Chronicle Editor
Andile Tshuma
The month of March is a reminder that women play a critical role in sustainable development and the betterment of communities. When they are educated and healthy, their families, communities and countries benefit. Yet, various forms of violation undermine opportunities for women and denies them the ability to fully utilise their basic human rights. With women around, the world is a much happier place.
United in their diversity, women are powerful. The vital roles of women as farmers, workers, artistes, entrepreneurs, community leaders and first responders during crises are key to building peaceful, prosperous and sustainable societies.
Women everywhere are continuously graduating to a level of understanding, of what they are, who they are, and most importantly who they can be.
Reflecting during this Women’s Month, many will concur that it has indeed been a tough year all around. However, the fighting spirit has brought us this far as women and as communities in general.
Embracing our power, taking up spaces, breaking the glass ceilings, healing the broken, whatever is going on, there is the need to just keep moving. Stopping is not an option. This month, women are being celebrated differently.
A dash of colour that gives a festive feeling has been added to the city, with beautiful murals of women in different parts of the city.
Of note, the murals at the corner of 4th Ave and Jason Moyo Street in Bulawayo show how art can be used to beautify a place and give out positive messages, especially now as we are still celebrating women. Many people woke up to beautiful bright coloured paintings of some of the city’s female icons, and were just wondering what’s happening.
Women who are trailblazers in their different spheres of excellence are being celebrated, and the celebration shows that women have so much to offer in their diversity.
The women that are being painted across the city of Bulawayo are of the likes of Soneni Gwizi, Sandra Ndebele, Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda, Busi Ncube, Mbo Mahocs, Berita Khumalo and Stella Nkomo.
Chronicle reported earlier this week that the murals are courtesy of Hanzvadzi Umnawami (#GirlPowerZW), a nationwide project that CaliGraph is working on in collaboration with Culture Fund, European Union, Nash Paints, Baobab Media and Skeyi & Strobo.
The team is painting murals in public spaces so as to promote dialogue and conversations on sex education, positive affirmations, girl child empowerment and celebrating women within the communities of Harare, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza.
The team was quoted in this publication saying March being Women’s Month and with them being in the city, they seek to acknowledge the efforts and strides that women in arts, culture, sports and business, have made in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe as a whole.
They said their approach for the City of Queens (yes, it’s Women’s Month), has been to identify women that have made a name for themselves in their respective fields and are painting their images in different locations in Bulawayo.
They reiterate that it’s important to celebrate these sisters while they are still alive and also have them share messages that will encourage a young person who looks up to them, or might have heard of them. This is a good initiative as it has beautified the city and made it eye-catching.
It has also added to the moniker of Bulawayo being a cultural hub. Using such art is also one of the ways in which the city can be unique and identifiable.
What is advantageous with this form of public art is that with the murals comes a positive message that each of the icons painted shares with the people. It’s a great way to educate people as they admire the immaculately put-together pieces of art. This has also served as a chance for most, if not all businesses to adopt this form of art to beautify their premises. Instead of walls being just plain white or black, looking drab and uninteresting, businesses can use these paintings to colourfully depict their products with art.
These murals have also been used to bring to light the issue of gender based violence in the country and vivid messages have been put up at public spaces for all to see, calling for an end to the scourge.
Art is one great way to attract attention and ensure the message is delivered. Besides adding beauty, character and colour, it carries a message that calls for society to unleash its better self. In Zimbabwe, about 1 in 3 women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
Awareness alone cannot create change, it is actions that create change and it is the duty of every member of society to bring about this change. Such murals are part of both awareness and action, art is an act, and the message there is calling people to act.
All Zimbabweans must reflect on their own complicity in maintaining the culture of violence and abuse, make the necessary behavioural and attitudinal shifts and commit to standing together to safeguard communities against these vicious cycles of abuse.
Advancing gender equality and dismantling patriarchy in Zimbabwe must therefore go beyond awareness to include radically transforming those systems and institutions that produce and reproduce unequal power relations. Such messages in bright coloured art work give hope that more people will see them, get the message and hopefully act towards making the city, and the country a better and safer place for women to flourish.
To the women that have been featured in the murals, congratulations and keep shining. Your work is being recognised and you are surely and indeed making a difference in our communities.
We celebrate you and the thousands of women you represent. -@andile_tshuma
Online Reporter