From Pambazuka, an article on one of my favourite artists, Kudzanai Chiurai:

State of the nation, according to Kudzania Chiurai

Born in 1981 in Zimbabwe, Kudzanai Chiurai is an internationally acclaimed artist now living and working in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was the first black student to graduate with a BA in Fine Art from the University of Pretoria. Highly regarded as a leading voice of his generation, Kudzi has made a name for himself as a thought provoking artist who uses his art to highlight the many fallacies of our continent with specific focus on African leaders and culture. Chiurai’s early work focused on the political, economic and social strife in his homeland and has since evolved to reflect a continental dialogue that puts the state and its people at the centre of progress or the lack thereof. Seminal works like ‘Presidential Wallpaper’ depicted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as a sell-out and this led to Chiurai’s exile from Zimbabwe.

Armed with a paint brush and a strong desire for change Kudzi has become somewhat of a legend in the niche world of pan-African urban culture. For someone who has achieved so much in a short space of time with bodies of artwork that speak loudly, his humility, sensitivity and introverted personality are humbling, making for an interesting harmonious contrast between the artist and his work.

His latest presentation titled ‘State of the Nation’ is intended to explore aspects of a constructed African state that bears scars of political and cultural discourses. On a continent that has experienced more violent conflicts than any other, this exhibition follows an individual’s narration of events that lead up to the inaugural speech by the first democratically elected president. The conflict that exists between cultural vistas and postmodern political narratives is evident in Chiurai’s work. Themes range from rituals, genocide memories of Rwanda and the all too familiar propaganda machine of the state to win hearts and minds of the nation. The vivid and curated portrayal of political scenes and the fear it imposes on the general populace is both profound and sad. The political truth of our continent is captured in every line and colour and together the state of all our nations is laid bare.

Melissa Mboweni curated the exhibition in partnership with the Goethe Institute and collaborations with photographer Jurie Potgieter, singers Thandiswa Mazwai and Zaki Ibrahim as well as clever use of technology brought this body of work to life. Chiurai references child and woman soldiers, African liberation movements and civil wars. He tracks the similarities between societal, political and ideological doctrines of nations in tumultuous times of transition with the often-ignored impact these cacophonous changes have on citizens. The juxtaposing of public and private were highlighted in performances that took place in the streets of Newtown and in the exhibition space that fostered private conversations about the state of our own nation as well as the artist’s work. A sound and technology installation scores the gallery experience. The influence of hip-hop in Kudzi’s own life is evident in his installations.

In a style similar to previous bodies of work such as ‘Dying to be Men’ series and ‘Black President’, Chiurai’s constructed environments are enticing, seductive and explore real casualties of African independence and critically examine the role of state public servants in advancing democracy. This ‘State of the Nation’ exhibition is a timely theme that comes at a time when the continent is grappling with its democratic identity and the role of the state in bringing real freedom and justice to its people.

As an art lover and a follower of Kudzi’s work, I’m hoping his social themes will evolve to depict some of the goodness on our continent and the power of the individual in bringing about change in their own community regardless of the state. Kudzi has the ability, passion and drive to start painting imageries of Africa that shows progress and a people with an undying spirit for survival and entrepreneurship.

- Charles Nhamo Rupare
* Charles Nhamo Rupare is of Shona origin and lives life through the creative eye and dreams of Afrika regaining her dignity and her sons and daughters developing the necessary mental freedom to love peace and communal co-existence. He is an award-winning Afrikan-centred brand specialist, percussionist, writer and a Pan-Afrikan thinker. He is chief editor of www.kush.co.za, a co-founder of Kush Kollective and a Partner of TEDx Soweto.

I remember learning about endangered animal species while I was in school. Freshest in my mind are pythons and rhinos. I always hoped to see the latter in the flesh but it seems I might be running out of time. I am sad to say that the Western Black Rhino is no more, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They also say that several other sub-species of rhinos will soon be extinct too. If we are not careful, the BIG FIVE may soon be the NOT-SO-BIG FOUR. For more, here you go:

The Western black rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies of rhinoceros are close to meeting the same fate, a leading conservation group said Thursday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessment of the Western black rhino had led it to declare the subspecies extinct, adding that the Northern white rhino of central Africa is now “possibly extinct” in the wild and the Javan rhino is “probably extinct” in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.

