Gurus bemoan Masvingo arts drain

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Walter Mswazie in Masvingo
ART critics and academics in Masvingo have bemoaned the dearth of the industry in the ancient city amid a realisation that most talented artistes have taken flight to Harare and other places.

They expressed regret over the demise of the city’s art industry which has produced crème de la crème of poets, comedians, visual artistes and musicians such as the legendary Jonah Moyo, Vharazipi Crew and Abel Mauchi.

They said save for Masvingo’s Theatre Club which recently produced a masterpiece in the form of Operation Restore Regasi, the city is not as active as it should be.

Given the fact that the province is home to the Great Zimbabwe University whose niche is culture and heritage where art disciplines are the core areas of study, the province should be championing the art industry.

The absence of an art centre, they said has seen students specialising in visual art, film or music facing difficulties when looking for places to practise what they would have learnt at university.

A renowned spoken word artiste, Tatenda Chinoda aka Dhege said the art industry was slowly dying due to lack of investment by the corporate world.

“We have talented artistes in Masvingo but there’s no money. As a result, the nightlife has been severely affected because there’re few artistes to provide entertainment,” Dhege said.

He said the city now relies on entertainment from artistes from Harare.

“We rarely have entertainment to talk about in Masvingo. If Alick Macheso, Jah Prayzah or Winky D do not come here to perform, then the city will be dead,” he said.

He, however, said despite the challenges, there  were many emerging artistes who have won accolades with others having been invited to Europe to showcase their talent showing that all hope was not lost.

Artistes from the city, Dhege said were being forced to leave in search of greener pastures as they are not being supported by their own people.

“People do not seem to want to promote their own artistes as they prefer to support those from outside the province, forcing local ones to migrate. It’s very funny that when someone has gone to, say Harare, when he comes back, people will stampede to watch that artiste.”

Great Zimbabwe University spokesperson Anderson Chipatiso said the university was concerned about the Masvingo province art industry and was therefore planning to introduce a radio station whose core business will be to showcase local talent. The university is also working on producing films so as to capture the art fan base in the ancient city.

“As GZU, we’re doing a lot to promote art in this part of the country. We’re on the verge of opening a radio station and most of the work has been completed on this project.

“This will be a platform for budding artistes to showcase their talents and increase their visibility and following,” said Chipatiso.

“We have a bias to promote local artistes as an academic institution.”

Chipatiso echoed Dhege’s sentiments that local fans preferred artistes from outside yet the province had its own fine musicians, poets, filmmakers and comedians.

Ketai Banda of Masvingo’s Charles Theatre, however, argued that the industry was gathering momentum.

@walterbswazie2

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