SW Radio Africa (London)
27 April 2011
Harare International Festival of the Arts has rolled into life with various plays, theatre, dance and music scheduled from Tuesday 26 of April to the 1st of May.
However the main focus today was “Rituals” a play by Rooftops Promotion which has been allowed to show by the police.
Riruals which was authored by Stephen Chifunyise and directed by Daves Guzha is a musical journey through community driven healing processes that are impeded by lack of political will.
The play has since been termed the excellent rendition of the very complex process of allowing communities to heal the rifts in their midst while the macro conditions which caused the rift in the first place have not gone away.
Most of the acts in the play portrayed the events during and after the March 2008 harmonised elections and June 2008 run off which left close to 200 people dead.
Can a legal settlement to political violence super cede the spiritual settlement of appeasing the avenging spirit in the case of murder?
Hoe possible is it for an activist to confess knowledge of murder and compensate the dead person’s family with a daughtre without risking being arrested and condemned for abusing the right of the girl child?
Such questions are loaded in the play which promotes community driven, not just national driven healing as it appeals for individuals as opposed to institutionla interventions in peace building and reconciliation.
The group made headlines folloowing their arrest in Manicaland on 5 January 2010 only to be acquitted on 22 February 2011.
In Bulawayo police tried to stop the play but were told not interrupt with the play after and exparte application by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
In Mashonaland Central the police arreted the team and refered them to law and order in Bundura but were later released due to lack of evidence.
The play has attracted so much attention even from politician hence the presence of various opposition figures suct as Trudy Stevenson and the first HIFA outing today.
AllAfrica – All the Time