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.
This is a very insightful article, wish they see it and do something. Apart from being artists we also belong to the communities that are inflicted and when we do plays on peace and reconciliation we are not only doing our work as artists but playing our role as peace loving citizens!
ReplyDeleteLet's let by gones be by gones.the current political situation doesn't promote past mishaps be revisited let alone be re produced in through any form of arty.some old wonds will never heal if re opened
ReplyDelete