive and practical) Program emphasises on “cooperating with good” whiles the OBSTRUCTIVE (disruptive and defiant) Program’s emphasis is on “resisting evil.”

You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
- Abbie Hoffman

An article from The Week:

It was 1941; they should have been preparing for the invasion of the Soviet Union, but instead Nazi officials in Berlin were preoccupied by news that a businessman in Finland has trained his dog to give a mocking Nazi salute in response to the word”Hitler”. Indeed, officials were so outraged by this perceived act of defiance that, according to records newly unearthed in Berlin, German diplomats in Finland – an ally of Nazi Germany – were told to gather evidence for a prosecution.”This is a funny story, but it is a Nazi story which tells how they were looking for enemies everywhere,” said historian Klaus Hillenbrand.