Let’s export artistes to tell African story

THE past eight to 10 months has seen Zimbabwe hosting a number of artistes, speakers and many other celebrities.
This is cause for celebration for many people but I have a different view of the whole thing.
I believe as Africa we have not exported enough of our talent to Europe and America where most of these celebrities came from.
For as long as we pride ourselves in importing talent, Africa will remain a follower in world leadership.
I believe that there is equally good talent in Africa or Zimbabwe but we are not investing enough in it.
We have not packaged it in an attractive way as our Europeans and Americans counterparts have done.
I was arguing with two colleagues one day following an accusation they made against me for refusing to attend Dr Stephen Covey’s presentation last year.
I told them Dr Stephen Covey is great but he has very few new things to tell an average Zimbabwean who has access to the Internet and is keen on knowledge.
When they returned they shared my view, like many others, they were disappointed with his failure to contextualise.
The solutions for African issues do not lie in Europe, but among Africans.
I believe God has raised men and women in Africa who can address our problems the African way.
I believe Africa has to stop being a consumer of everything, but look forward to develop what we have, package it for the world.
Americans are the ones that made their musicians and speakers great. If we stop pirating our musicians’ CDs and DVDs and buy them, we can create millionaires out of our musicians.
If we build our infrastructure and empower more young people, we will have our speakers and artistes being respected in America and Europe as much as we respect theirs.
It is time we overcome the perception that black is inferior and realise that the world has opened up and presented everyone with an equal opportunity for growth.
I believe if we invest so much in our gospel artistes, Americans would be able to pay them as much as we are paying to host their artistes.
I believe if we invest in our genres, the sungura, American youths will be crazy about it the same way African youths are crazy about hip hop and R ‘n’ B.
This is the time for Africa, we must rise to global leadership. This, however, will not happen when Africans fail to appreciate what they have.
I was walking in town the other day and a lady approached me with a set of questions.
She asked me how much I would pay for a certain South African group to come and play music in Zimbabwe.
I answered her with another question: “What has happened to Pastor Charamba?”
I wanted to know if he has stopped singing or not. This does not mean I do not consume foreign music and this article is about African leadership of the world, not politics.
We must invest in our young people; we can create a great Africa, a great Zimbabwe.
We have to appreciate what we have, develop what we have and package it for the world.
Africa should not remain a market forever. Africa has to understand it has everything it needs to compete with the rest of the world.
What is needed most is a change of mindset, to know that if we take pride in our own people, support them with our little resources, we can create global champions.
It sounds great when somebody’s book is written, “New York Times bestseller”; but it’s people that make those books bestsellers.
Where are our “Herald bestsellers”? Africa has got to be creative enough otherwise poverty will continue in Africa.
My concern in this article is the same as of that guy who wrote about the capitalist nigger, who was disappointed at our excitement with other people and ignoring to support our own.
We spend so much money promoting foreign products and people but never investing a dime to help a kid struggling to publish their book so that they can be like Dr Covey tomorrow and bring pride to Africa.
We print thousands of fliers and posters to promote an American artiste but failing to sponsor a young musician who for years has been stuck with an album.
What is the African agenda? Where are the people who understand it?
Being able to host an “international” artiste is not indicative of development, development is when you have invested, branded and profiled your own artistes that you export their voices to the world.
If our mentalities do not change, Africa will remain a follower. Seats in the Security Council that we cry for will not materialise if we fail such basics.
We need to be sending our people to America and Europe to tell the African story.
An artiste who came into the country and stayed at the Meikles Hotel for a few nights does not know Zimbabwe enough to tell the world how good it is.
This inflow of artistes and speakers is nothing more than a response to the newly available US dollar.
Two years ago Zimbabwe was there but none of them came, how do you explain that?
Open your eyes Africa. America rakes in so much in taxes from its artistes.
This is the money that is then used to uplift its poor and feed its old. This is the story of African leadership, of Africa rising and taking its equal position on the global stage.
It’s a story of perception, it’s a story of changing our mindsets and attitude towards what is African.
How do we tell our young people that they are equal to Americans and Europeans when all the way to school they see us praising foreigners on properly designed gloss art posters but never our own artistes?
How will we convince them it’s just a difference in colour with no implications of superiority?
How do we tell them that if they work hard, they can be as great as those great people they see on those posters when everyone there does not look like them or come from where they come from?
It’s only when we take pride in our own such as Mtukudzi and Milton Kamwendo that we allow our young people to dream BIG and see their own possibilities for greatness.
Let’s invest in our people, our institutions, our talent and our communities; that is the only way to achieve global leadership.
If Joe Thomas comes and sings about the beauty of New York and girls in Los Angeles, Winky D should also go and sing about the beauty of Harare and Victoria Falls and even the beauty of our own African girls in the United States. Think about these things.
l Pascal Nyasha is a motivational speaker, leader and business consultant. He is the founder of The Leadership Clinic. He is also the author of ‘Reaching new horizons’. For feedback, Call: 0773 003 912 or email: leadership.clinic@consultant.
com or connect with Pascal on Facebook.