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The voices that are represented in this collection come from various parts of the world and express the views of practitioners and scholars who have all had first-hand experience working in Zimbabwean theatre from the last days of Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. The collection views the long continuum of developments in local theatre history as a case of the intrusive hegemonies that came with colonial Rhodesia as a conquest society, and localised identities in the form of the persistence of indigenous and syncretic popular forms. With time, all these came together to constitute the makings of a contested post-colony in contemporary theatre practice in Zimbabwe. The primary interest of scholars who are represented here is located at the intersection of political, cultural and performative discourses and the flow of Zimbabwean history. The focus, moreover, is not only on the history of performance cultures in postcolonial Zimbabwe - it extends its critical gaze to include the history of political ideas that gave rise to cultural contestation in the field of theatre and performance.
This book investigates the experiences of women in Zimbabwe facing COVID-19 and gender-based violence, arguing that the insights from this extremely tough period could be used as a springboard for positive legal, cultural and policy changes. In 2020, COVID-19 caught the world by surprise, and often the socio-cultural factors impacting the treatment and care of those infected by the virus were not fully considered. In Zimbabwe, the socially constructed role of women as caregivers left them particularly vulnerable. Not only this, but COVID-19 lockdowns coincided with particularly high levels of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, with women again comprising the majority of victims. Authors in this book analyse the pandemic experiences of women in Zimbabwe, both in the workplace or in the home, with the hope of fostering positive cultural change, and sensitising policy-makers to the need for legislation that protects women in moments of disasters. The important lessons and discussion points raised by this book will be important to policymakers both within Zimbabwe and beyond, and to researchers working on gender, public health, philosophy, sociology, and politics in Africa.
Examines the impact of new media (such as video and YouTube) and the use of multi-media on live and recorded performance in Africa. Focuses on the ways African theatre and performance relate to various kinds of media. Includes contributions on dance; popular video, with an emphasis on video drama and soaps from Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Nigerian 'Nollywood' phenomenon; the interface between live performance and video (or still photography), and links between on-line social networks and new performance identities. As a group the articles raise, from original angles, the issues of racism, gender, identity, advocacy and sponsorship. Volume Editor: DAVID KERR is Professor of English in the University of Botswana, and is the author of African Popular Theatre Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Warwick
The Art of Survival: Depictions of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean in Crisis offers a fresh, interdisciplinary examination of a period against which development in Zimbabwe is often measured, one epitomized by the severe shortages and runaway inflation of 2008. While journalistic stories of the 1998–2008 era often privilege the reductive stories of woe, defeat and crushed hopes, this volume explores how survival was still possible in those circumstances. The book offers insights into how ordinary Zimbabweans battled the odds by making startling innovations in language use to legitimize new survival strategies, how they weaved new songs and reinterpreted old ones to fight for survival, how social institutions such as churches reinterpreted popular gospel, and how authors, playwrights and dramatists crafted works that acknowledge the unprecedented difficulties and yet find humour, laughter and love in unusual places. This work will appeal to both scholars, who will appreciate the depth of the analysis, and the general reader.
This book offers fresh academic insights, reflections, questions, issues, and approaches to development ethics, taking into account, African values and ethics. Development ethics is an area of applied ethics that examines the moral issues involved in global, social, and economic transformation. While it is a relatively new discipline, there have been numerous scholarly publications on it from Western perspectives. However, only a few studies that focused on development ethics from the African perspective. To address this gap, the book seeks to answer critical questions such as "What does development mean to Africans?", "How can we measure development?", "Who gets to decide?", and "What const...
Music narrates personal, communal and national experiences. It is a rich repository of a people’s deepest fears, hopes, and achievements, especially as it communicates spirituality, economic, and political realities. This volume examines the multiple roles of music in Zimbabwe, showing how Zimbabwean music has addressed the socio-economic, political and spiritual crisis that the country has endured in the last one and a half decades. While concentrating on the tumultuous 2000–2013 period, the themes that are addressed here are enduring. Thus, the book explores the interplay between music and gender, music and politics, and music and identity construction in Zimbabwe, and it interacts with most of the dominant genres in Zimbabwean music, including Sungura, ZORA, Chimurenga, Gospel and the Urban Grooves. This volume will interest specialists in the study of ethnomusicology, in addition to scholars of literature, religious studies, philosophy, theatre arts, political science, and history.
Increasingly, academic communities transcend national boundaries. “Collaboration between researchers across space is clearly increasing, as well as being increasingly sought after,” noted the online magazine Inside Higher Ed in a recent article about research in the social sciences and humanities. Even for those scholars who don’t work directly with international colleagues, staying up-to-date and relevant requires keeping up with international currents of thought in one’s field. But when one’s colleagues span the globe, it’s not always easy to keep track of who’s who—or what kind of research they’re conducting. That’s where Intellect’s new series comes in. A set of wor...
This tribute collection reflects the wide range and diversity of James Gibbs’s academic interests. The focus is on Africa, but comparative studies of other literatures also receive attention. Fiction, drama, and poetry by writers from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ireland, England, Germany, India, and the Caribbean are surveyed alongside significant missionaries, scientists, performers, and scholars. The writers discussed include Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Kobina Sekyi, Raphael Armattoe, J.E. Casely Hayford, Michael Dei-Anang, Kofi Awoonor, Ayi Kwei Armah, John Kolosa Kargbo, Dele Charley, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Okot p’Bitek, Jonathan Sajiwandani,...
This book brings together scholars from diverse backgrounds to provide interdisciplinary perspectives on national healing, integration, and reconciliation in Zimbabwe. Taking into account the complex nature of healing across moral, political, economic, cultural, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of communities and the nation, the chapters discuss approaches, disparities, tensions, and solutions to healing and reconciliation within a multidisciplinary framework. Arguing that Zimbabwe’s development agenda is severely compromised by the dominance of violence and militancy, the contributors analyse the challenges, possibilities and opportunities for national healing. This book will be of interest to scholars of African studies, conflict and reconciliation, and development studies.
Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand, aims “to enhance the capacity of young people, theatre practitioners and their communities to take responsibility for the quality of their lives in the context of HIV and AIDS in Africa. We achieve this through participatory and experiential drama and theatre that is appropriate to current social realities but draws on the rich indigenous knowledge of African communities.” Collected here is a representative set of research essays written to facilitate dialogue across disciplines on the role of drama and theatre in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and rehabilitation. Reflections are offered on present praxis and the media, as well as on inno...