First published in the Zimbabwe Daily Gazette [6th October, 1992]
‘Masakhaneni’ means ‘let us build each other’ — and that is the thrust and intention of this theatre column. We aim to be critical but supportive. The idea is not to pull the artists down but to use criticism to pull each other up.
To continue the building metaphor, when a building is built, it might have strengths and beauties, it might have flaws. Assuming that the builder will build again, an examination of the plans and a comparison with the final product would help to explain and account for both the strengths and beauty and the flaws. This will help both the builder and other builders, when they build again, to build ever more strongly and more beautifully. This is important because as they build, they build Zimbabwean theatre and we want that to be strong and beautiful.
This column believes that everyone, every Zimbabwean and every sympathetic non-Zimbabwean who shows an interest, has a part to play in the building. We rule no-one out as irrelevant but we reserve the right to evaluate their contribution fearlessly yet with appreciation.
While we understand and appreciate the usefulness of critics and the difference between criticism and creativity, we shall try and ensure, as far as possible, that those who criticise know what it is to create. We would like our criticism to be creative. Just as we would like our creativity to be self-critical.
A famous African playwright once stood up in a literary discussion and said he was not interested in criticism of his work. He did not want to hear it nor did he intend to pay any attention to it. A well-known South African director/playwright, when he read the first critical article on his work, called his cast together and fulminated against the writers, saying they were trying to destroy him. A well-known local writer took exception to the organisation of a public debate on a controversial Zimbabwean play — even more so when his view was publicly challenged.
We in Zimbabwe do not yet take kindly to criticism. We take it personally. We tend to regard it as a personal attack, as an attempt to destroy us. The critic is seen as an enemy.
For Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, calling Vladimir ‘critic!’ was the lowest of the low — after ‘moron!’, ‘vermin!’, ‘abortion!’, ‘sewer-rat!’, ‘curate!’ and ‘cretin!’.
If the artist is to come to appreciate the need for criticism, then the critic has to come to appreciate the artist. For artists to stop seeing critics as enemies motivated by a personal desire to destroy them, then critics must criticise art without personal bias and be motivated by a generous and real desire to see theatre develop.
This does not mean that ‘Masakhaneni’ has no ideas as to how we wish to see Zimbabwean theatre develop. Let us state at the outset that our expectations are democratic. We take theatre seriously. We see it as having an important rôle to play in society, not simply by entertaining — although such a rôle should not be underestimated — nor by simply reflecting what is going on in society. Theatre can shape, explain, inspire and mobilise. It can play a crucial part in development, in practical life, in struggling against oppression and supporting positive initiatives. Its social rôle is not only to expose and attack. It can also explain and support. It should not only serve the people but be part of the people’s own lives and aspirations.
There is a tendency that, especially recently, is growing influential if not hegemonic, that is dominant, in Africa. This is the belief that the role of a critic is to stand back from society, from government, from political, economic and social life and criticise it. By criticism in this case is usually understood ‘deplore, satirise or expose’. In the African context, this invariably means concentrating almost exclusively on exposing corruption and the abuse of human rights on the part of African governments.
The meaning of ‘Masakhaneni’ is not this. If the critic is to be a builder, he or she has to stand shoulder to shoulder with others, involved in society not apart from it, working together with others, not just pointing a finger at their defects. After all, they are actually our defects. Above all, we are building an African building, a Zimbabwean theatre. We will not be so blind as to open our eyes wide to Africa’s blunders and close them tight to those of others, especially when it is those others who pull the strings.
‘Masakhaneni’ intends to cover all forms of theatre in Zimbabwe. And by theatre we mean theatre in its richest and widest sense, as including dance, dance drama, theatre in education, theatre for development, poetry performance, puppets, rituals and storytelling.
For ‘Masakhaneni’, criticism is development.
