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creativity and artistic diversity among artistes in Zimbabwe.
He said there was a need for awards that are entirely dedicated to particular arts disciplines such as gospel awards, sungura awards, urban grooves awards and others so that those arts disciplines can be accorded adequate attention and recognition in ways that help encourage creativity among artistes.
He said the same idea was being applied in South Africa where different music genres have their own awards at that country’s South Africa Music Awards.
“In South Africa they have the South Africa Music Awards, for all music genres. Each major genre has its own separate awards. We can have something similar in Zimbabwe where we can have sungura awards, urban groves awards and gospel awards among others.
“This is not the first time I have brought this up; the idea came to me in 2010 when I became the first Zimbabwean artiste to be nominated for the SABC Crown Gospel Awards for my song “Mwari Ariko Kumusoro” in the Best of Africa category,” said Apostle Chivaviro.
Apostle Chivaviro added that his nomination for these awards and the prominence they are given in South Africa challenged him to call for introduction of similar awards here in Zimbabwe.
He said if such awards were to be introduced in Zimbabwe there could also be gospel awards which would be entirely dedicated to promoting talent among gospel artistes and this could promote and market artistes who focus on gospel music.
However, with persistent challenges of poor funding in the arts sector especially for the National Arts Merit Awards here in Zimbabwe many artistes drawn from different arts disciplines or different genres of music have had to compete for the same accolades leading to many deserving artistes failing to gain recognition for their works.
In his opinion, Apostle Chivaviro said challenges of poor funding can be addressed if the corporate world sponsors the awards while churches would also be roped in to sponsor gospel awards, if any such are introduced.
“Sponsors for the awards could be the corporate sector, but interestingly churches could play a major role in sponsoring gospel awards, with particular ministries sponsoring certain categories.
“This could also be a platform for recognition of people who have contributed immensely to the growth of the gospel music industry.
“I know people don’t sing to compete especially in gospel music, but for the same reason you have choir competitions in churches. This is done to perfect the art of presentation and production and one realises that in the end this is not just about spreading the gospel but doing it with finesse,” said Apostle Chivaviro.
Currently, the National Arts Merit Awards are Zimbabwe’s most prominent accolade which offer recognition of talent through various awards given to excelling artistes drawn from different arts disciplines.
The major challenge with Nama, however, is that artistes compete for similar awards despite specialising in different genres of music.
In other countries the world over there are awards dedicated to specific arts disciplines such as the Dove Awards, SABC Crown Gospel awards and Stellar Awards which aim specifically to recognise and reward excelling artistes in the sphere of gospel arts or music.
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