If you were having coffee with me it’s not coffee we would be drinking but an interesting cuppa of Zumbani tea, me thinks someone is beginning to like it…..
I recently got a fresh batch and am waiting for it to dry up then I shall grind it and presto we have herbal goodness. It tastes like the love child of mint, lemon, thyme and possibly ginger, dont even try to visualise how that happened….
My niece even made an awesome label for it.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you how I got invited to a Food For Thought discussion about The Role Of Artists in Fighting Corruption hosted at the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy. The panelists were Dumisani Mthombeni an anti-corruption advocate, Peter Churu chairman of Arterial Network Zimbabwe and Chirikure Chirikure, a renowned poet.
My first thought was that I am not an artist, artists are the sculptors, painters, musicians, actors of the world….. The more I thought about I realised I am an artist too, I sculpt, paint, and create but with words; A wordsmith. As Mr Chirikure put it Art is a calling.
The world is full of artists; art imitating life, life imitating art. Art is the mirror through which the society views itself, Art is not only the voice of the society but its conscience and custodian of morals.
Corruption has reached unprecedented levels and it’s a beast; eating away at our moral fiber; a beast that devours the future for the comforts of the present. Corruption is fueled by the levels of desperation in the society. How can people not get desperate when the government is having trouble paying civil servants and instead would offer a $100 advance; yet you find individuals being awarded government tenders making hyper-inflated profits and government officials driving the latest luxury vehicles.
Zimbabwe rates at number 155 out of 189 on the Ease of Doing Business ranks, taking about 90 days of procedures to get a legitimately operated business licensed and running. People end up either “palm greasing” or buying literally a briefcase company. We have an unemployment level speculated to be 90% and almost everyone is a dealer, a hustler, an entrepreneur (read as tenderpreneur) dabbling in a side enterprise to just to get our daily bread. There is generation of graduates who have never worked and it’s normal to hear someone making a comment that being A Zimbabwean should be written on your CV as work experience.
Corruption has become the norm and the thing about corruption is it feeds on silence.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
One of the panelist made the following quote “I fear more a corrupt society more than AIDS or Cancer because a corrupt society does not allow anyone to legally rise.”
How diplomatic can you be when the house is on fire?
If you were having coffee with me I would ask you if you have any ideas about how to fight corruption, do share.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the protest play I reviewed here Missing Diamonds: I want my share was recently showing in Norway at the Bergen Afro Arts Festival, a one man play about someone asking what happened to the 15 billion dollars our government says it “lost.” and the actor Silvanos Mudzvova is rehearsing for a new play coming out soon.
If you were having coffee with me I would say “It’s the eve of the 4th of July…… Happy fourth of July and have an awesome week ahead thanks for dropping by ^_^”
~B
Becoming The Muse 
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