adminTHE closure of the Book Café in Harare didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who were aware of the struggles the Café was going through. We knew the closure was imminent. Remember months ago Book Café made an appeal to the public to save it. The management even tried crowd funding but all in vain. I got a Press statement confirming the closure of the arts venue when I was about to knock off from work. I remember reading the message, just sitting behind my desk, stunned. I was not surprised, just stunned.
And as the reality sank in I wanted to cry, it was like a part of me had died. I could feel tears burning the inside of my eyelids. You see the Book Café introduced me to many things. I first fell in love with jazz while having dinner at the café some dozen years ago. A friend of mine had taken me there to meet an artiste friend. I remember listening to Hugh Masekela and Abdul Ibrahim there and immediately telling myself I belonged to the place. I remember going back to the place every time I was in Harare and spending nights listening to or watching some amazing performances from the place.
It was at the Book Café that I first watched Patience Musa perform. She was with The Other Four then. I don’t know how many times I watched the late Chiwoniso Maraire on the Book Café stage. The venue also introduced me to poetry performance and made me fall in love with youths playing with language and weaving meaning from words that on a normal day meant nothing. Something definitely died inside me this past Tuesday when I read about the closure of the place on the 1st of June.
According to the statement from the Thomas Brickhill “the iconic venue first opened at its original Five Avenue Shopping Centre venue way back in 1997 and has since treated audiences to nearly two decades of memorable live music, performance poetry, stand-up comedy, film screenings, and discussions.”
Without doubt the place has had a “significant positive impact on the arts and cultural entertainment in Zimbabwe’s capital, including bringing traditional mbira music into the mainstream, championing freedom of expression in Arts, providing a platform for Zimbabwe’s first stand-up comedians and hosting the regular weekly Open Mic.
Lafa elihle. The closure of Book Café has left me wondering whether arts projects in Zimbabwe can be viable — can they really survive without subsidy or donor funding? This closure is also a sad reminder of how Amakhosi’s arts activities were drastically scaled down after most funders stopped funding the institution. Anyway, the closure of one venue does not necessarily mean the end of the vibrancy of the arts in Harare. Soon Rooftop will be opening a bigger and better theatre in the Park. The construction of the theatre right inside Harare gardens has reached an advanced stage. Soon theatre life will be back in Harare. Magamba Network are also opening an arts hub they are calling MotoRepublik to offer creatives another space to work and exhibit their work.
Here in Bulawayo Indaba Café is now a regular space for poetry and acoustic music. Tswalero Mothobe and his Poetry on Thursday and lately the monthly Umuzi Wezintombi projects have breathed some fresh air into Bulawayo’s arts scene. The Poetry on Thursday has serious potential to grow into a meaningful creative movement for Bulawayo poets and spoken word artistes.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter