By Simbarashe Mudhokwani
While
there are good festivals in Zimbabwe that are implemented greatly and even
meeting international standards, others are poorly administered, governed and implemented.
Mash-rooming of festivals in Zimbabwe is on an alarming increasing. The operational
guidelines and governance of arts festivals in the country seem to be taken very
relaxed and not conformed to. The policy levels that guide the operations of a
number of festivals in Zimbabwe are areas which require many to make critical
appraisals on operations in the country. A number of individuals, associations,
schools, universities, and groups currently own festivals.
National
Arts Council of Zimbabwe Act of Parliament (CHAPTER 25:07) Part 3, spells out
functions of National Arts Council. Section 15 1a) states functions of National
Arts Council that it should “… foster,
develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts in
Zimbabwe by encouraging the teaching and practice of the arts and presentation,
performance, execution and exhibition to the public…” Considering that
National Arts Council is mandated to foster arts development and champion the
understanding, appreciation of arts in its entirety, what could be the measures
which can be employed for ensuring governance and operational festivals
improvement for those that are not doing well?
The
first festival guidelines from the National Arts Council says “…No arts festival can be hosted by any
organization or individual(s) without being properly registered in terms of the
NACZ Act of 1985 and SI 87 of 2006” should this always be the case for a
festival to take place in Zimbabwe or exceptions may be considered for other
unregistered institutions? In cases where a festival is staged without
conforming to the guideline rules, what should be done? Some festivals happen without registering
with NACZ. Which way should the festival be governed?
Are
these festival guidelines enough to ensure the promotion of Zimbabwe’s arts and
culture sector or they do not need stringent adherence? However, the arts in
Zimbabwe through festivals are carrying the reverence and depict a people’s
performing genres in a number of diverse forms. They are exposing local artistic
talents and depict the arts complexities of people and the diversity of
cultural expressions.
Greek
Elizabethan Age, reflect that Rome as the city where festivals played a
fabricating role in political, economic and social platforms to the Roman
Empire. In this current epoch, Edinburg International Festival is also well
known for bringing together many cultural groups from many countries and
continents. On the other note, Zimbabwe is having a number of these festivals.
Are they doing anything in promoting local arts and cultural industries, when
one compares with those of Greeks and Edinburgh?
Governance
and administration of festivals in Zimbabwe require improvement. In many cases
some festivals and events fail to effectively take off or happen because of a
number of governance challenges which include poor planning and conflicts. In visiting
to attend a festival, some of them are staged at a time when there is great confusion,
human resources shortage and inadequate supporting structures in place.
Late
or no programming of festival activities, sound systems is set up a few minutes
before the events. Artists came up on stage drunk with some group members
coming very late and bargaining for increased payments as a measure to avoid
boycotting their agreed stage performances. Other artists never pitch on stage and
other international artists are booked lately and even miss scheduled
performances. Is there anything that can be done to improve the running of
festivals in Zimbabwe? If there are any resolutions to make sure that
governance of festivals are improved taking into consideration festival
guidelines, what could be the resolution? Do these festival guidelines
effectively work out? In any case, should there be a separate board that should
govern the operations of festivals?
No comments:
Post a Comment