Music is a big business and it has transformed people’s lives the world over.  In western countries by just producing one good album it can change one’s fortunes for the rest of his/her life. Media plays an important role in promoting artists music and with bad media publicity it can also destroy an artist’s career. Here in Zimbabwe our own local music artists, especially the urban grooves artists rely on the media to promote their music and some of them enjoy massive airplay on the state broadcasting stations. The rise in popularity for urban grooves was mainly spearheaded by the introduction of 75% local content on national radio stations by the then Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo a couple of years ago.  To some local artists it was a blessing to them since competition from foreign music was reduced. However to some artists after rising to stardom their names now appear in the history book for the wrong reasons.

The lyrics of the music composed by these urban grooves artists has attracted a huge following especially amongst the youth. The message in the music is usually associated with love, cash and the ghetto lifestyle. Instead of promoting their music through good publicity, recently it has become the opposite. After starting on a positive note most of these young artists have attracted bad publicity to their music by trying to live the life they sing about in their songs. Some may say the problem starts when these young artists try to merge our local culture with the western culture in their music thereby creating an identity crisis.  Zimbabwe has been blessed with many young talented musicians but most of them have gone quiet after failing to handle fame. The toll of a celebrity lifestyle has proved to be a heavy burden with many young artists falling by the wayside through drugs, prostitution, alcohol abuse and unprofessional contact.

Piracy is also taking its share of problems for these music artists resulting in many of them singing for peanuts. In trying to increase popularity in the hope of pushing music sales some local artists are now using media for the wrong reasons. A couple of a years ago a creative and promising young artist was sentenced to do community service after being found in possession of marijuana and as if this was not enough the same young man could not keep his microphone in his pants as he went around impregnating many girls. After singing so much about money and a high expensive lifestyle another local artist made headlines recently when his sex video was leaked to the press. With this kind of behavior and bad publicity it will take a very long time for our local artists to separate their private life from their public one.

All manner of artists gathered in commemorating International Day of Tolerance (16th of November) at the Zimbabwe-United States of America Alumni Association facilitated discussion, under the theme: Promoting Tolerance through the arts, chaired by human rights activist and poet, Michael Mabwe. The aim of the talk was to interrogate the role that the arts can play in the promotion of tolerance, at whatever level and discuss how artists can better engage with the current reality in Zimbabwe as they try to promote tolerance.

Speakers included Mbizvo Chirasha – performing poet, writer and founder of Girl Child Creativity, Blessing Hungwe – author, producer, co-director, actor in the production Burn Mukwerekwere, Burn; a play based on the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa; and Tafadzwa Muzondo – theatre director, actor, taking arts to the grassroots through the Edzainesu Community Project.

Chirasha traced the history of intolerance in Zimbabwe, giving a few examples of tribalism, colonialism, independence struggle, the various women’s rights struggles, various student rebellions, the emergence of multiparty political system and consequent violence of 2007 elections and the 2008 xenophobic attacks in S.A. Hungwe said that the arts can be an invaluable tool in addressing intolerance by provoking thought, tackling divisive issues, breaking down barriers, bridging gaps, opening people’s minds and encouraging people to take a step back and investigate the prejudices and intolerance they hold at an individual level.

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I don’t think that when Rumbi Katedza wrote Playing Warriors she had a great message in mind. I think she simply wanted to tell a story she and the women she knew could relate to. The film is a snapshot in the lives of Nyarai (Kudzai Sevenzo), Maxi (Nothando Lobengula) and Nonto (Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana), three women in their late twenties. Maxi is an irreverent lawyer who is having an affair with a prominent politician. Nonto is the quiet friend who is about to be married and Nyarai, the central character, is a high flying career woman with a meddlesome mother.

From the beginning of the film it is obvious that Nyarai does not fit in the mould of the traditional Zimbabwean girl. The film opens with a dream sequence set in ancient Zimbabwe. A young warrior places the lion he has slain at Nyarai’s father’s feet.  He, apparently, is seeking Nyarai’s hand in marriage. Nyarai’s father looks to his wife for approval, this she gives with a smile. Everything appears as one would expect on such an occasion. The camera focuses on Nyarai’s face and the audience finds that rather than being breathless with excitement at having such gift presented for her hand, Nyarai does not look as pleased. In fact she almost looks annoyed.

Traditional Zimbabwean women are supposed to want marriage above everything else. Particularly to a man who so obviously can provide. In the film is it understandable that Nyarai will not commit to her ridiculously self absorbed toy-boy Che. Their relationship is simply about sex. It is he who needs her to survive. Nyarai’s relationship with Leslie, a well-heeled divorcée arranged for and heartily supported by her mother is far more complex. He goes to great pains to woo her, closing down a restaurant just for her and performing that rarity among Zimbabwean men, cooking her a meal. Even the audience feels that there might be a happy ending. But Leslie is merely mutton dressed as lamb. He confesses a bad relationship with his children, and gives them the kind of parenting that reduces his role in their lives to a bank account with a face.  He is arrogant, impatient and only acknowledges Nyarai’s relevance as his woman, not as her own person. This film is bold in claiming that women need more from their men than material security. Despite his money and their sexual chemistry Nyarai rejects Leslie because he doesn’t listen and therefore doesn’t understand her needs.

