While it is true that Leonard Zhakata, Pah Chihera, Jeys Marabini and others may not have submitted themselves for consideration, the whole thing makes a mockery of the effort to acknowledge Zimbabwe’s musical talent.
The selection process should have involved members of the public. To ask musicians to nominate themselves is encouraging our artists to beat their own drum, which is against our culture. Blowing one’s own trumpet is unAfrican.
In African culture one is supposed to be acknowledged by others, not for one to say I am the best. Some down to earth musicians like Leonard Zhakata may never submit themselves for consideration.
A few days after the closure of nominations, Tuku was quoted in the media saying he would never submit his work for consideration because he wants to give chance to upcoming musicians.
As a result, Zima will never get the really deserving entries, so the best musicians in a particular year may never be acknowledged, and if substandard works end up being touted as the best Zimbabwean music for a particular year, we do harm to our own music industry.
For this year, the damage is done, but the Zima organisers must seriously consider the consequences of their flawed process and improve it to ensure that the products that win are closest to the best musical products of Zimbabwe for the particular year. – Daniel Berejena, by email
Post published in: Letters to the Editor
Couldn’t be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!