By Zwelibanzi Mguni

THE Voices For Change programme will be launched on Friday the 12th of October 2007 at the Township Square Cultural Centre.  The launching of New Zealand based Zimbabwean writer, Stanley Makuwe’s play, Overthrown, will be the major highlight of the launch.  In an interview playwright, Cont Mhlanga said they ha invited the Minister of Information and Publicity, Dr. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu to the launch.

“The programme is meant to promote protest art in the country,” said Mhlanga. “What we aim for is to bring together all protest art and take it to the people. We are inviting artists with protest art to participate in the programme.” Mhlanga said they are mobilizing resources so that they take the work to the people.

Overthrown is a story about dead bodies overcrowded in a mortuary. The dead bodies get so angry that they have been kept for a long time and consider marching to state house to stage a coup.  In the play the playwright aims criticism at a government system that neglects and even ill-treats poor people. He is simply looking at what it feels like to live in Zimbabwe from the viewpoint of the dead.

Makuwe was born in Masvingo in 1972 and was educated in Zimbabwe. He published a collection of short stories, Under This Tree and Other Stories in 2005. He and his wife and family immigrated to New Zealand in 2002.  Mhlanga said the Voices For Change concept is similar to that of Imbovane programme, which was meant to discuss contentious issues affecting Matabeleland.

“The only difference is that this time its not people talking but we will use art to discuss issues,” said Mhlanga.  He said it is directed at government officials. “We will go for a specific time targeting at two major changes, changes that we hope will come before elections next year,” he said.  He said the changes they are aiming for are, firstly, government should come out clear on restraining the police from interfering with works of art.

“Art is a process of capturing a people’s civilization and history. Generations to come will know that at one point Bulawayo ran out of water because of lack of foresight. That way they can avoid it,” Mhlanga said.  He said they were also agitating for the correction of the imbalance in the media and therefore voices on the public domain.  “As it is the government controls the airwaves and the entire media. But the people need to talk for themselves. We have to share the airwaves,” he said.

Zwelibanzi Mguni is a writer and free lance journalist based in Bulawayo.