Nyarai’s mother, who embodies the traditional and cultural expectation placed upon young women, is perplexed by her oldest daughter’s impractical insistence on marrying only for love.

Maxi’s brazen and abrasive rejection of her burden of expectation provides an alternative angle to Nyarai’s gentle questioning. Fiercely independent, Maxi is everything a good Zimbabwean girl shouldn’t be. She smokes, she’s loud in her denouncement of traditions and cultural roles and she’s having sex with a married politician for pleasure and professional gain. But despite herself and everything she knows to be true about her lover, she falls in love with him.

In contrast to Maxi’s and to a lesser extent Nyarai’s tumultuous relationship with tradition is Nonto’s active acceptance of it. The film takes the audience through her experiences as a bride.  When she announces that she is getting married her friends question her decision not to have premarital sex and how she would cope with the disappointment should he be a bad lover. But Nonto is steadfast in her faith in her relationship, and as a born again Christian in the wisdom of her God. The film also depicts the processes involved in traditional marriages. There is a hilarious roora scene, where the groom’s munyayi (negotiator) uncomfortably pleads with Nonto’s uncles to lower the rusambo (bride price), and another showing the bridal party practising masteps (wedding dance) with a dictatorial choreographer.

On the surface Playing Warriors is a feel good chick flick. But it is also a film that documents the deeper change within Zimbabwe. It is a bold in showing independent free-thinking women who are in full-ownership of their sexuality, and demand more than material fulfilment from their relationships. It is also one of the first feature films about Zimbabwean women that does not characterise them as victims of male-driven tradition. I think the greatest lesson of the film is that it is possible for traditions and cultures to evolve, and change is not always about leaving the values that are important, such as family and community, behind.

American-born, Zimbabwean actress Danai Gurira, who is conquering Hollywood and Broadway, gave a talk recently about her trajectory in the industry, her artistic principles and work ethic, how she envisions her work will shape the artistic landscape for future generations, her thoughts on the future of the Arts Industry in Zimbabwe.

Danai explained how she got into acting and writing by saying that the arts found her. While in high school she realised that when she performed, something special happened between her and an audience and she felt she would lose all sense of time and place. Encouraged by her parents to pursue what she was good at, she continued her studies in the arts, after having initially studied psychology and liberal arts. Danai started to create pieces in response to the fact that she was not finding portrayals of Africans that she wanted to play. Actors tend to be at the bottom of the food chain in the American industry, but with good training during her 2nd degree, she learnt how to create her own work and not just sit and wait by the phone. This is how her world-famous play In the Continuum was born. She was encouraged to discover that she could create things in America, about Zimbabweans, and the people in both places (and in-between) would get it. It was also quite clear that Gurira appreciates and revels in the fact that her debut performance on the world stage, was of her own work, in her own voice.

While so many of us associate the film industry with glitz, glamour and money, one quickly realises that Gurira is all about the craft and creating the best artistic products she can. From early on she has been driven by her desire to create things that are connected to what is important to her, what she is trying to give the world and what she visualises about her future artistic interests. This focused attitude has led her to be quite picky about what she gives her energy to by finding out what the spirit of the work is and if it is really giving life and a different dimension and complexity to a story.

When Gurira comes home, she holds workshops in order to transfer all that she has learnt from her time in the US. She strives to help young Zimbabwean actors know the level of work-ethic, ferocity, and energy required to succeed in the competitive industry and make people feel they have no choice but to hire you. One also has to develop a thick skin as only 2-5% of your auditions may lead to work.

Though Danai felt that it would be quite tricky to say how our country should develop the industry, which is currently not so strong, she believes that we should try to nurture standards of excellence that are specific to who we are, as a nation. Though it is tempting to follow the footsteps of African countries like Nigeria, which has a thriving film industry, she feels it would be unwise to use another country’s template. There is a need for Zimbabwean artists to continuously challenge themselves, to remain sharp in artistry, and always in pursuit of excellence. Gurira insists that excellence in the quality of work we produce, will ensure that we begin to produce work that is on a globally recognisable level, not because it caters to western ideologies or structures, but because no one can deny or ignore it’s superior quality, as artistic excellence is not bound by language and culture.

In order to achieve this Gurira says Zimbabwean artists have to be innovative and pioneering in contributing to the work that will build the industry, all the while, having in the back of their minds, a clear vision about the future artistic landscape of Zimbabwe. It is about thinking far ahead and beyond ourselves, and creating something that is so excellently executed, that it will stand the test of time, so that if someone picked it up decades from now, it will still be a brilliant piece of Zimbabwean literature, (Harvest of Thorns). When asked what she wanted her legacy to be, Danai Gurira said, “I want people to pick up my work in 100 years and be able to do it – [so that] men and women have opportunities to really shine, in African roles.”

Directed by Jamie McLaren.

The Memory of Water

A dramatic comedy

Written by: Shelagh Stevenson

Starring: Danielle Connolly, Chipo Chikara, Maria Wilson, Lara Hundermark, Joe Levey and Josh Ansley

19th – 29th October at 7pm
Matinees 22nd and 29th at 2:30

Reps Theatre Upstairs

Tickets available at The Spotlight

$5 on Wednesday; $10 all other performances

PG 15