BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
YOUTH, Sport, Arts and Recreation minister Kirsty Coventry has said COVID-19 and the associated national lockdowns had negatively impacted the cultural and creative sector’s growth.
She made the remarks in her address at the country’s 40 living legends’ awards ceremony organised by the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) on Saturday.
Powered by Old Mutual Zimbabwe, the awards ceremony, held under the theme Our Legacy, Our Pride, were a celebration of the country’s 40th independence anniversary as well as 35 years of the existence of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ).
“The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe could not shelve the awards as the national lockdown presented an opportunity to close Zimbabwe’s 40th anniversary of independence with the symbolic awarding of 40 living legends of the cultural and creative sector. Incidentally, the NACZ is also celebrating 35 years of existence,” she said.
“The legends to be honoured are people who have had an indelible impact on their different disciplines. These living legends include pioneers, innovators and consistent contributors in fields such as the manufacture of the mbira musical instrument, film, theatre, music, dance, visual arts, literary arts and the spoken word.”
Coventry said the honoured legends had also ventured into mentoring and skills development.
“This has had a ripple effect as is seen in the transfer of their skills and technical knowledge to upcoming and established artists who, not only inherit the craft and genius of the living legends, but are also becoming potential vectors of transmitting their experiences to future generations without end,” she said.
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The legends included multi-talented novelist, playwright and poet Aaron Chiundura Moyo, veteran sculptor Adam Madebe, poet, musician and actor Albert Nyathi, sungura ace Alick Macheso, author Barbara Makhalisa-Nkala, traditional dancer and drummer Barnabas Chadamoyo, actor and film director Ben Mahaka, producer, drummer and sound engineer Bothwell Nyamhondera, prolific poet, singer and author Chirikure Chirikure and playwright, actor and theatre director Cont Mhlanga.
Also honoured were theatre producer and director Daves Guzha, second generation stone sculptors Dominic Benhura, dancer Ellen Mlangeni, playwright and actor Felix Moyo, mbira musician and manufacturer Fradreck Mujuru, visual artist Helen Leiros, traditional dance practitioner Irene Chigamba, actor and filmmaker Jasen Mphepo, actress Jesesi Mungoshi as well as award-winning filmmaker and director Joe Njagu.
The others are renowned ethnomusicologist Joyce Jenje-Makwenda, singer Lovemore “Majaivana” Tshuma, theatre and dancer Matesu Dube, literary arts Musaemura Zimunya, film producer Nakai Matema, sungura musician Nicholas Zakaria, writer, director and choreographer Nkululeko Innocent Dube, writer and historian Pathisa Nyathi, novelist, playwright, poet and journalist Paul Chidyausiku and the late visual artist Rashid Jogee.
Novelist Shimmer Chinodya, queen of mbira and songbird Stella Chiweshe, film maker-cum-actor Stephen Chigorimbo, actress Susan Chenjerai, dancer and theatre practitioner, stone sculptors Sylvester Mubayi, visual artists Tapfuma Gutsa, popular Chimurenga musician Thomas Mapfumo, filmmaker, playwright and novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and music legend Zexie Manatsa were also honoured at the event.
NACZ spokesperson Rodney Ruwende said the rigorous exercise allowed them to come up with a truly representative list of legendary contributors to the creative sector in Zimbabwe over the past 40 years.
He said for the selection process, they had to come up with a comprehensive guide of who is a legend, which included being famous in a particular sector, positive contribution in the development and promotion of arts and culture in this country in the practice of their chosen field and someone who had to be alive practising or retired from their craft.
“NACZ invited contributions from representatives of registered arts organisations and captains of the sector in Zimbabwe to make selections of people they considered legends in their sector based on the set criteria,” he said.
“The names received from these representatives were then tallied, with those that accumulated the highest number of votes being selected and categorised according to their sectors. A total of 99 names managed to get enough votes to be shortlisted for the award.”
Ruwende said stage three of the selection process involved the setting up of a jury, which sifted through the works of each and every name on the list and then gave marks.
“The juries were categorised based on the list of suggested names and the sectors they represented. The juries engaged in constructive debates which evaluated the different contributions of each individual to the sector,” he said.
“The heated debates, which were based on fact, saw the jury trimming the names of the legends and the final list was presented to the NACZ for stage four that was verification and corroboration.”
Added Ruwende: “An adjudication board was set up by NACZ, which then reviewed the process by comparing the final list from the jury and the votes tally from the presentations from the sector players.
“After verifying and corroborating the list, the adjudication board then presented the list to NACZ management for approval. Management then informed the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry about the selection to allow the conferment of the #NAMA Legends@40 awards to the recipients.”
Legend songbird Busi Ncube, who is now based in Norway, performed alongside local rising stars, among them Tamy Moyo, Anita Jackson, Tariro neGitare, Nutty O, Poptain, Sylent Nqo, DJ Tamuka, Mzoe 7, Jose Sax and the evergreen urban groover, ExQ.
The virtual ceremony also saw Zimbabwean artistes in the diaspora Bekezela (South Africa), Brian Nhira and Cindy Munyavi (United States), Sani Makhalima (Australia), Tina Masawi (Spain), Vimbai Zimuto (Netherlands) and Vusa Mkhaya (Austria) joining voices on a track titled the Big Diaspora Collaboration.
