HomeOld_PostsNhimbe Trust: Let’s call a spade a spade

Nhimbe Trust: Let’s call a spade a spade

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ON June 1 2015, the Book Café closed down in Harare.
This was the second time the venue, known to be a nest for regime change agents, closed down.
In 2012, while still located at Fife Avenue, it closed shop only to re-open months later situated at 139 Samora Machel Avenue.
The Café has been located in Harare since its first incarnation as ‘Grassroots Books’ in 1982.
And it became Book Café in 1997, purporting to be providing space ‘to give voice to the oppressed’.
The Book Café hosted programmes that included performances, workshops or discussions for and about regime change.
It was a space for all political activists to share ideas and methods on how to remove a constitutionally elected Government.
Rebel poets, writers and musicians who frequented this venue are well-known regime change agents.
The likes of Petina Gappah, Alexander Fuller, Chirikure Chikure, Batsirai Chigama, Samm Farai Monro, among others, frequented the place.
The Book Café catapulted a number of political activists who today are leading various NGOs and advocating regime change.
One such is Nhlanhla Ngwenya, director of the Zimbabwean Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
Ngwenya’s MISA has been at the forefront of castigating the State media and calling for media reforms.
It has produced research papers and articles that are anti-Government.
Ngwenya started visiting the Book Café since his days at the University of Zimbabwe in the mid-1990s.
His first experience with protest poetry was at the Book Café.
He says he only discovered the importance of ‘freedom of artistic creativity’ through the Book Café.
And since then, his organisation has been using bloggers working from the Book Café.
“This is when I realised that as an activist it is not good to be boxed in one section but to collaborate with other sections for a common cause,” said Ngwenya.
Then there is Samm Farai Monro, also known as ‘Comrade Fatso’.
His relationship with the Book Café spans more than 10 years.
He started volunteering at the Book Café around 2004.
Said Monro in 2014 in a piece titled, How Creative Spaces Foster Civic Engagements:A Case Study of Book Café (Harare, Zimbabwe):
“At the Book Café, I had an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with wider civil society.
It was at the House of Hunger Poetry slam at the Book Café where I met my friend and comrade Tongai Leslie Makawa aka Outspoken, with whom I founded Magamba Network. Together we launched Magamba at the Book Café in November 2007.”
So, are such people simply artistes or political activists?
Women rights, governance and democracy activist based at the British Embassy, Tsitsi Mhlanga, speaking on Magamba Network, once said:
“It would be laced with all these things — on first sight its comedians, talking about state of things in general.
Actually, then you realise its more than comedians, but activists that have sat down and crafted messages in a way that has allowed them to stay just on the right side.”
But now the Book Café is back, but with a new name; Bluez Café, a Nhimbe Trust project.
Yes, the same Nhimbe Trust which is trying in vain to distance itself from the regime change agenda.
Bluez café is situated in Bulawayo (the hub of cultural activities).
This does not come as a surprise because the regime change agenda has taken a new twist with culture taking centre stage.
Bulawayo is witnessing a flourishing number of arts and theatre groups engaged in anti-Government plays and the so-called political satires.
These groups have gone to the grassroots; to the people, with anti-Government messages.
Bluez Café, a Nhimbe Trust project, officially opened its doors to the public on Africa Day, May 25, in the City of Kings and Queens.
Before its launch last month, Nhimbe Trust had been running arts events around Bulawayo under the banner of Bluez Café as early as September last year.
Bluez Café is modelled around the ‘defunct’ Book Café and is run by former Book Café workers, Penny Yon and Ian White.
Nhimbe Trust, though it has repeatedly denied it, has all the signs of an organisation pushing for regime change.
Its 98A Lobengula Street activities at Youth Contact Centre and 84 Fort Street, Canberra Building — be it music, spoken word, literary works, visuals arts or fine arts — are all part of the new wave of regime change tactics.
Josh Nyapimbi is the director of Nhimbe Trust and Bluez Café.
Here is some interesting information about him.
Besides founding Nhimbe Trust, whose ‘works’ we have already noted, Nyapimbi is a board member of well-known regime change institutions such as Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CSZ) and the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO).
He is also associated with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
Born on May 23 1972, Nyapimbi co-founded Nhimbe Trust in 2003 with Professor Lupwishi Mbuyamba, based in Mozambique.
A search on the internet revealed that pre-2003, there is nothing on Nyapimbi.
His life, it seems, starts with the establishment of Nhimbe Trust.
What is Nhimbe Trust?
