Chronicle Editor
Raisedon Baya
YEARS back a friend of mine visited America on a cultural exchange programme. He was so lucky that during his visit he was able to see places like Broadway and Hollywood and other great creative spaces in the United States.
When he came back home, he brought us gifts. I remember he brought T-shirts, wrist watches and other goodies for a lot of people.
For me he brought a nice-looking pen wrapped in an American flag and a copy of Eve Ensler’s hit play; The Vagina Monologues. Everyone of his friends, except me, was so happy about their gifts. Those who had gotten T-shirts made sure they wore them to functions where they could show off.
Those who got watches put them on and never removed them until they died. I was not happy with my gifts because then I could not show them off. A writing pen was nothing special. A book in the township was something you were forced to read.
I don’t know what I did with my pen. Actually, someone came to visit and stole it while I had gone to look for something to drink for them.
The book I read and loved it. Then I read it again and again until I lent it to a friend and it never came back.
A year or so later my friend explained why he had bought me a book and pen.
“You are a playwright more than anything. My gifts were to appreciate your talents and to encourage you to keep writing plays,” he said.
It was then that it dawned on me that he had actually thought deeply about what to buy as gifts.
So, it was no coincidence that years later I was to co-produce an all-Zimbabwean cast of the play I had first read when my friend brought me the text as a gift from America.
Still inspired by the original play I was again at the centre of coordinating the writing and producing of an African version of Vagina Monologues Africa under the Intwasa Arts Festival stable.
I bring this story today for three reasons.
One. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Secondly. When you decide to gift people, especially artistes, don’t just buy and give. Think deeply about what’s appropriate first. Think about what you would want your gift to mean to the receiver. If you deeply think about it, you could change lives with the gift you give others.
Lastly, I just wanted to say books, especially great books can be great gifts. Never look down upon a gift that comes in the form of a book. I speak from experience.
Talking about books brings me to the idea we are working on about a Bulawayo Book Festival to be held first week of December at Hillside Dams.
It all started as a small idea to get people who love books and reading coming together and spending a day together.
The idea then rew into a book day and later into a book festival.
Our literature is being battered left, right and centre. First the book industry is fighting a losing battle with technology as most people now prefer watching stories to reading them.
Just look at the number of people who watch a movie based on a book and compare that to the numbers of people who read that book. There is also another technological option in the form of ebooks.
These are choking the hard copy book industry and pushing it towards extinction. However, books must find a space and way to survive side by side with other technological spaces.
The Bulawayo Book Festival is one way to keep the love of literature alive in the city. The hope is to start as a one-day event and nurse it until it becomes a full-fledged book event.
The inaugural event will include workshops, book readings, a writers get together braai, a book club meeting and something for children too.
The Bulawayo Book Festival is pencilled for 4 December 2021.
Online Reporter