HARARE International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is back again, but this time more outright in its determination to distort local culture.
This is not surprising since the definition of ‘international’ by all regime change agents of which HIFA is one does not include countries which are deemed to be ‘hostile’.
It is not by coincidence that HIFA was formed in 1999, the same year the MDC, another regime change political tool for the West was formed.
The West, true to their tradition, thought they could use the cultural front to poison Zimbabweans using characters like Manuel Bagorro.
When last year Gavin Peters took over from Bagorro as HIFA artistic director, there were murmurings of discontent.
This was probably not justified as Peters seemed to deviate from the script by his bold attempt to include a significant share of local cultural acts by local participants.
After all, it is only fair that locals have to benefit from the rich pickings generated by this show.
He was ‘fired’ and this year, Bagorro is back.
Bagorro appears to be having appropriate regime change credentials.
After all, a few years back through HIFA, he took a number of recruits to Serbia to give them training in the use of social media.
Serbia was significant in that, the government there had been toppled and replaced by a Western-backed regime after social media had played a crucial role.
The effectiveness of social media in bringing down governments was also witnessed through the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
We have no reason to doubt that Bogorro’s Serbian graduates had a big role to play in the regime change social media that flooded the Zimbabwean polity on the eve of the July 31 2013 harmonised polls.
How else can we explain the sudden emergence of crafty characters like ‘Baba Jukwa’ on facebook and cartoon clips like Nyoka and Manyepo on YouTube.
It’s now common knowledge that this was a dismal failure.
But wait a minute.
If we are to go by the opening show and a catalogue of other shows and activities to follow, we see that this year, locals are worse off, as far as getting a chance to be rewarded financially.
Unlike last year, this year, under Bagorro’s directorship, local cultural acts are not so prominent.
Not only that, but by a strange coincidence, unlike last year, the host’s national anthem was not sung at the opening ceremony with the return of Bagorro.
The ‘international’ festival of the arts is indeed a festival putting on parade a number of artistic performances from a variety of countries.
This is plausible if only the host country were also given a fair share of the cake.
Where they try to bring out some local dimension, it is with some sinister motive.
For instance, a play on the cards about Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi attempts to bastardise our spirit mediums by at some point depicting them as whites.
The play also paints an insulting impression that these mediums, who played an important role in trying to stop colonisation of our country, were unhappy with the present situation in Zimbabwe.
To imagine this play is directed by a Briton, the level of distortion of our cultural heritage can only be imagined.
Just because our strength is in our culture and our spirituality, that’s the very backbone Bagorro’s Western sponsors would like to break as they try to put on an otherwise educative show.
They should not take this as an opportunity to dabble with our culture and spirituality in the same way Cecil John Rhodes desecrated our national shrine by being buried at Njelele together with Leander Starr Jameson.
Bagorro is expected to use HIFA as a cultural show that also gives the hosting country’s artistes a favourable opportunity to share the financial rewards generated by the event.