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Givemore Muzariri
Khami School of Arts (Khasa), a brainchild of inmates, was established in 2007 in a bid to identify and nurture talented inmates in different categories.
The programmes on offer have already started yielding good results in terms of the empowerment of inmates for their successful re-integration into society upon completing their prison terms.
Programmes on offer to inmates range from fine art, theatre to comedy, among many others.
In an interview, school director and inmate Vincent Karanda said as inmates they decided to come up this initiative after having realised that prison was a melting pot full of talented inmates.
“When I got to Khami Remand Prison after conviction I was surprised to see a number of arts groups that were providing entertainment to inmates and from that I realised that there was another community running behind bars. This set up made me feel at home and l also realised we all had a lot to share in terms of art. The inmates that I met had already formed various arts groups focusing on different forms of art like imbube, drama, poetry and comedy.
“These activities were unknown to the outside community as they were not being published on different forms of media for the community to have an appreciation of what rehabilitation was,” he said.
Karanda said transformation of Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service into a rehabilitation institution had created a lot of opportunities as inmates were now able to participate in different empowerment programmes and competitions.
“While at Khami Remand Prison I worked with a number of groups and in our day-to-day operations I discovered that prisons had the most talented inmates but the major challenge was lack of exposure. Exposure in the art industry is important as it helps artists build their names to be able to fit into the arts industry easily and contribute positively towards building our nation.
“As inmates we took advantage of the transformation of prisons into a correctional institution and we decided to form our own school of arts in prison with an intention to identify and train inmates so that they could meet the standards of the industry outside prison,” he said.
Karanda said Khasa was offering a number of programmes to inmates for training and these programmes include township dance, drama, poetry, comedy, dance and contemporary.
“We are offering a wide range of training to other inmates and our main aim is to mould the best crop. A lot of people argue that being in prison means the end of the world but today I would like people to understand that prison is just like any other vocational institution you might think of as we are being afforded time to develop ourselves in different areas of interest.
“In our trainings we are targeting the outside arts market as we would like to show people out there that we can do better as we have all the time on earth to write our scripts and work on our stage presentations,” he said.
Karanda said early this year, Khasa had an opportunity to compete with local groups at Geraldineroouch drama group competition that was held at Nkulumane Hall and theatre lovers had an opportunity to see inmates performing live on stage, which was not common with the old prison system.
“Khasa was invited to compete with groups from the community and people could not believe what they saw on stage as our performance was out of this world. This corrected the wrong mindset that people out there have about being in prison.
“Our acts were excellent but we could not continue with the competitions due to the outbreak of coronavirus, as the competition was moving in stages but I am happy to inform you that as Khasa we left a great impression,” he said.
Karanda said Khasa was formed with the intention of educating and entertaining other inmates as incarceration is one of the most difficult moments in one’s life.
“Entertainment is one of the most important tools that are required when one is in prison so that is the reason we formed this group. The plays that we have cover issues that we come across on a day-to-day basis.
“As we speak we have got over 30 plays at hand and these cover gender based violence, HIV and Aids, coronavirus and education. From all these topics we are targeting changing the life of both inmates and members of the public,” he said.
Karanda called for partnership with different media houses in recording their material for consumption by everyone and that would also give citizens an opportunity to appreciate what rehabilitation is all about.
“We are calling for partnership with different media houses to come and record the material that we have and this will definitely assist our brothers and sisters to have a true picture of what is happening in our prisons. When it comes to our content we really would want the nation to know what we are capable of doing so media houses should come and work with us.
“On behalf of my colleagues I am also inviting promoters to come work with us on different projects and I believe that such partnerships will help us as inmates who still require a lot of exposure, “he said.
Khami Maximum Prison rehabilitation officer Assistant Principal Officer Bhasvi said the outside community should understand that there was a lot of activity behind the prison walls for the development of the nation.
“A lot of people out there believe prison is a place where inmates are being abused by prison officers but that is not the case. Instead it’s a place where we give inmates time to reflect on their lives and as we speak we have some inmates who have advanced themselves academically.
“Khasa is one group that is doing very well in the prison circles and we are working very hard to have some of our content shown on our local television stations,” he said.
Online Reporter