adminbrands, — the products and services outgrow their restrictions and parameters. In light of this, it is time to re-examine, reconstruct and revitalise the criteria and effectiveness of Nama’s initial concept and its current committees’ abilities to determine artistic excellence.
Why?
Art, by its very nature, is creative and culture is dynamic. Boundaries of definitions and classification are constantly being broken and eroded to create new art forms.
Most of the arts genres develop, cross-fertilise and expand over time, so do techniques, mediums and modes of expression.
For instance, in the visual arts, traditional Western media and genres such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, two-dimensional and three-dimensional designs, have morphed and developed with technology.
Today, post-colonial “land art”, “ritual-miming”, “happenings”, digital art, video art, computer DVD art works, installations, animation and kinetic art are being embraced by practising Zimbabwean visual artists as new forms of artistic expression, and have not been accounted for, within the “traditional” genres of visual arts stipulated by the Nama committee.
Similar developments have transpired within the local music industry, where new genres have been spawned and fused, creating new sounds and new audiences and consumers in the process. Exemplary, new forms of music in Zimbabwe include Zimbabwean hip-hop, bub-poetry, Zimbabwean dancehall, ragga, afro-jazz, and syncretised/fusion gospel music and apostolic vernacular “chorales”.
A particularly problematic genre in local music is what has now become popularly known as “urban grooves”. A hybrid (crossbreed) sound emanating from an urban sub-culture, which is not defined or classified according to its instrumentation, style, tempo, or rhythm — it merely specifies the source of its lyrical content and youthful followers.
On closer examination, urban grooves can be classified as a “bastardisation” of many genres; an amalgamation several genres complete within its resolution, yet constantly evolving in style. Urban grooves is the computerised “magpie” of music; incorporating and interpolating ragga, dancehall, rhythm and blues (R’nB), soul, jazz, Shona rap, calypso, electro-house music, kwaito, mapantsula, and even Congolese soukous, rhumba and West African high-life music — all within a Zimbabwean context.
Can someone please define the “urban grooves” genre meaningfully for us? Do we need to redefine the genre for posterity?
Rebranding Nama
The continual revision and rebranding of what is popularly conceived as being aesthetically appealing, allows for the re-invigoration of aesthetic sensibility and a new appreciation for the standards of art in Zimbabwe.
Given, one of the greatest challenges artists face is to create works that will be sustainable and consistently meaningful over time.
Authorities, adjudicators, monitors and supervisors of the arts need to take cognisance of this dynamic essence of the arts.
It is imperative for the Nama Selection Committee to expand the scope of the awards and clearly demarcate the categories.
As arts journalists and critics let us retract our collective emotional indignation towards Nama and work towards restructuring the awards by making constructive and rational contributions in the Press.
Regrettably, the non-screening of the live Nama ceremony by ZBC-TV is also a bone of contention for many artistes and patrons of the arts.
After all, most of the local entertainment content for ZBC-TV comes from the very artistes vying for excellence at the Nama awards — usually working on their own volition. Do they not deserve national space and screen time on ZBC-TV? Is it not a national event? This writer would like to suggest that the 2012 Nama committee assemble participants for a post-Nama 2012 post-mortem workshop.
It should focus on sharing experiences, approaches and development strategies, between selected prominent artistes, lecturers and the media and members of the entertainment fraternity to proffer suggestions to improve the structure and logistics of our Nama ceremony for posterity.
It is after all our only annual national cultural highlight! Now would be a good time, while it is still fresh in our minds.
Let us reboot and rebrand Nama!
l Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He is also a practising artist, designer, art critic and corporate image consultant. He is the Nama Arts Reporter of the Year 2012.
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