Theatre practitioners as unionists: art workers in post-independence Zimbabwe’s theatre sector (1980 – 1999)

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to frame and examine the structuring of labour struggles from the precarious subject position of theatre workers, without isolating these struggles into the occupational sector of the creative industries in the Zimbabwean context between 1980 and 1999. In this article, I frame theatre practitioners as ‘art – workers’ and collectives such as the NTO and ZACT as mobilising and organising agencies operating within the postcolonial Zimbabwean theatre industry. On the one hand, the NTO controlled and administered purpose-built theatres, provided funding as well as organised affiliates into a unity. On the other hand, ZACT organised multi-racial Zimbabwean theatre groups into a collective, providing and mobilising financial and organisational support towards the creation of a ‘national theatre’ narrative. Deploying resource mobilisation and rational choice theories, this paper submits that NTO and ZACT mobilized and coordinated their stakeholders towards addressing the precarious work conditions in the sector. This paper argues while attempts, through theatre associations, have been undertaken to organise the creative sector, this paper submits that the precarious nature of the work, employer-employee non-distinction, lack of legal rights knowledge and fierce inter-and intra-organisational competition complicates the process of re-mobilising and organising creatives in Zimbabwe

KEYWORDS:

• ZACT
• NTO
• art-workers
• theatre
• mobilising
• organising

Notes

1. Workshop Negative (1986) is a political satire that overtly interrogates and caricatures Zimbabwean politics through performance as a means of engaging government and/ or exposing politicians. Workshop Negative attempts to situate its satiric subjects (Zimbabweans) within a particular time (post-independence Zimbabwe) and place (Zimbabwe) and within identifiable ideologies (socialism and capitalism). As a political satire, the play addresses challenges of corruption, nepotism and cronyism and its effects on the Zimbabwean social fabric.

2. The Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) formally began with the Land acquisition Act of 2002. The Program, that effectively co-opted the farm occupations since 1998, redistributed land from white-owned farms and estates, as well as state lands, to more than 150,000 farmers under two models, A1 and A2. The A1 model allocated small plots for growing crops and grazing land to landless and poor farmers, while the A2 model allocated farms to new black commercial farmers who had the skills and resources to farm profitably, reinvest and raise agricultural productivity. The number of large capitalist farms, mainly white owned, fell by around 75%, while there was a 16% drop in the number of large foreign and domestically owned agro-estates (Mkodzongi and Lawrence 2019, 1).

3. The Gala era refers the period stretching from 2000 to 2008. This period was characterized by musical and performative overnight vigils – pungwes -where ZANU-PF propaganda was reinforced as a celebration of nationhood and sovereignty. These night vigils usually celebrated key historical figures and dates such as the independence gala (Independence Day), Mzee bira (Simon Muzenda) and Umdala Wethu gala (Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nkululeko Sibanda

Nkululeko Sibanda holds a PhD in Drama and Performance Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Howard College). Nkululeko’s research trajectory is anchored on a post-structuralist theoretical and critical cultural studies framework that seeks to destabilise the assumed primacy of Western epistemological and ontological modern structures and strictures of visual language, knowledge, and semiotic models. Initially my research sought to interrogate and theorise the processes of design, and their significance within theatre performances emerging from the communities on the margins of the cultural industry as a counter framework to colonial and neo-colonial practices in Zimbabwe, specifically and Third World countries in general. I have now further opened my research focus and adopted an interdisciplinary approach that examines modes of signification, visual language and social critique emerging in postcolonial Third world countries. Specifically, my research is now concretely anchored in exploring the politics of cultural production within an African performance practice. Consequently, the need to develop a formidable, relevant and effective cultural production (creating+reading) theory and practice model within African performance practice (from an African paradigm) sits at the base of his research endeavours.