Aparatos aplicadores

After Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, indigenous cultural products were recognised as having played a significant part in the struggle for independence. Samkange and Samkange (1980) wrote a brief set of recommendations on how the new nation of Zimbabwe could move forward following the 140 years of colonial and white settler rule. The authors proposed that the decolonisation process be based on the philosophy of hunhuism, with a focus on unity and good neighbourliness versus the manichean dehumanising worldview of colonisation that had been established by the British. The hope was that the new nation of Zimbabwe could generate the benefits and resources required to progress by encouraging people to develop the necessary social capital. One of the key vehicles applied to promote hunhuism in the 1980’s was the establishment of co-operatives, which encouraged communities to work together to develop the critical mass required to make larger economic gains in agriculture, manufacturing and cultural activities. Moves were made to restore the imbalances in the sector by amending some of the legal structures put in place to segregate black arts and culture in colonial times, although the basic statutory and societal structures set up in colonial times largely remained. This was mainly done through the implementation of legislation such as the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe Act of 1985 and the National Library and Documentation Act of 1985 (Mukanga, 2011). At times conflicts arose between the new post-colonial structures and colonial structures, a prime example of this was the National Theatre Organisation (NTO) that remained exclusive with a primarily white membership even after independence and the newly established Zimbabwe Association of Community Based Theatre (ZACT) which focused on inclusive practice grounded in Freiran principles (Ravengai, 2014). These two organisations had to vie for the same resources and the NTO was later phased out.

138 The 1980’s did set the stage for a ‘coming out party’ for the new nation of Zimbabwe. Optimism for the development of the country was high; the new leaders were popular and well supported at home and abroad; the country had a positive international reputation which inspired confidence amongst international donors and other nations that wanted to explore partnerships for cultural exchanges; and the country’s economic position was strong. This decade saw the rise in international popularity of cultural products - local musicians such as the Bhundu Boys and Stella Chiweshe developed large international fan bases along with the rise in popularity of sculpture artists such as Henry Munyaradzi and writers like Dambudzo Marechera. The government also made moves to promote global investment in the local film industry. The Ministry of Information sent out invitations to Hollywood production companies, asking them to consider making films in Zimbabwe - resulting in movies such as King Solomon’s Mines. The government also made a direct investment in the industry and put US$5.5 million into the production of the movie Cry Freedom directed by Sir Richard Attenborough in 1987, unfortunately the film made a loss and the government was reluctant to pursue this strategy for economic development again (Hungwe, 2005). Strategies to develop Zimbabwe’s film industry through the support of international donors were implemented in the 1990’s and this resulted in the production of movies such as; Neria in 1991; Jit in 1990; and Flame in 1996 – all highly successful in the country. Sadly, poor marketing and distribution strategies resulted in minimal to no success when the films were distributed to neighbouring countries in the region

The development and formalisation of the cultural sector post-independence was significantly hampered by the constant shuffling of the office of culture between the various government departments. From the period of 1982 to 1994, the office of culture moved intermittently between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Recreation (Chifunyise, 2010). The problem with this was that the well-established youth and education programs developed by the two ministry departments did not leave much space, and more

139 importantly resources, for the development of effective culture programmes that could result in the establishment of a formal creative and cultural industries sector (Chifunyise, 2010). The culture office also found it hard to set up any centralised structures to oversee the development of the cultural sector as other government departments still had responsibilities for various aspects of the cultural sector – this included:-

1. The Museums and Monuments Commission;

2. The Ministry of Home Affairs which contained the offices for the National Archives and the Censorship board;

3. The Ministry of Education that housed an Office of Audio – visual services’

4. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which housed other audio-visual industries and broadcasting institutions

5. The Ministry of local government that included the Chiefs Council and traditional chiefs

The office of culture initially wanted to set up district and provincial arts councils to work on the development of the sector. Unfortunately, these plans stalled quite quickly as it was difficult to secure the budget required to set up the meetings that would bring all the key decision makers from the different ministry offices in one room so that they could plan a cohesive strategy to move forward. The plight of the office of culture did not improve much from 1980 to 2000 as any new initiatives or projects that arose during that time usually ended up being side-lined. There was little investment of time and resources within government to come up with a comprehensive strategy that would focus on setting up the necessary infrastructures and policies to support the development of the creative and cultural sector (Mukanga, 2011).

