THE recently held 14th edition of the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) ceremony had its fare share of shortcomings.
Held at 7 Arts Theatre in Avondale, Harare, this year’s NAMA showed a lack of ‘seriousness’ on the part of both the organisers and players in the arts industry.
The awards ceremony has been held annually for the past 14 years.
Running under the theme ‘Pride of Zimbabwe’, one would wonder if the recently held NAMA were successful in showing the pride of Zimbabwe through the arts as pundits contend it was yet another flawed event.
As the national broadcaster beamed the event live one couldn’t help, but notice the following areas that needed special attention:
Dress code
For NAMA to be a five-star event characterised by glitz and glamour, there is need for the organisers to be strict on dress-code.
On their invitation, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) stated that the awards were a ‘Black Tie’ event, something that most people who attended ignored including those on the red carpet.
A ‘black tie’, though a men’s wear term, it also applies to women.
It means that casual wear such as T-shirts and Jeans are prohibited.
Men are expected to be in their suits or tuxedos, while women don their gowns.
The NACZ should come up with strategies to help guests dress appropriately as was the case with main presenters, in this case Patience Musa and Leroy Gopal.
To be at par with other international awards ceremonies, the NACZ must engage local designers and clothing stores to offer various suits, dresses or gowns for both the guests and presenters.
Presenters
The main presenters at this year’s NAMA awards were ZiFM’s Patience Musa and Leroy Gopal of the Yellow Card fame.
Musa was also one of the main presenters at last year’s edition.
Besides the monotony, Musa and Gopal were finding it hard to ‘connect’.
Signs of lack of rehearsals and guidelines were visible.
A presenter must not be chosen simply because he or she is a celebrity, but on their ability to deliver on stage.
For example, at the NAMA, it became clear that Gopal is a good actor, but not a good presenter.
He tried so hard to speak in Shona, but struggled.
Sadly there was a lack of cohesion between the presenters so there is need for the NACZ to make use of experienced and talented presenters that are knowledgeable about the subject they would be presenting.
Donors
It is not a secret that times are hard, but the NACZ must strive to improve the NAMA by engaging more donors.
Since the NAMA is an annual event, the NACZ must use the entire year as the time to scout and engage more donors for the event.
There are some high profile arts events such as the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) and Shoko Festival that run annually with ease because of the availability of donors.
Donations do not necessarily mean provision of cash, but other services such as transport, accommodation and workshops for artists.
Engaging more stakeholders in the issuing of awards can be a marketing strategy for different companies and organisations in the country.
Event Venue
Last year the NAMA were held in Bulawayo and the media was awash with news that it was an unsuccessful event as a result of the venue which was deemed too small.
This year, the idea of a different venue was refreshing, but despite providing a good red carpet, the stage for this year’s edition was dull.
The lighting was poor.
On a related note, the awards offered at the NAMA are becoming predictable. The awards, pundits contend, provide limited room for upcoming artistes, especially when it comes to the media and music categories.
The NAMA awards are divided into nine categories which include, music, literacy, dance, visual, film and television, theatre, media, spoken word and special awards.
This year 21-year-old Obey Makamure, better known as ‘Tocky Vibes’ stole the show.
The ‘Mhai’ singer bagged two awards for the Outstanding Song and the Outstanding Album awards.
According to a press release issued by the NACZ, “the intention of the NAMA is to empower artistes as individuals who are proud in their assorted works”.
It must be noted, however, that there were some people who questioned how Sulumani Chimbetu clinched the Outstanding Male Musician Award.