IN recent times I find myself, when I can find time, tuning to our national television.
Until recently, Zee World and Telemundo had gripped the nation.
Programmes on these channels seem to have captur ed the hearts of many in our country.
India, which is home to these channels, has successfully exported its culture to the rest of the world through their programmes that are homegrown.
The people of India are deeply cultural, maybe that is the reason Zimbabweans have easily gravitated towards their programmes.
In-laws, vanyarikani, can watch their programmes without fear that is ever present when one decides to hazard watching Western programmes in the presence of family.
But lately, I hear more and more people discussing, not Zee World, SABC or etv programmes but sitcoms on our national television.
I have seen a couple of local productions and I must say I am impressed, if not by anything then, by the effort in producing content for the local broadcaster.
Filmmakers have heeded the call for more local productions.
But one thing that is glaringly missing is the absence of productions that dwell more on where we came from.
I am sure that the productions I am talking about are the ones referred to as epics.
Film is a very important medium in preserving and perpetuating the ideals and values of a people.
What is our story?
Who are we in the family of nations?
What have we contributed to civilisation?
What are we doing to improve the prospects of mankind?
These are some of the questions that our film industry must be answering.
The so-called greatness of countries like the US, the UK and Germany have been burnt into our psyche through movies.
Movies have been made about the lives of British monarchs dating back as far as Alfred the Great, who was King of Wessex from 871 to 899 and we are told led the Anglo-Saxon resistance against Viking invasion.
We are told he was the first to adopt the title of King of the Anglo-Saxons, and his heirs would go on to be the kings of England, and that he significantly improved the country’s legal system and military structure.
But where are our stories?
Rather, what are our filmmakers doing?
We are a people who did not wait for other countries to liberate us; we took the initiative to free ourselves from the colonial yoke.
In the same spirit, we should seize the film space and begin to tell our story.
We have great people who were nation makers; they are stories worth telling.
The story of Nehanda is yet to be told through motion picture.
We have great names like Mashonganyika, Mkwati, Chaminuka and Lobengula — it would be delightful to have bio pictures of these characters who helped shape our nation.
There are many other names whose stories will inspire the nation if only they are made into movies.
I urge our filmmakers to continue doing their good work and give us more of our stories.
The stories of our people will also capture the imagination of the world.
Who will find the story of the great Munhumutapa Empire boring?
By telling our story through movies, we would have gone another step in defending our physical, cultural and intellectual space.