Arts and Culture indaba opens in Harare

New Zimbabwe.Com Blogs
18 Feb 2010
Posted By Fungai James Tichawangana

A two day conference, bringing together some of Zimbabwe’s leading arts and culture players opened in Harare this morning.

Giving the keynote address, Minister of Education Sports Arts & Culture, Senator David Coltart spoke about the dire lack of funding for arts & culture in the country.

The ministry was this year allocated US$276million, the largest allocation for any ministry. However, Sen. Coltart put things into perspective when he explained that of that amount, US$240 million is meant for teachers’ salaries.

This leaves US$36 million for everything else and obviously education is the main priority. Say that US$36 million is used entirely for the education of the 3 million primary school children in the country, this means that each child has an allocation of just US$1 per month for their education.

Giving additional remarks, the Principal Director for the Arts & Culture Department in the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts & Culture, Reverend P.B. Damasane said that many parents around the country were not keen on having their children learn “arts” so arts teachers end up teaching other subjects.

Giving a response to the minister’s speech, Professor Gordon Chavunduka lamented what he called the death of culture.

“We talk of Shona culture and Ndebele culture but all I see is culture falling apart,” he said.

Mbira Centre Director Albert Chimedza commented that it was important to differentiate between arts and culture if we were to make any progress in the development of either. “The arts are a product of culture,” he clarified.

He also said that it was unfortunate that as a country we have to depend on funding from outsiders to have a national cultural indaba. “There is a problem when you have a culture that needs external donor funding to discuss itself,” he commented.

A third point he brought up was that different aspects of culture & arts development are under the authority of different ministries which hampers efforts and spreads resources thinly. “I don’t see a reason, for instance, why Museums and Monuments are under the ministry of home affairs.”

Prominent writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga said that it was great that finally the ministry had a minister who was keen on actively promoting arts and culture.

She stated her agreement with Chimedza’s stance on the need to differentiate between arts and culture. “You cannot make money from culture,” she said. “You make money by adding value to the culture, by the products that come out of a culture.”

Continuously recurring as a pertinent issue is the need for Arts & Culture to have its own ministry.

A number of other issues affecting the arts and culture sector in the country will be discussed during the conference.

The Zimbo Jam is blogging the indaba as it happens via Facebook, Twitter andZimbablog.