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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
DEPUTY Minister of Youth, Sport, Art and Recreation Tinomuda Machakaire has urged artistes to play their part in nation building through their work.
Machakaire said this following the success of the song Patati Patata by Zimbabwean musician Roki in collaboration with Congo’s Koffi Olomide and Tanzania’s Rayvanny that united music lovers from the three countries.
In a wide-ranging interview with Chronicle Showbiz recently, Machakaire said art should be regarded as the pillar stone in uniting nations.
“The arts and culture, music and dance, in particular, cut across all imagined and real socio-cultural and political boundaries. Music by its nature is a universally accepted language. It’s recognised as a means of communication across all levels of generations and races in society.
“As such, the collaboration of Koffi Olomide and Rockford Josphat (also known as Roki) is one of the many examples that society should ride on; music and dance as genres influence nation-building, social cohesion and peacebuilding through the expressiveness of cultural diversity which nurtures peaceful co-existence,” said Machakaire.
He said regional integration becomes easy to attain given that music and dance become vehicles of soft power that easily yield immediate and long-term results.
“Soft power or cultural diplomacy, as it were, make us appreciate more of what unites us than that which divides us as a people and as Africans. This is despite the imagined borders that we live in that are known as our countries.”
The deputy minister said artistes should use this lockdown time to fine-tune their craft and create new works so that when lockdown measures are eased, they have quality productions to showcase.
“It’s important that our artistes continue to create and refine their craft while we’re in lockdown. They should do this in preparation for showcasing these productions and artwork at live performances and festivals when the national lockdown gets lifted.
“During this lockdown era, our artists should also take time to explore and have synergies with others within their value-chain locally and abroad to create digital content of their productions,” he said.
In doing this, minister Machakaire said artistes should continue to ensure that they are visible and relevant.
He said it is high time that artistes not only rely on their art to make a living but should consider having side projects.
“I’m aware that the Cultural and Creative Industries sector is under severe duress due to the successive national lockdowns put in place as measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. I want to encourage our artists to also diversify into small income-generating projects outside their normal creative line of activities.
“As a ministry, we’re encouraging our artistes to take up piggery or chicken farming as side projects. They can do this in small groups or as individuals as this will ensure that as artistes, they continue to get income to live from and sustain families,” he said.
Artistes, Machakaire said, must make use of EmpowerBank as it offers loan schemes that are meant for youth projects.
The deputy minister has from time to time, supported artistes. From staging the Hwedza Festival in support of artistes and handing out money, he recently talked to comedians Mai Titi and Madam Boss to solve their differences.
“These two artistes were having spats on social media platforms to the extent that it was affecting their own creativity and dampening the spirit of their fans around Zimbabwe and those in the diaspora. I invited them to my office for a roundtable meeting so that they could talk to each other and smoke the peace pipe.
“It was a worthwhile effort in that the two reached out to each other. They left my office on amicable terms and they even went out to share a meal as sisters and above all, as Zimbabwean creatives. Today Madam Boss and Mai Titi are friends again and they are back to doing what we know them doing best, that is, creating and providing entertainment for their fans and the nation,” said Machakaire. -@mthabisi_mthire
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