Arts powerful tool for social transformation
Edutainment has now become the common term of use in the retrospect of the arts and development spectrum. Art thus becomes a central tool that can be used in the instigation of development projects.
This means that the word “art” can be used as an acronym to show the manifestation of the artist as the advocate, as someone who is responsible, and as a teacher.
Therefore, artists in Zimbabwe should also be development-oriented. The “A” in the word art, can actually stand for the artist as the ‘advocate’, or one who speaks for the marginalized people in the country and exposes social ills.
The artist as the advocate acts as the conscience of the society, one who interrogates the challenges that continually affect the less represented groups. This role of the artist as the advocate reminds everyone to make every day, a day of activism and advocacy against all forms of gender-based violence, access to sexual reproductive health services, environmental protection, peace building and also leadership.
A great many times many speak out on something when an opportune moment such as an “international day of something...” which a great many times is very wrong and hence discredits the actualization of development.
Advocacy means that the artist has to edutain (educate through art). This encapsulates all the manifestations of art which have to play a role of educating a community.
The youth within our context now need a voice as they are left lost in the confusion of our times made worse by the new form of information communication technology (ICTs), which expose the youth to negative influences.
People now follow controversy, as opposed to self-development because of the information drought. Artists have also been starving consumers through failure to disseminate developmental information. Very few artists speak as advocates of the marginalized in society.
The “R” in the word Art is for the artist as ‘responsible’. Responsibility has been one of the challenges that have affected artists. Many of the artists are involved in scandal and controversy. In as much as it sells; it also sends a wrong message.
The challenge is that of perfection as everyone has weaknesses, but responsibility remains core. The artist is a public figure, the one unto whom the society looks up to from the young to the old. The influence of the artists’ voice dissects that of the so called influential leaders because it speaks creativity.
Responsibility thus becomes a very core component for the artist to take the role of a role model for positive and respectable behavior. The end to drug use is one important thing that the artist has to fight, as well as sexual immorality, which has led to high mortality rates of artists from HIV and Aids.
Artists also need to disseminate information on the global pandemic that has killed millions, Covid-19.
Artists gather crowds and live from crowds. This means there is a need to adopt a culture of responsibility, which simply means being careful as Covid-19 is still among us, especially the Omicron variant which is highly transmissible.
The “T” in art means that the artist is a ‘teacher’. The artist has to continually impart information and knowledge to the community. This knowledge has to play a role in building up synergies of growth such as opening up dialogue on salient issues that may also relate to harmful cultural practices such as child marriages, wife inheritance (kugara nhaka) and many other unsafe practices that may harm individuals and the environment.
Our current context is a generation that is hungry for information and the artist is one of the apparatus that can be very useful in disseminating information. The artist should never forget the rural marginalized folk that need the full arts package in the actualisation of development. They need to be informed on the different issues that relate to day to day survival in a modern world that is now embracing new forms of technology and globalized culture.
The artist has to be the teacher of the deeper precepts of ubuntuism which is the essence and core of all the precepts of development.
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