Zimbabwe to the World!
Although attendance was below expectations, performers at this year’s Harare International Festival of the Arts lived up to expectations with various genres offering varying performances.
The opening night last Tuesday presented a spectacular act from Mahube, a regional group that had artists from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The act was directed by renowned jazz singer Steve Dyer and it featured local acts like Oliver Mtukudzi, Hope Masike, Josh Meck and Sam Mataure.
The festival had a good number of theatre productions. There are many arguments in the world built on bias of theatre arts in our culture but there are many people who believe that theatre is important not only for our entertainment, but also to build up a culture in a quickly growing uncultured generation.
This year Hifa was loaded as all plays at Reps theatre lived up to billing with great performances from local stars such as Edmore Sandifolo, Rumbidzai Karize, Tanya Charumbira and Charmaine Mujeri.
Some of the plays include “Tumaini”, “Temeraire” and “Ole New Orleans”. “Tumaini” is a play that sets out to show the push and pull factors of migration.
The physical theatre production was one of the people’s favourites because of its twists in migration philosophy.
Sandifolo and Mujeri managed to wow the crowd with the play “Temeraire” written by New Zealand based artist Stanely Makuwe. The two main show actors couldn’t leave you in doubt as they portrayed reality, what we see every day in society but we are afraid to give solutions or prevent.
It has proved beyond doubt that several artistes that came to exhibit wanted to display the highest level of innovation. Craftsman showed skill in making mats, baskets, claypots and other products.
Traditional dresses found their way to the glamorous festival with designers likes Rose Vambe of Ashava Fashions, said she was happy to be exhibiting at the highly subscribed fete. “We exchange notes here as fashion designers and that contributes to our passion to have a national dress that identifies the true Zimbabwean culture,” she said.
This year’s experience gave her enough time even to witness several fashion shows that were held at the event. “Fashion is a learning process and we are happy that we had all the time to watch, exhibit and learn from others how we can we defend our culture by having suits, clothes and designs that defend our pride as Zimbabweans,” she said.
Dancers spiced up the fete with Brian Geza choreographed production “Brocken Pavements” lighting up the event.
Geza said they had only few weeks to put up the story they showcased. Other productions included the Heather Walrond Company act, The Rising.
Other highlighting events included the high note performance of Cameroonian songbird Kareyce Fotso at ZOL mainstage on Thursday. One of the best shows on main stage came from Winky D and Tuku thrilled a massive crowd with their sizzling performance on Friday.
