Arts Views With Thabani H Moyo
THE advent of corona virus and its continued havoc has thrown almost all arts training projects into comatose. Before COVID-19 Bulawayo and Matabeleland region had thriving Arts projects that were aimed at identifying and developing young talent and all these are today in limbo due to the effects of the virus. It will appear as if the virus is not only taking life out human beings but it also suffocating the arts and slowing killing them. Some of the projects that were thriving include Centre For Talent Development (C.T.D) and its Live Literature Project, Nhimbe’s Children in Theatre and Television (CITT), Iyasa’s Isiphiwo sami Talent Search, Intwasa/Plan Schools Project, Albert Nyathi Talent Search (ANTS), Jikinya Primary Schools Dance Competition and many more. All these projects seem to have temporarily lost their heart beat and one wonders whether they will be resurrected back to life anytime soon.
Schools are the base of most these training projects and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has come up with very stringent COVID-19 protocol to try and make schools safe zones. In 2021 when schools resumed their classes all extracurricular activities were frozen and this made it impossible for any arts activity to take place within the schooling system. This left many training projects in limbo.
The prevailing situation has dire future consequences. A chasm is developing which will be hard to fill. Mr B Makhurane a Theatre Arts teacher at St James made these observations, ‘Such programs as Isiphiwo Sami, Intwasa/Plan and National Association of Secondary School Heads Drama competitions have been largely affected. The mandate of these competitions was to groom learners to become professional artist. The implementation of the updated curriculum is difficult as rehearsals are banned in schools. This might lead to learners dropping such subjects as Theatre Arts, Music and Dance.” Another teacher at Nketa High School Nkosi Mlibazi concurs with his colleague, ‘With inactivity in schools we have discontinuity and we will get to a phase where all learners that will have been trained and developed leave without passing on the skills to the next cohort. The school system will fail to feed the professional side as is currently happening’.
There is need to develop the arts and even to improve them for the better. COVID-19 presents new challenges to the managers and organisers of these training projects. Its either they devise new ways of carrying on with the projects or they watch their dreams wither and fizzle. The truth is that no one is sitting on their laurels. Most of the managers, coordinators of these arts training programs and competitions are having sleepless nights trying to rethink and devise new strategies. Nkululeko Dube, Director at Iyasa that runs Isiphiwo Sami Talent search is aware that a lot of resources will be needed to revive these training projects and this will have to start with schools. ‘Online programs are the only answer to the current crisis. We are thinking along the lines of actually preparing the children for this digital era. It is the topic of the moment. We simply need to adapt and prepare schools for digitalization. We need to change schools to be computer centres or digital platforms where we can then explore the future with these budding creatives’, says Dube. In essence this means that schools have to modernise their Arts studios so as to meet the requirements of the new normal. Schools will have to invest in affordable and reliable internet connection. This requires that all hands must be on the deck.
Raisedon Baya one of Bulawayo’s senior Arts practitioners and director at Intwasa observes, ‘With training it’s really going to be difficult. The target for training (learners) might not have access to internet. And also virtual training may not be as effective as we want it to be. I think now we will be paying double because of the informal way have been training. Virtual training might need us to be more organised and focussed.’ Award winning actor, theatre trainer and director Memory Kumbota had this to say ‘COVID-19 became the main disrupter and focus in 2020. It is nearly a year now of this disruption, and for the sector to move on we must now move away from groping into digital space for survival but take measured and deliberate steps to make full use of the alternate world to make both an impact and a living.’
Everyone is in agreement that the future of the arts lies in the training programs that are rooted in the schooling system. Everyone agrees that there is need to rescue these programs by migrating to the digital space. This is might sound like a long shot but the options are limited. The answer lies in multi-sectorial approach and not in selfish individualism. The future is built today.
