By Dr Tony Monda

ALTHOUGH Zimbabwe has made great strides in indigenous developments since independence in 1980, efforts to develop its cultural heritage have lagged behind.
Upon the attainment of independence, many former colonies throughout Africa have erected commemorative public sculpture depicting their respected leaders and symbols of their respective nations.
However, while Zimbabwe boasts of some of the best natural heritage sites created by ancient royal craftsmen, known traditionally as ‘Mhizha’, we have not proceeded boldly to visually articulate our nationhood by creating national public art, 34 years after independence.
Zimbabwe does not have any public monuments that symbolise and carry the nation’s ethos and struggle for independence apart from the Heroes Acre, Airport Statue and lately the Joshua Nkomo statue.
No other monuments have been created and nothing attests to the nation’s post-Independence ethos, the struggle for that independence and the fruits of its success.
One way to implement such projects is to arrange a national conference on public art and define and outline its merits for the country.
According to one of the directors of Springstone International Art Gallery and cultural Foundation, Dr Michelina Andreucci, “the engagement of local artistes commissioned to produce public monument is overdue and will go a long way to promote local artistic participation in the mainstream socio-economic and cultural strata and provide the much needed artistic employment and public appreciation of art, national and international recognition (as well as national pride), for the talent that abounds in Zimbabwe”.
What would Zimbabwe gain from the erection of public arts?
1. It would encourage cultural and historic tourism;
2. Increase the input of foreign investment in the country;
3. Increase cultural innovation and cultural commerce
4. Highlight the nation’s cultural visibility internationally.
It must be recognised that public art spills over into tourism, nationhood, cultural identity and the economy.
However, today, we are witnessing many uninformed and artistically illiterate people, tender hustlers, hired middlemen and conmen involved in art production processes they are ignorant of.
By awarding outsiders the right to erect the statue of Father Zimbabwe (Dr Joshua Nkomo) for instance, they will own the intellectual property rights of the work.
Further, Zimbabweans as a people are obliterating their own expertise, identity and cultural legacy, and human potential.
Why are we awarding public art tenders to outsiders when Zimbabweans can do it?
Perhaps there should be an indigenisation clause or law effected and instated that views the procurement of indigenous Zimbabwean artiste’s skills as a priority.
How many Zimbabwean sculptors have been commissioned by other nations to create their national public edifices? – NONE.
Dr Joshua Nkomo comes from Bulawayo and it makes sense that people should travel from all over to see the statue made for that region.
Bulawayo is a strategic trade and commerce hub of the nation, currently in great need of touristic stimulus and commercial attention, as such, Dr Nkomo’s statue is well placed in that environ.
Making duplicates of the sculpture, as has been proposed, to be scattered around the country, devalues the cultural, aesthetic, monetary and touristic importance of the prototype sculpture.
Many artistes and curators are not able to discern the physical, cultural and anatomical differences in the Korean sculptures of our heroes, who parenthetically do not resemble African people, what more lay people and bureaucratic functionaries.
Most of the figures depicted on the Heroes Acre, low relief bronze frieze monument, have features such as high cheekbones and stiff poses that are not a characteristic reflection of our real heroes or African people in general.
When visitors to Harare’s Heroes Acre ask – “Who is the Artist?” are we not ashamed and humiliated to say: “It was made by Koreans” or “made in China” when Zimbabwe is renowned to have some of the world’s best sculptors (see Newsweek 1986)?
Contrary to common belief, there are very few qualified cultural administrators in Zimbabwe who are conversant with art, and who can deal with the intricacies of bronze art, assess its feasibility, its physical positioning in space, evaluate its finish and prognosticate the value of public art over time.
We need to re-position Zimbabwe on the world cultural map.
It is after all the stone sculptors of Zimbabwe who brought glory to the nation through their world renowned artworks.
The empirical conclusion reached in various studies that examine the link and interface between the economy and art and cultural tourism as well as tourism competition, confirm, suggest and show that countries with manmade landmarks such as Sao Paolo’s Statue of Liberty edifices not only draw more tourists, but are better buoyed for trade and attract cultural exchange and inner-city tourism because of these landmarks.
The question is how do artistes agitate and campaign for such in our country in the absence of a Public Arts and Culture Committee or lobbying body in all the ministries, city councils municipalities and local governments and art and cultural institutions?
Public art is an important cultural vehicle for the preservation of our legacies, orature, history of the liberators of a nation, its people and artistes.
The secondary objective of public art is to provide a record of our history, increase our cultural assets, increase scholarship and reignite interest in Zimbabwean art and sculpture.
By creating unique Zimbabwean public art, with the right vision, ideas and philanthropy, we can rediscover our place and identity among other internationally renowned nations.
At its height, Zimbabwean sculpture attracted tourists and contributed significantly to the economy.