By Kundai Marunya

LAST week, the Zimbabwe Council of Copyright (ZICCO) launched a farming enterprise involving cultivating sugar beans on a six-hectare plot in Nyabira. The project aims to improve the livelihoods of over 2 000 members, including musicians, songwriters, composers and producers. ZICCO is a collective management organisation (CMO), an organisation that collects royalties on behalf of its members.

It is also responsible for licensing the use of artistes’ works for copyright use. The farming initiative follows the realisation that not all artistes in the music industry value chain can sustain themselves solely through their art. Many celebrated musicians have died in poverty, while others survive on handouts. For example, the late Cde Dick ‘Chinx’ Chingaira, a revolutionary musician who rallied the masses during the fight against colonialism, faced trying times in his last days. Despite his contributions, he ended up in near destitution, after years of serving his country, even after independence.

The Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA) had to donate a house to elevate Cde Chinx’s family to the standard expected of the hero. This is just one example of an artiste who struggled despite being part of a collective management organisation (CMO) that collected royalties on his behalf. Recently, the widow of the late sungura legend Leonard Dembo had to seek help from philanthropist Wicknell Chivayo, as her late husband’s extensive music catalogue had failed to provide her a decent living, years after his passing on.

The issue of great artistes falling on hard times is not unique to Zimbabwe. Many regional icons have faced similar struggles, relying on public sympathy for survival. This reality underscores the need for artistes to invest in alternative means of income. Realising the need for alternative income, ZICCO bought the plot in Nyabira, where they are growing sugar beans, along with another property in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo. This is aligned to the late nationalist Herbert Chitepo’s ideology on land ownership, and how it gives people a dignif ied option in survival. “I think everybody who knows about revolution knows that revolution has been about land everywhere in the world. It is about land because land is the thing on which you live,” the late revolutionary was quoted as saying during a fund-raiser in Australia, two years before his assassination.

“You build your house on it; you get your food from it. Life is sustained on the land, and without it, you are really facing death. That is what revolution is about.” ZICCO has invited artistes to utilise these spaces, even offering seed funding for various projects, including poultry farming. However, there have been no immediate takers. This has prompted the executive to farm on behalf of their members, generating income while inspiring them to diversify their portfolios beyond the stage. ZICCO has been engaging various stakeholders, including agricultural extension officers and financial institutions, to develop viable projects.

They are on the verge of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a local bank to facilitate loans. “We realised our members cannot survive on the royalties we distribute, so we thought of investing in land on their behalf and we are inviting them to engage in income-generating projects,” said ZICCO chief executive officer Tafadzwa Masembura. “There are some musicians who still believe that art alone should be enough to take care of their financial needs, but the reality is that not all artistes can achieve that. “We are working on educating our members about economic empowerment so they can see that art can be a gateway to many other opportunities.” Zimbabwe has thousands of artistes across different genres, all striving to make a living. Unfortunately, not all of them succeed in sustaining themselves through their work.

This is due to various factors, including poor financial management, lack of professionalism and piracy. Although ZICCO’s land holdings are small — translating to a few square metres per member — the acquisition is a step towards understanding the importance of owning the means of production. When artistes look beyond their craft for survival, they are less likely to be lured by seemingly lucrative but exploitative engagements that compromise their dignity and national interests. A few weeks ago, Chitungwiza Arts Centre held a sculpture competition themed around the atrocities of Cecil John Rhodes, the imperialist who led Zimbabwe’s colonisation and the subsequent brutalisation of its people.

In his speech, Chitepo referenced how Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) was exploited by Rhodes, who viewed the country’s people as nothing more than an exploitable natural resource. “The company that established it was known as the British South Africa Company (BSAC), whose chairman and director was Cecil John Rhodes,” Chitepo said. “Its whole purpose was to exploit, largely, the mineral, land, and animal resources of our territory. And, I think the history of Zimbabwe, ever since, has been that it has been looked upon by white people as a place to exploit — not only its natural resources but also its people.” Though presented under the theme, ‘Acknowledging the Violence of Cecil Rhodes’ Wars on the Indigenous Peoples of Zimbabwe; Celebrating Their Survival, Independence, and Resilience’, such an event raises concerns about reinforcing European dominance over Africa.

Chitungwiza is home to one of Zimbabwe’s greatest Shona kings, Chaminuka, whose spirit inspired resistance against colonial rule during both the First and Second Chimurengas. Why, then, should Rhodes’ name be associated with such a place? If the competition was truly about celebrating resistance, why not run a contest that honours Chaminuka? It appears that the competition — organised with the involvement of Oxford University and Oriel College in the UK — was designed to keep Rhodes’ memory alive rather than truly celebrate Zimbabwe’s defiance. For years, visual art has been used as a tool to subjugate Africans. Western audiences have their own version of what they want African art to depict. Some of the best-selling African artblack people, sold as sculptures or paintings.

A zebra is a beautiful animal — until seen through the lens of Option Nyahunzvi, who paints its stripes on a distorted f igure, claiming to represent the beauty of a totem. How can a human figure with a leg for an arm symbolise beauty? Yet, such art sells well in Europe, much like the works of Wycliffe Mundopa, whose depiction of African women is unsettling. To paint Africans as beautiful and dignified would contradict the colonial narrative of them as an ‘exploitable natural resource’. Thus, African art has been used to justify the continued exploitation of the continent and its resources, with artistes complicit in this as they struggle to make a living. If they owned the means of production and were not desperate for income, they would not be selling out to Western interests. If Chitungwiza Arts Centre and its foreign partners genuinely wanted to celebrate resistance, they could have honoured nationalist figures and First Chimurenga heroes instead.

It is crucial for our artistes to find creative ways to generate income and truly achieve independence in their work. For freedom of creation to prevail, there is need for a complete revolution of not only funding, but also operations of art institutions across the country. What we have now are people groomed by the white colonialists, through their proxies, or institutions that align with their world view, and view of black people as mere natives ready to be exploited.

The same structures set up by white people still exist, be it at art galleries or art institutions, while those set up after independence are reliant on foreign funding, putting them at the mercy of their financiers. What is needed in the arts sector is a systemic overhaul. “We are seeking what we sometimes describe as a systemic change. We want to change the whole system. We want revolution. By revolution, we understand a turning of the wheel. We want to turn it right over,” Chitepo said.