Although coined from a Shona word ‘nhimbe’ which means ‘communally working together’, the question is: What sort of people is the Trust working with?
Nhimbe Trust has been subtly pushing for regime change through political satires, poetry and films.
It has roped in well-known ‘political activists’ such as Raisedon Baya, Christopher Mlalazi, Daves Guzha, Musawenkosi Sibanda, Bongelani Ncube, Chido Kutaga, Memory Kumbota and Chirikure Chirikure, among others who masquerade as writers, directors, poets, producers and actors
Nhimbe Trust’s management include Busi Ndlovu (administration and finance manager) and Ronald Moyo (communications manager).
Nhimbe Trust’s board of trustees consists of Professor Lupwishi Mbuyamba (chairperson), Joyce Dube (treasurer), Brian Penduka and Munyaradzi Chatikobo.
Programme consultants include Raisedon Baya and Xanier Dlomo.
Its key programmes are the Schools Playwrights and Actors Academy (SPAA), Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) and the Bulawayo Arts Forum.
In October 2013, Nyapimbi received training and consultation for a period of six weeks in the UK.
He was the first person in the arts and culture sector in Zimbabwe to be awarded such a Commonwealth fully-funded scholarship.
During his stay, he had internships with Amnesty International, Equity, the One Campaign, the Young Vic and consulted with numerous arts organisations.
Amnesty International has always been anti-Zimbabwe Government, the latest being its March 2017 report pushing for the prosecution of President Robert Mugabe at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights violations.
Nhimbe Trust is funded by Africalia, Culture Fund in Zimbabwe Trust in partnership with the EU and Freemuse.
These organisations have a pious outlook, but are they that sincere?
Africalia is a Belgium-based NGO which was founded at the end of 2000 on the
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initiative of the Belgian Development Co-operation and at the instigation of secretary of state, Eddy Boutmans.
Another funder is Culture Fund Zimbabwe, a Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) organisation.
On May 9 2017, the Embassy of Sweden signed an agreement with Culture Fund Zimbabwe in which Sweden will contribute US$1,35 million (12 Million Swedish Kronor) towards Culture Fund’s new three-year programme named ‘Culture Actions’.
Said Culture Fund Zimbabwe executive director, Farai Mpfunya, upon signing the agreement:
“Culture Fund remains a development-oriented social change NGO that has worked within Zimbabwean society over the last 10 years to change the lives of thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans.
This new programme marks a new era of partnership between the Culture Fund and the Embassy of Sweden under a renewed model that seeks to achieve greater impact by working with selected creatives and community based organisations to infuse practical innovations into more sustainable development interventions.”
Some argue the ‘social change’ under the guise of ‘culture fund’ is meant to defile the African culture by promoting, among other things, homosexuality.
Nhimbe Trust’s projects come to the fore.
Its Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme advocates gays’ and lesbians’ rights.
Nyapimbi is the producer of How Long, a play which promotes homosexuality.
The play pleads with the community to accept gay partners, ‘Chamunorwa’ and ‘Nkosi’.
Apparently, Chamunorwa is bisexual and married to Thembi who does not know her husband is gay.
The play was written by Raisedon Baya.
According to the script: “How long is a play about a bisexual man who is in two relationships and is frantically trying to deal with both demanding relationships.
The play raises questions like: “How long will people experience stigma and discrimination because of having to play hide and seek with their sexual orientation?”
Baya penned another play on homosexuality, Superstar Prophets.
Superstar Prophets is a play about a gay man who is in love with a priest who happens to be attracted to somebody else.
The play also challenges Zimbabweans to embrace homosexuality.
The plays do not stop on ‘social change’.
Baya has also written political satires which include Pregnant with Emotion and the banned Super Patriots and Morons.
Earlier this year, the British Council was added to the list of Nhimbe Trust’s funders.
It is recruiting 20 young females from Bulawayo for further training in the UK.
Together with a director from the UK, the participants will attend workshops, rehearse and then perform a sharing of what they have produced.
According to a press statement:
“Nhimbe Trust, in partnerships with Young Vic Theatre UK, with the support of the British Council, are producing The Unified Women Project, which will provide a ‘cultural exchange’ between 20 young women and emerging creatives in both the UK and Zimbabwe through collaboration to produce a unique theatre piece.
“Set to roll out this September, the project will empower young women aged 18-25 from some of the most vulnerable communities in both London and Bulawayo, as they come together to jointly create a theatre piece, and a call was made for a female playwright from Zimbabwe to work alongside director as a creative team.”
But it is no secret there is more to such ‘cultural exchange programmes’.
