Anne: A creative whose flowers we withheld with love

Dear Vimbai

UP to now, I still refuse to believe that your real name is Anne Nhira, on occasions, I have tried to say those words alone, but my tongue has remained stubborn.

In this brief letter, I will use the name gifted to you by Aaron Chiundura Moyo’s pen and the late Godwin Mawuru’s discretion; Vimbai.

I write to you with hope they deliver the paper in the ethereal world you have since escaped to, leaving us counting our coughs in this pandemic.

It is with great shame that I pen this letter, for the truth is it would have read better had you been alive.

Now we are left with assumptions and speculation, but if claims that those who leave early take up an oversight role, looking over the living, I believe you may be able to read this.

I will be the first to admit that there is a problem with us writers, content creators and by extension society.

We like to write glowingly of the dead, yet we ignore the living, we suffer from the illusory comfort of permanence.

Sometimes our heroes fade into oblivion, only for us to write deep think pieces as epitaphs.

I will not try to escape the title hypocrite, I had ample time to do this as you lived, but couldn’t, always thinking a later date would have been more appropriate.

Perhaps, the greatest lesson in this can be traced back to a cliché, “we are living on borrowed time”.

You were a paradox, physically built in a way that would fit the generic description of a model, but with facial beauty that spoke of home.

Never met you personally, but I am sure your scent during your “Studio 263” days was that of the earth just before it rains.

Your role in the show was in a way iconic, a transition from “motherly” female lead actresses who had led previous shows like “Mukadota”, “Pfuma Yenhaka” and “Paraffin”.

I could be wrong, but I believe you ushered dignified elegance to the national screen.

A rare, but gratifying sight.

In one interview, you spoke of how you got the role, sheer coincidence after you had gone to ZBC trying your luck on another show.

Perhaps belief in greater power stems from such instances, how can an object of chance be so perfect?

You executed your role well; save for a few, most of “Studio 263” viewers loved you.

As is with intense roles, like the one you played —being a beautiful young woman from a middle class family living in a high density suburb — many related to your story.

Some saw themselves, some saw their daughters, some saw their sisters, while others saw their mistresses.

Specific to us, myself and a few peers in Kuwadzana 7, we saw a beauty.

At the age of eight, the underlying message that the show was a public health awareness campaign creatively packaged was lost on us.

Too young to understand that television shows are works of fiction, we invested more emotions than we should have in “Studio 263”, and the character Vimbai.

How can I forget the days? In 2004, just after the release of the song “Dilemma” by American singer Nelly.

Those were the same days you had started fraternising with Tom Mbambo, a young (slightly older) charismatic businessman.

With my peers, we could see that the man was up to no good.

To warn you of the future tears Tom Mbambo represented, we bastardised Nelly’s hit record to sync with the story.

“Vimbai mwanangu, usatambe na Tom (Vimbai my daughter, do not hang around Tom),” I am sure if you can read this, you have tried to sing along, a bit.

For years you entertained us, the queen of prime time television in Zimbabwe.

It will take a lot, if not a miracle, for Zimbabwe to have another television show like “Studio 263” and another Vimbai Jari.

In more ways that this letter will capture, you were a vehement fire as far as post-millennial talent goes.

The last of a breed of actors who were famous, the ones we are left with somehow struggle to break into organic stardom.

There is something awkward about present day “stars”.

As is with many other good things, “Studio 263” lost momentum somewhere along the way and wilted slowly to its death.

Roles were changed and the country did not find the replacement talent to be palatable enough.

You went behind the scenes working on your talent management firm.

In one of your interviews, you repudiated suggestions that you had fallen off.

You reminded the writer, a colleague in words, that there was more to who you were than appearing on television screens.

“Many people think acting has made me a star, but little do they know that my first career was modelling. I was my own star and acting was just another stepping stone. For now, I can safely say that I have taken a break (from acting). Unless I have a role in an international production or in my own production, you will not be seeing me on screens anytime soon,” you told The Herald in November 2019.

It was at that point that we should have compiled films, biopics and books in your honour, but somehow we failed.

Your story is yet to be told in its fullness, maybe it will, but there can never be doubts on the fact that you lived.

You tried your hand at all you felt you could achieve, including music.

The music you produced with Don Soth in Johannesburg including a single titled “The One”, did not reach the number of ears you would have preferred but at least you made it.

Not even South Africa could ignore your gift completely, your appearances on “Zabalaza” in 2015 was evidence that your “Studio 263” run was not a product of localised expediency.

Like all of us you had your moments, human beings are not infallible.

Many will remember you for the time you angered a number of men, in 2017 after you had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage asking them to bar Zodwa WaBantu from coming to Zimbabwe.

You got your way, after making a moral claim which the authorities at the time acceded to.

I really felt your moral argument stood on wobbly ground, as no country has citizens of homogeneous persuasions.

Sifting through the resulting anger, one thing stood out, you went for what you wanted and got it.

The jury will always be out on whether or not it was your place to do what you did, but we can now only reflect in retrospect.

However, for those who knew Vimbai, it was not entirely out of character, there were traces of strictness in the role you played.

Speaking of roles, you played yours well.

There can never be an honest conversation about eminent actresses that omits your name.

You reached heights many have failed to replicate.

I hope there is a heaven for creatives, a place where you can see Soul Jah Love, Beatar Mangethe or Jackie Madondo.

Pass our greetings and tell them the world continues to get poorer.

Regards

Leroy Dzenga.