THE Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) began in 1999 and after 18 years of its existence, I was curious to see what this much hyped arts extravaganza was all about.
The hype made me wonder at HIFA’s legacy today.
There is so much hype associated with the coming of such events and one tends to question the value they bring.
After attending a few musical shows and theatre, I was disappointed to say the least.
HIFA‘s greatest legacy is ‘promoting Eurocentric values and morals’ and the arts fiesta has nothing to offer locals.
The highly publicised and money-making platform invites many international artistes and a handful of local artistes.
Besides the outcry from Zimbabweans, HIFA continues to celebrate artistes from Europe and very few from Africa and our country.
The atmosphere exuded at the just ended HIFA, the ‘glitz and glamour’ as many would like to call it, and everything about it, represents a Eurocentric ideology that is neither Zimbabwean nor African.
No wonder the US pours in millions of dollars without hesitation.
Among the main funders of HIFA was the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR).
Ironically, President Donald Trump proposed to cut HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis grants to many developing countries, including Zimbabwe.
Organisations such as Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as US Agency for International Development (USAID) are the most affected, with USAID suffering a US$1billion budget cut.
For 2017, PEPFAR provided almost US$145 million to Zimbabwe.
The US has a strong relationship with festivals and practices that promote ways unAfrican, such as homosexuality.
According to the US, the practice of homosexuality is a ‘major’ human right that must be ‘respected.’
When former President of the US, Barack Obama, visited Kenya in 2015, he clashed with President Uhuru Kenyatta on the issue of gay rights.
Obama strongly wanted Kenya to recognise gay rights, but he was ‘slapped in the face’ by President Kenyatta when he was told there were some things that as Africans ‘we must admit we do not share’.
The US and Scandinavian countries, including Norway and Sweden, have in recent years threatened to curb aid to countries which do not recognise lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in their territories.
And notably Norway and Sweden stopped supporting HIFA in 2015 because of Zimbabwe’s ‘notoriety’ in refusing to embrace and legalise homosexuality.
This saw HIFA fold in 2016, but it returned this year, with Norway and Sweden in tow as partners.
Organisations known for promoting gays and lesbians such as HIVOS are HIFA’s partners and were exhibiting at this year’s festival.
HIVOS, a Netherlands-based organisation is widely known for championing sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR).
“Hivos believes that all people should be able to have control over their bodies and sexuality, that people should be able to express their sexual orientation and gender identity freely, without having to suffer threats, violence or exclusion,” reads Hivos’ mission statement.
“We have a long track record of supporting both small LGBT initiatives and helping build a strong LGBT movement in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
HIFA is no longer just a festival; it has become a sub-culture.
HIFA has been accused of compromising Zimbabwe’s culture by exposing the general public to homosexual acts and prostitution.
The arts festival is known to be a haven for homosexuals where, through secret codes and signs, they interact.
Over the years, the festival has perfected the art of promoting gayism.
More and more gays are born and bred, with each passing year.
And at this year’s HIFA, they were so sophisticated that one could hardly notice them; they behaved more like the Western gays and lesbians in ‘suits and ties’.
Thus it is no surprise the US Embassy supports HIFA at all costs sacrificing thousands of Zimbabweans who might perish from HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Apart from being a playground for homosexuals, HIFA is a tool for regime change.
HIFA came into existence in 1999, the year the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was launched.
It is not a secret that HIFA, like the MDC, were, and still are, heavily funded by the West.
HIFA became a platform for the ‘troubled’ white minority being ‘chased’ from ‘their’ farms.
The arts became a mouthpiece for the ‘abused’ and highlighted the ‘deficiency’ of democracy in the country.
And over the years since its inception, it has remained a political assignment or project which will not stop until it has achieved its purpose.
Remember in 2011, HIFA’s founder and artistic director Manuel Bagorro and a number of so-called artistes from Zimbabwe were sponsored by an American NGO, Casals and Associates, to study social media in Serbia.
The US Government’s Office for Transitional Initiatives (OTI), through Casals and Associates, one of the agents through which USAID funds regime change projects, released funds to Bagorro who took recruits to Serbia to give them training in the ‘effective use of social media for transformation’.
The ‘Arab Spring’ that saw the toppling of governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia through the use of social media could have been a source of inspiration to local regime change agents.
Since then, attempts to undermine the authority of Government using social media have been intensified.
So called social movements with names such as #Tajamuka, #Thisflag, #MyZimbabwe, #Fearlessgeneration and #hervote2018, among others, are sprouting each day.
In 2014, HIFA spiritedly attempted to bring Freshly Ground, a South African musical group that released a controversial song ‘Chicken to Change’ to the festival.
Despite ZANU PF thrashing the MDC-T in the 2013 elections, the West still questioned the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe and groups like Freshly Ground were willing mouthpieces of Western propaganda.
And this year’s HIFA was no different.
Plays such as Liberation denigrated the country’s struggle for freedom and independence.
Tumaini bemoaned the decay of political and social fabric in Zimbabwe while the comedy The rich list, portrayed the country in bad taste as a corruption infested nation that need ‘cleansing’.
And Bagorro did not hide the festival’s mission; changing people’s perceptions through arts.
“Arts are always important when times are tough,” said Bagorro in a press statement.
“If this is what we can do, this is how we can think creatively to make something large and magnificent happen, if possible in the arts sector where we can have influence.
“What else is possible, where else can this type of creative thinking, ambition of scale and transformation, where else can that have an impact,” he said.
“…We decided we are coming this time no matter what, because this is the time when this type of event is more crucial than any other.”
The country is preparing for its harmonised elections slated for 2018, as such it is a ‘crucial time’ for HIFA which is laying the groundwork for regime change.