Are these young women not going to be turned into political activists?
Last month, Nhimbe Trust selected Nomashawekazi Damasane from Bulawayo for the Unified Women project scriptwriter, while Thoko Zulu’s play Lunatic, was also selected for the project.
Lunatic is a play on political prisoners who are afraid of being killed for betraying state secrets and constantly lie to deceive the audience.
These are the plays that Nhimbe Trust wants; plays that portray Zimbabwe as an unsafe place; a place where ‘everyone is being intimidated by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)’.
Last year, there was a public outcry after Nhimbe Trust rejected all the plays submitted.
“We always have a certain standard that we expect from our entrants and we cannot afford to drop that standard…we simply did not find what we were looking for,” responded Nyapimbi.
Could it be all the 15 plays submitted were not anti-Zimbabwe Government or not hard-hitting enough?
The competition was centred on how women’s movements can respond to the political situation in the country and the playwrights were meant to write on this theme.
Under the Schools Playwrights and Actors Academy, Nhimbe Trust set up the Youth Contact Centre, which for the past few years had been operating illegally as an educational centre until its closure in August last year.
After trying to catch them young, Nhimbe Trust’s Youth Contact Centre was banned by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in August 2016 after it came to light that the centre had been enrolling students from 14 years of age for educational purposes, yet it was not registered.
Its main operation, the annual cultural countrywide tours, focus on ‘staging plays, taking theatre to the grassroots; to the people’.
In its annual countrywide tours, Nhimbe Trust always stages plays that are politically inclined, pushing for a new Government.
They portray Zimbabwe as a country in crisis, which needs deliverance.
They ridicule Government policies such as the Land Reform Programme, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Programme and they ridicule the country’s history, especially the liberation struggle.
Such plays include, State of the Nation by Daves Guzha’s Rooftop Promotions, Lovers in Time by Blessing Hungwe, The Taking by Raisedon Baya and Water Games by Christopher Mlalazi.
The Taking explores ‘controversy’ surrounding the ‘land issue’ in Zimbabwe with a cast of Zenzo Nyathi, Gift Chakuvinga, Aleck Zulu, Elton Sibanda and Musa Sibanda.
Through storytelling, the play portrays the Land Reform Programme as being marred by violence and human rights violations.
In this play, the storyteller is arrested for performing folktales without a censorship or clearance certificate from relevant authorities.
During the same week, a young farm labourer is also arrested on suspicion of murdering the old white farmer who had adopted her while she was young.
Another play staged by Nhimbe Trust is Lovers in Time produced by Blessing Hungwe in collaboration with University of Bedfordshire in the UK.
It is an insult to the country’s First Chimurenga heroes, Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi.
In the play, Mbuya Nehanda returns as a man with transexual behaviour and bumps into fellow spirit medium Sekuru Kaguvi.
Another insult to our history is when the spirits of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi come back as white people.
The duo go through a series of character changes as they travel through Zimbabwe until they are hanged by two drunken white men.
The play actually courted controversy during the 2015 edition of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
Financial support for the play came from University of Bedfordshire in the UK and Nhimbe Trust (funded by the EU).
In addition, last year, Nhimbe Trust, in collaboration with Rooftop Promotions , staged another regime change play, State of the Nation.
The satire which calls for a ‘succession plan’ as ‘ZANU PF is rocked by infighting’ was showcased as a Bluez Café pop-up event.
It was also showcased at Theatre in the park with support from ZimRights and the Election Resource Centre.
State of the Nation features well-known activists Daves Guzha, Chirikure Chirikure, Chido Kutaga and comedian Doc Vikela.
The play also parodies the messages and stances of political parties regarding the state of the ‘ailing’ economy, ‘social crises’ and ‘political power skirmishes’ in Zimbabwe.
Last year, Nhimbe Trust selected Water Games by Christopher Mlalazi for a national tour around Zimbabwe and in Germany in venues in Rostock, Jena, Greifswald, Munich, Berlin and Konstanz.
The play discusses themes of power structures, freedom of expression, the problems with water supplies in Harare, and their consequences for the wealthy as well as for the developing countries.
Mlalazi is currently the writer-in-residence in Casa Refugio in Mexico City.
It is no secret that works of art, be it books or plays, are influenced by certain ideologies.
Whose ideology are the likes of Nyapimbi, Baya, Cde Fasto, Chirikure Chirikure, Guzha, Mlalazi and company espousing especially as we go towards the 2018 elections?
Or they are those among us who say: “Hatidye ideology/Asidli ideology?
I rest my case.

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