Nama, our clumsy teenager
AT AGE 16, a child is expected to be getting some of the basic things of life right. Some even start driving at this age, which takes a great deal of responsibility on the part of the teenager. But when it comes to the National Arts Merit Awards, which turn 16 this Saturday, a lot still needs to be done to ensure that this teenager breaks into an adulthood more promising than the turmoil of adolescence.
On Saturday February 18, 2017, the nation will be glued to TV screens to watch the live broadcast of the awards ceremony, which will be held at 7 Arts Theatre in Avondale. Some will attend the strictly by invitation event.
“The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) through Nama will continue to recognise outstanding achievements within the arts sector, by rewarding creativity, innovation and excellence,” reads a statement by NACZ communications and marketing officer Cathrine Mthombeni.
If excellence really is at the heart of Nama and NACZ, how then in the world did Jah Prayzah’s “Watora Mari” video fail to get a nomination?
Says Nama: “Most submissions of music videos were directed by foreigners and generally, the award for outstanding video is given to the director and Nama does not award foreign practitioners. Only Zimbabweans are eligible to receive a Nama.”
Surely in this day and age when the world is a global village, it is disheartening to see such weak excuses being used to leave out splendid work.
“Watora Mari”, both the song and video, made Africa realise that Zimbabwe has something special to offer; and after picking an MTV Africa Music Award last year, the video was supposed to be an obvious nominee.
Artistes and creatives the world over are now collaborating because there is power in synergising different cultures to produce art works.
If Nama cannot recognise this, our arts sector is in serious trouble.
If NACZ and Nama really want to exclude external content, why then do they accept music mixed and mastered outside Zimbabwe?
Oh wait, this rule only applies to videos.
Moving on to the film category, our clumsy teenager tells us the series “Muzita ra Baba” is a nominee in the Outstanding Screen Production for Full Length Films.
In an interview wthis writer had with the director of “Muzita ra Baba”, Nick Zemura, and published by The Sunday Mail Leisure on October 23, 2016, Zemura said, “The drama ‘Muzita ra Baba’ is a series that reflects on the lives of clergymen.” And now suddenly our teenage genius says it is a feature film!
A feature film is plus-90 minutes long and “Muzita ra Baba” is nowhere near that. It should have been nominated in the Outstanding Screen Production TV category.
Such lack of appreciation of the basics is cause for concern. How then can we trust them to adjudicate other matters fairly?
Another shocker is that despite upping its game in its fourth season to become one of the most consistent shows on local television, the drama series “Wenera” failed to get a single nomination.
Coming to the theatre section, the play “Lamentations @ 12” also failed to make it on the nominations list.
Nhimbe Trust - which advocates for public policies that recognise, enhance and foster the contribution that cultural industries make to Zimbabwe’s socio-economic development - is aghast. Nhimbe director Josh Nyapimbi took to his Facebook page to say, “In my 30 years of professional theatre practice the Nama 2017 nominees are a scandal of epic proportion(s). Who are the judges who turn industry awards into some affirmative action exercise? I am still trying to come to terms with how ‘Warrior’ and ‘Untikolotshi’ were better than ‘The Tellers’ and ‘Lamentations @12’. NACZ like seriously…”
However, we agree with our problem child with regards to the poor performance by female artistes in 2016.
“Lack of consistency in female artistes in terms of productivity and presence, this is owing to various reasons top among them being reluctance of promoters to support female artistes across the board,” reads the statement from Nama.