Audiences have not always been able to hear dissenting voices – many works have been banned or censored.
Stephen Tsoroti is mesmerised by a performance of hard-hitting poetry in Harare. Here, he describes the experience and talks about the work of Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights.
The audience is on the edge of their seats. There are sighs of shock in the auditorium as the poets demonstrate how Mugabe is forcing his countrymen and women to beat each others’ brains out. Others chuckle at the satirical characters portrayed in the gruesome lines.
It seems that poetry can work wonders when it comes to pricking the social conscience.
The poets make their audiences aware of a system where cruelty and brutality appals. Performed with intensity and a tight sequence of poetic prose that alternate with open stretches of realistic narratives, at times broken by shots of running commentary, the performances reflect a nation that has been at the mercies of political corruptors, thieves and murderers.
Talented youngsters lucidly and powerfully paint panoramic pictures in the audience’s minds, and the fight against abuse is eloquently conveyed by lines such as: Kan Akubata Chibharo Haazi Mfundisi wako, Mumiriri wako muparamende, Kanu kuti minister wako, Kana akubata Chibharo….Ibhinya’.
Next, the audience hears stories of troubles and turmoil of those forced to turn to the streets as wandering vagrants.
[xhead] Banned under apartheid
These performances take a leaf out of the book of South Africa’s black people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli, whose poetry was banned by the apartheid regime, forcing him underground. He continued to perform his poetry at great risk and thus became a hero in the movement for justice.
Zimbabwe Poets For Human Rights (ZPHR) performs its poetry under many guises and has heightened public discussion of the violence, which still remains taboo in many places.
The Mugabe regime has been responsible for numerous human rights abuses. Over the past six years, President Mugabe’s militant supporters and secret police have killed scores of black opposition party members, human rights groups say.
Journalists, writers and artists who have criticised his Government have been arrested and jailed. Musician Thomas Mapfumo, who now lives in the United States; Leonard Zhakata; poet Chirikure Chirikure: Majongwe and several others have been blacklisted by the state broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH).
Recently, police barred the performance of The Good President, a theatre production by Amakhosi Theatre Production House, written by one of the country’s foremost theatre writers, Cont Mhlanga.
[xhead]Satire sums up history
This politically charged satire summed up the country’s decades against British colonial rule, focusing specifically on events leading to Zimbabwe’s independence. It went on to highlight what has happened in the 27 years since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain, including the massacre of 20,000 Ndebeles by state agents during the Gukurahundi crisis.
Our job as artists is to profile issues that are taking place in our society; whether they are in favour of or against the interests of the powers that be, says Michael Mabwe, Co-ordinator of ZPHR.
He says he is not a political activist and his organisation is not a political one, but that artists – like any other citizens in the country – are responding to the many facets of state sponsored injustice.
Poetry can work wonders when it comes to pricking the social c
Post published in: Arts