Harare puts on show of revelry and resistance
YOUNG, fashion-conscious and eager for change, thousands of Zimbabweans spent this week partying at music concerts and open-air bars during a six-day festival hosted in Harare against all the odds.
The festival coincided with the World Economic Forum for Africa in Durban, where Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told a panel discussion that his country was not “a fragile state” and that its economy was on the mend.
Despite his government struggling with a debt crisis, a fall in foreign exchange inflows and acute shortages of cash that have forced banks to limit withdrawals, as well as growing resistance to his three-decade rule, Mugabe told delegates: “Zimbabwe is . . . one of the most highly developed countries, second after South Africa. You cannot even talk about us as a ‘fragile state’ from an economic point of view.”
Critics have accused Mugabe of wrecking one of Africa’s most promising economies and causing unemployment of around 80%.
For the revellers at the Harare International Festival of the Arts, founded in 1999 but abandoned last year as Zimbabwe’s economy crumbled and left desperate locals unable to withdraw money from banks, this was a time to forget their troubles.
Despite many sponsors pulling out, organisers have revived an event widely seen as an expression of defiance against the country’s woes under 93-year-old Mugabe.
“Cash is everyone’s major problem,” said Chidochemoyo Nemhara, 29, a festivalgoer who works for a women’s business group. “But we know [the festival] is a place to forget about troubles.”
At least 100 international musicians, singers, dancers and actors are performing alongside many local artists at a dozen venues across Harare.
Mali-based star Habib Koite is due to headline the final night today in Harare’s central park, topping off a schedule ranging from US opera and Irish comedy to Turkish jazz, Dutch techno and Indian dance.
Not far from the festival’s main gates, long queues stretched outside banks as people stood in line for hours to make the daily maximum withdrawal of just $50 (about R670).
Student Gamuchirai Gatawa said as she arrived at the festival: “Young people are not being heard, but if we do find our own person to do that, then [the government’s] time is up.” — AFP