A small but declining population of the Javan rhino survives on the Indonesian island of Java, it added.

“A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos,” the group said in a statement accompanying the latest update of its so-called Red List of endangered species.

About a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction, IUCN said, adding that some species have been brought back from the brink with successful conservation programs.

The southern white rhino numbered just 100 animals at the end of the 19th century, but has since flourished and now has a population of more than 20,000.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Youth leader found guilty of sowing divisions and bringing the party into disrepute by disciplinary committee.

So says the headlines. But, why did they do it?

He certainly was divisive, and disreputable.

But, the ANC are a political party, so there are no principles involved. Only power issues.

Are they, the party, scared? They seem to be having trouble at the polls. Toilets, and inability to deliver reform and development. Promises not fulfilled.

Are they scared of a new DA, with a black (it has had a woman before) as it’s head? It takes all the coloured vote (which is significant, as opposed to the white vote), and keeps taking the Cape Provinces.

Do they feel race (and he is a racist) is something they need to keep swept under the carpet? Is the race card something they cannot afford to play anymore? Do they feel they have to actually put together a policy that is logical, and practical, and real? Do they feel they have to keep the radicals to the fringe, as a thing of influence, a tendency, but not mainline policy? They have been a party for 99 years, so they are far more mature than most ‘revolutionary’ parties, and now they take into account the historical fact that revolutionaries do not make good administrators. Are they showing themselves to be a ‘party’ in the classical sense – the role of a political party is interest articulation and aggregation, and they acknowledge that Malema does not aggregate enough interest for the party to articulate?

And why is he, a ‘youth’ leader at the age of 30? Surely he is mature enough (even if he is still writing university exams).

According to the World Malaria Report 2010, “there were 225 million cases of malaria and an estimated 781 000 deaths in 2009, a decrease from 233 million cases and 985 000 deaths in 2000. Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every 45 seconds of malaria and the disease accounts for approximately 20% of all childhood deaths.”  Furthermore, an alarming 90% of deaths by the disease occur in Africa. However there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with scientists in Cambridge, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, having discovered the weakness in malaria parasites, with the hope of developing vaccines for the killer disease, and saving millions of lives. Read more on this very encouraging and exciting news here

Please take a moment to read this heart-felt letter from Jenni Williams, National Coordinator for Women of Zimbabwe Arise, in which she shares sobering information about conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons.

My name is Jenni Williams, national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). I am persecuted for being a human rights defender, just getting over my 39th arrest and recovering from my 3rd stint in a Zimbabwean jail as a unconvicted prisoner. Arrested on the 21st of September World Peace Day, I spent 2 days in horrific conditions at Bulawayo Central Police and then 10 days at Mlondolozi female prison in Khami complex. This brings my tally to 73 days of my life spent in jails wearing the bright green dolly rocker tunic of a remand prisoner. Despite so many arrests, the state has been unable to criminalise my right to peaceful protest so they through a particular officer with personal grudges have now resorted to criminal charges of kidnapping and theft. Anyway that is just a bit of background, the real reason I write this is to make a heartfelt plea to Zimbabweans.

In Zimbabwean jails, you have nothing to do except watch and SEE what happens and to talk to other prisoners. Life in prison is dreary, many nights spent on hard floors, dirty blankets, stinking cells, long hours (16hours) of lock down in small overcrowded cells can surely drive one up the wall. I slept next to murderers, car jackers, thieves , fraudsters, prostitutes, all of them human beings trying to survive. I was not there to judge them but to share in the battle to eke out some form of dignity for oneself and avoid being harassed or beaten or tortured by prison guards. Counting the hours and days in your head or watching how the shadows change as the sun sets as you are not allowed to know the time becomes a favourite past time of many. A prison is supposed to be a place for correction and reform , but Zimbabwe’s prisons become places of slow death and places where one’s dignity and self esteem are stripped. I have seen none of the correction and reform except forced labour or nonsensical things like the daily watering down to clean the 12×25 meter concrete yard.

