By Farayi Mungoshi

ON Friday, May 19 this year, the Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) honoured Jesesi Mungoshi with a Lifetime Achievement Award for the role she played in the advancement of the film industry in Zimbabwe.
I had the honour of attending the event.
I could not help but fidget in my seat when she was called up on stage and the whole auditorium burst out singing Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Neria’, especially the part that goes: ‘Kufirwa nemurume hanzvadzi, zvinoda moyo wekushinga. Usaore moyo Neria, Mwari anewe’.
Why did this make me feel uneasy?
The reason is simple — my father is still very much alive and the person who went up on stage is actually Jesesi Mungoshi not the fictional Neria.
It’s approximately 27 years on since the film Neria was produced and up to this day, people are still hung on and cannot really separate the character Neria, from the actress.
Even the award has her name (Jesesi Mungoshi) written on it with Neria printed beneath it in italics.
This in itself is confirmation of what I always say, that film has the power and ability to influence and shape the way people think.
Twenty-seven years on and the film, Neria is still relevant; after watching it little kids also point at my mother and call her Neria.
However, it is not so much its relevance that counts today but it is the lessons that all of us have drawn from it that are important.
As much as the film was used as a tool to fight for women’s rights in Zimbabwe, I prefer to view it as an example of what Zimbabweans are capable of achieving in the arts and that we are the drivers of our own destiny.
Twenty-seven years after its production and launch, the film Neria still managed to inspire students from the Arts, Culture and Heritage faculty at the Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) to make a film of their own.
Solo naMutsai is a 90-minute film produced by student Charles Munganasa and features students from GZU.
A feat that puts GZU on the map in as far as productivity in the arts at university level is concerned.
Last year, the same department produced a music album called Dangwe.
I am yet to get a copy of my own: I am sure that like Solo naMutsai the spirit of unhu/ubuntu is also displayed in the songs.
As for those who still value our culture and heritage today, I must say Solo naMutsai is a film to watch.
Set at the GZU, Solo naMutsai follows the story of two love birds from the village who are awarded scholarships to attend university in the city.
Promised to each other, the love birds enter the city with intentions of finally getting married one day, but little did they know that the city has its pros and cons that will eventually unsettle their love for one another, setting them on different courses in life.
A story of love, hope and betrayal, Solo naMutsai is an age-old story of how people leave the village for the city only to lose their ways and morals because of the glitz and glamour city life presents.
It is a story most of us can identify with, even though it is predictable, it is the fast pace with which the story is told that keeps its audience hooked.
It is both entertaining and educating and it also gives one food for thought when it comes to mapping out one’s destiny.
I would say that this is the kind of film all students must watch upon enrollment at university.
Why?
Because it shows the dangers most students face at university, the need to fit into a society that has a culture that contradicts our own culture as well as the peer pressure and need to fit in.
On leaving the village, Solo and Mutsai are advised by their elders not to stray but stick to the morals they were brought up with.
However, upon arrival at the university, Mutsai is lured by her roommate into drinking and clubbing, eventually falling pregnant by an older man while on the other side Solo remains faithful.
He pursues his music studies, playing the mbira and eventually winning a music competition that sends him to the US.
And so it seems like the end of the world for Mutsai and her dream of becoming a lawyer and getting married to Solo, but in what I view as perhaps the biggest lesson in the whole film, Mutsai still manages to finish university and graduate despite giving birth and becoming a mother enroute to achieving her goal.
She writes a letter to Solo and puts the letter in a bottle telling him of what transpired at university and her final achievements.
She puts the bottle in the river and lets it float downstream obviously with the hope that someday Solo might pick up the bottle from the river bank and discover the letter and perhaps rekindle that old flame they had for each other.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Dr Andrew Chindanya described GZU as a University that imparts skills to the individual and that it has the evidence to show that they have imparted the necessary skills to equip its students.
The university promised that the faculty would not stop at just an album and a film but will go as far as starting a radio station.
Not so many film students can boast completing a feature-length film at college.
Indeed, the film and television industry is booming and the Zimbabwean story is now being told and celebrated.