The ‘Art of Determination’ : a photo newsletter
I take real pleasure in being able to share this with you. My email inbox is usually filled to the brim with despair and pain, all of it real and all of it justified. Today, this small gem dropped in and lifted my spirits. It’s a photo newsletter and this edition focuses on the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
HIFA was held from 29 April to 4 May. It is hard to correlate these images of joy and creativity with the horror that was simultaneously going on in the rural areas. Hard to imagine that while some people were singing and dancing, others were crying and fearful.
But in some respects that contradiction captures our country’s spirit: the supermarket shelves will be empty, but a person queuing for food will still find time to tell a joke; people will hear threats of violence and intimidation, but they will still find a way to queue to vote with hope in their hearts.
As the cover of this newsletter says “The existence and continuation of the festival is testiment to the spirit of resiliance and hope resident in the people of Zimbabwe”.
You can download and share this newsletter by clicking on this link. Thank you Chris for sending it to us.
May 13th, 2008 22:54
Beautiful, beautiful people.
May 13th, 2008 22:55
Congratulations to the Zimbabwean artistic community for their talents and dedication. May they long continue to exhibit the excellence these festivals achieve.
The art of determination is an interesting concept. Now don’t laugh, but It could even apply to people like Zanu-PF. Supposing, as well as the hard-line hardcore followers of Mugabe who are too far gone to think of anything but self-interest, there was a growing band of Zanu-PF pragmatists. People who realise that the game is up, and discover the courage to say so. They would also display a kind of art of determination which could speedily bring Zimbabwe truly in reach of lasting change.