THE ORGAN ON HEALING AND RECONCILIATION SHOULD ENGAGE ARTISTS, NOT SCHOOL CHILDREN.

 By Raisedon Baya

Zimbabwehas seen its fair share of conflict and violence; particularly political conflict and violence. Some of the conflict and violence has left many traumatized and tens of thousands having their lives uprooted and altered permanently. As I write many are walking about with permanent scars, wounds and emotional baggage that date back as far the war of liberation. For many years since independence this country has hung precariously between peace and dark conflict. Obviously the darkest moments are the days of the struggle against colonial rule in which a lot of blood was lost, the Gukurahundi era, Murambatswina, the pre and post election violence that gripped the country in the last two elections. It is very fortunate that the said violence and conflict failed to develop into a full-fledged and ugly civil war. Zimbabweans have to be commended for keeping their cool and choosing peace instead of war. 

Of course war is not wanted anywhere. War is ugly and destructive. The same can be said about conflict. In times of war and conflict it is always the innocent citizenry that suffer the most. And when war erupts the first victim is the arts. The arts suffer first because when conflict and violence erupts nobody thinks of leisure and entertainment; nobody wants to go out and visit theatres, clubs and other places of entertainment. The fact that Zimbabwe has managed to stay away from war needs to be celebrated by all. The peace that prevails at the moment needs to be jealously guarded and protected by all and sundry. 

For years now the arts have taken centre-stage in spreading serious messages in our society. The arts have been used for HIV and Aids messaging. The arts have been used to speak a lot about women rights, children’s rights, and other issues relevant to the different communities of this country. Lately, a number of artists have tried to use their art to advance the issues of healing, forgiveness, peace and re-integration. However, for their effort most have ended up sleeping in dirty police cells.  

While there is an obvious need for the nation to heal, reconcile and re-integrate those that were displaced during our moments of madness it is sad to note that government is but paying lip service to the whole idea.  After creating the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation to spearhead this process everyone went to sleep. And the Organ itself has been nothing but a very strange animal – very quiet and very submissive. One wonders where the organ was when plays and other art forms trying to deal with the issues of peace and reconciliation were being banned and concerned artists harassed and arrested. Where was the Organ when performances of the play Rituals were stopped and the cast locked in police cells on two different nights? Where was the Organ when Owen Maseko’s Siyabathontisela exhibition was shut down and the artist arrested? Where is the Organ now when another play No Voice No Choice is being stopped and the artists denied their source of income? How else are artists supposed to engage in peace building initiative when they are not supposed to tell stories promoting peace and healing?

It is very sad that no one has bothered to engage artists, especially those whose work has been stopped or banned to try and understand the thinking behind the art itself. Some plays have been stopped by people that havenever been to any theatre or read a script. Most plays are stopped on the mere suspicion that they are not good for public consumption. Some art works have been stopped not because of their overall message but because of a wrong sounding title or a word or two that someone in authority deemed inappropriate. This is why it is important to engage these artists so that we all get to know the intention behind their creations. No artist in his/her right mind would want to provoke and incite violence for no apparent reason. Remember most artists are Zimbabwean citizens who value the well- being of this country more than anything else.  

I also find it very funny that the Organ has chosen to engage school children to produce works of art – poems and music – dealing with reconciliation, healing and integration and yet it remains mum on the harassment of artists that have attempted to produce art that deals with the same issues. Why is the Organ ignoring community artists that are more than eager to work on healing, reconciliation and peace building initiatives? 

Last but not least there is no way anyone will talk about peace and healing without alluding to the past. One cannot talk of healing without talking about their wounds and scars and how these came about. One cannot talk about forgiveness without revealing who has to forgive and who has to be forgiven. So for peace, healing and reconciliation to take place we need to be as open as possible. Pretending certain events did not happen or sweeping them under the carpet is not the answer and certainly will not bring meaningful peace. Like they say the first steps to forgiveness and healing is truth telling and that is exactly what some of the artists that are being harassed, stopped from performing and arrested are trying to do. These artists are the ones that the Organ should engage first, not school children.

Kindly Bookmark and Share it: