Power in the Voice

ools’ competition. Entrance to this event is free of charge and all are welcome.
Power in the Voice is a programme that provides an opportunity for young people to celebrate and express themselves creatively through their voices. It taps into the wealth of oral and performance traditions, the rhythms, the sounds and the messages of speech and song. As in Great Zimbabwe where the “stones will speak to you” if you listen carefully, this festival also lets us hear the power of the human voice.
Albert Nyathi, in line with the ethos of the Power in the Voice project, will perform at the event, inspiring the young people to “blow life into dead words.”
The finals at the Bulawayo Theatre are a result of competitions at district level involving secondary schools in metropolitan Bulawayo. There are two categories in the competition – individual and group (3 to 5 performers). Individual performances last for a maximum of 3 minutes, group performances for a maximum of 5 minutes. The following rules apply to both categories.
i) The poems should be in any one, or a mixture of the following languages – English, Ndebele, Shona and isiTsotsi.
ii) Musical instruments can be part of the performance
iii) The poem may be on any subject
iv) Entrants are encouraged to render energetic and expressive performances
v) The poems may be original, translated or from published works.
Power In the Voice seeks to bridge the gap between traditional forms of story telling and modernity through secondary school students, thus to also nurture the artistic instinct in them as they are the custodians of future aesthetic forms. Performances by the school children at the district competitions have been show-stopping. Commenting on the quality of performances, Bulawayo writer and Intwasa Literary Arts committee member Chris Mlalazi said, “lantinta ibhubesi….(you have slapped a lion)”.
Power in the Voice is being run by a special Intwasa Festival committee comprising of British Council, graduates of the British Council creative writing programme (Crossing Borders), practising secondary school teachers and the Deputy Provincial Education Director of Bulawayo District administrators were appointed to each of the five secondary school districts within Bulawayo to work with the forty four schools involved. Electric performances at district competitions were held in July before schools closed.
Winners of the Power in the Voice finals at the 2007 Intwasa Festival will, together with their mentors and teachers, attend a regional Power in the Voice festival in 2008 in South Africa. – For more information, please contact: Ignatius Mabasa, British Council Zimbabwe. Tel: +263 4 775313-4/756668 Fax: +263 4 756661 Ignatius.mabasa@britishcouncil.org.zw