This shuffling of the office of culture between the different ministries had a negative impact on the perception of culture within government. The impression gained was that cultural product could only have minimal value to the development of a strong independent Zimbabwe as it could not be given its own standing within government. Yet, several attempts to launch the development of a strong cultural sector were made. One of the strategies included recruiting

140 key individuals such as Stephen Chifunyise, the playwright who was appointed Permanent Secretary for Education, Sport and Culture in 1994. Unfortunately, the tension in resource allocation arose again as Zimbabwe’s bid to host the All Africa Games was successful and this resulted in the programme having to take a lower position on the priority list as all resources for that government department were now focused on hosting the nation’s first major event. The development initiatives for the office of culture that received attention and investment during this time were those that concentrated on the recording and preservation of culture as heritage, supported by the National Library and Archives (Mukanga, 2011).

Regrettably, even these projects were not completed due to lack of funding - government funds could not be committed to these projects as there were other development priorities that were considered to be more urgent, and the office of culture had to rely on funding from international donors.

The above examples indicate the low priority that culture had within the national development plan and this appears to still be the case today. The ministry did try to keep the cultural development programmes moving forward, on a smaller scale by linking with the SADC, OAU and UNESCO culture development initiatives. The implementation of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), also had a negative effect on the cultural development programme as the then Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture was first in line to be downsized in the bid to reduce government spending (Chifunyise, 2010). The result was the abolition of district and provincial structures for Sport and Culture, which meant that the agencies that could feed in useful data on the cultural products in the various regions did not exist anymore and cultural practitioners were, again, working in isolation. The priorities for the development of culture and sports were subsequently lost as they were all incorporated under the Division of Education Policy and Standards, which focused on education at the expense of culture and sports (Chifunyise, 2010). Prior to the change in government in 2008, a final attempt was made to look at the development of the cultural sector in 2005. At that time, the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture brought together key education officials and arts and

141 culture organisations and practitioners to work on the production of a cultural policy for Zimbabwe. This was seen as the first step towards developing a formal cultural sector and industry. Chifunyise, (2010) noted that this process had its limitations as several key ministries were omitted from the consultation process. These included:-

a) Ministry of Home Affairs – offices of the heritage sector b) The Ministry of Local Government ,

c) The Ministry of Rural and Urban Development d) The Ministry of Tourism

e) The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting – with offices that represented the audio-visual industries

f) The Ministry of Legal Affairs – with the office that was responsible for copyright issues g) The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education – with offices responsible for teacher

education and UNESCO liaison

The cultural policy produced during this exercise in 2007 is the main policy that frames the structures and set up of Zimbabwe’s cultural industries to date (refer Figure 13 p.134). The cultural policy focused on three main areas. Firstly, pledging to promote, protect and preserve Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage in order to establish and promote the identity of the people of Zimbabwe. Secondly, committing support to develop the capacity of the organisations that had a remit to preserve the heritage of the country. Thirdly, identifying the need to promote the development and showcasing of Zimbabwean arts at home and abroad. Discussions on a framework for the formalisation and establishment of a strong creative and cultural industries sector were limited in this document.

Zimbabwe’s international reputation and economic stability changed drastically between the late 1990’s and 2001 mainly due to a significant shift in policy with the take-over of white owned farms which led to a break-down in relations with the west. By the 2008, elections there had been a reduced focus on activities to support the development of the creative industries.

142 Government investment in the output of cultural products produced since 2001 focused on the delivery of political objectives. As political tensions started to escalate in the late 1990’s with the land invasions, the government implemented a new communications strategy that moved to implement ‘100% local content’ in mass media communications. This had a major impact on two key sections of the cultural industries in Zimbabwe – the production of music and films and that of television – as these sub-sectors of the cultural industries focused on products that only supported the ruling party ideology.

The key governance structures that were set up in this time period had the main purpose of regulating or censoring creative or cultural output rather than supporting or developing the sector – displaying key similarities to the colonial approach of suppression and segregation.

Censorship stills pays a significant part in Zimbabwe’s creative industries and thus stifles creativity and the production of quality creative product, which then has an impact on the earning potential of the sector.

4.1.5 Post-colonial - Government of National Unity Zanu PF and MDC (2008 – 2013)