During 2008, time in prison was hell as there was such widespread hunger and skeletons habited most of Zimbabwe’s jails. Things have improved somehow in terms of supply of food in Mlondolozi but I am afraid to say the food is badly cooked and hungry eyes tell the stomach that it cannot finish the meal served on plastic plates as it is so unappetising. Sadza and spinach is such a simple meal to prepare if cooked in clean pots with clean water and with care but both are lacking at Mlondolozi. The sadza of an indescribable colour with relish of either spinach drowning in it water and not a drop of oil or beans swimming in an Olympic pool of liquid are the 11:30 lunch and 3pm dinner menu. Porridge too is a burden to eat as it is cooked in yesterday’s unwashed pots and 20% of inmates have that magic item called a spoon. Those with the other scare item called a toothbrush use one side for brushing and another for dribbling porridge into their mouths. And so I learn that eating is half hunger and a whole lot to do with how appetising the food is, the result, inmates don’t get their basic right to a decent cooked nutritious meal. Due to my friends and relatives I am able to get a meal and something for breakfast delivered to me daily but as before I find I cannot eat in those conditions and lost 4kgs despite spending most of the day sitting in the tiny yard. One appetite killer is the thought that someone in the cells who does not have relatives to visit and cannot stomach prison food will go for days without a morsel. My colleague Magodonga spent many meal times urging me to eat so I could take my antibiotics to treat the infection of my recent surgery. There was no bathing or shower facilities in Hotel Central Police station and my pleas for clean water for me to cleaning my wounds for 3 days fell on deaf ears, it was if I was asking for a rock from the moon. By the grace of God the antibiotics worked, and the infection has cleared.

I have three things to ask of anyone reading this note but I am no expert but just sharing based on experience. Firstly talking to convicted prisoners, it becomes so clear that that people can be too trusting and this sets them up for a fall. Please take time to study and analyse people and take more seriously advice on how to prevent crime or carjacking. Don’t leave your keys in the ignition and step out. Don’t trust strangers no matter the gender, smile or eloquence. I am not saying go through life being suspicious and lose confidence in the basic good of a human but take the time to THINK before you act. This will and can save you from injury, harm death and or even losing your property.

Following on from the basic good point, some of the crimes that resulted in prisoners being given the yellow dress of a convicted person could have been solved by facilitated dialogue processes. Again, I ask us to think and try to find other ways than to send someone to a prison that cannot feed them in a country that will not reform or correct them. Instead of prisoners coming out as reformed members of society they re-enter society as hardened criminals with little hope of being reformed. I am also talking to employers of domestic staff. The police and justice systems in our country are not working as they should so in the meantime society must find another way to peacefully deal with crime that involves genuine reform and correction and restitution. By the way I have had lots stolen from me and many break ins but because of who I am, I am deprived of my right to walk into a police station and report a crime as it has resulted in my personal persecution for my human rights work.

If you have a relative in jail, please visit them, they need to see you even if you have nothing to give except your smile and a teaspoon or an empty container to use as a lunch box! If you can donate food or practical things to Mlondolozi for the 100 women there, please do so but make sure there is a record of the donation or demand to give it to a prisoner direct or through charitable organisations. Send body cream but not face cream. Don’t send deodorant or things that women like to use to make themselves pretty and feminine because for strange undisclosed reasons feeling feminine is not allowed. During my stints I normally coped by reading magazines or short simple romance novels and prisoners and guards alike had always loaned these books to read so it is something that you can do to help pass the day or night, while waiting for Zimbabwe’s slow wheels of justice to take their course.

May I take this opportunity to thank the many whom I know had me and my colleague in their prayers.

God bless Jenni

Action:

Support Mlondolozi Prison. Contact them directly on +263-9-64228

Or send your support via Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO):
Stand No 12922 Ndhlela Way, Mbare, Harare
+263-4-780401/3, 770046
+263-772-485851, 77212177, +263-773-133673
elisha@zacro.org.zw, edson@zacro.org.zw, zacrehab@mweb.co.zw

The first lucky winners of our glow in the dark love dice have been contacted and are getting their prizes.

Feedback from recipients so far includes:

-    Hurray for love dice. Send them quick because I have a big night tomorrow.
-    Dice are loaded! 6 straight ears matched by 6 straight massage! Not telling you what my girlfriend got first throw.

Phone +263 774 186284-7, and listen to Big Dhara Going Down. Leave us a message to tell you what you thought, and you could win your own set of dice. Charge ‘em up. And let ‘em roll.