Robber Baron’s paradise?
ALLOW me this opportunity dear readers as I have a few axes to grind. It seems to me that writing only about the arts and culture is somewhat an indulgence I can ill-afford at the moment.
I need to vent how the news of “blatant theft” of public funds dressed up as “salaries” has now reached staggering proportions.
It was debilitating to say the least, reading the headlines and the country is aghast at the ghastly, grotesque and obscene rapacity of public officials manning public enterprises. From ZBC’s can of worms to Premier Service Medical Aid Society and Air Zimbabwe, the Lord knows I am mystified by how the boards and the authorities responsible allowed the “carnage” to proceed for so long.
Goodness gracious me! It seems guys are going to school to get accountancy degrees in order to rob their people blind. Ain’t nothing like an educated thief. Something has got to give. Is our country now a robber baron’s feeding trough?
Arts news of the week!
This has to be Beverly Sibanda’s reported conversion by new kid on the block and self-styled Prophet Magaya. Heading Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries, this prophet is making waves due to his exposure on BOSTV and perhaps owing to his prophecies coming true?
Whatever the case, Magaya’s conversion of Beverly is a publicity masterstroke for his church precisely because of his target: Bev.
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Bev had gained notoriety as a dirty dancer with her jaw-sagging antics on the dance floor. She beat them all and has now branched into music. Alas, those that never saw her perform would not have that chance anymore and depending on how wretched one is, this may be quite a sad development! Of course, if you are Kingdom minded then you are thanking the Lord Jesus.
A cultural thing?
So I turned on the free channel last night to see the new rising prophet and saw him in action.
“I see a snake with wings written your names on it. I cast it out. Shout come out!” bellowed the “prophet” at the top of his voice and a number of women hiss, shake, rattle and roll on the floor.
It’s major league theatre. The lady folk are not done as they throw a fit. They whelp, holler and moan convulsively screaming. Man, it is utter pandemonium. Just for the record, I don’t put anything past the devil as he is capable of all manner of mischief.
But there be much stress in this country and thus folk are running to the churches becoming rich-pickings for unscrupulous men of cloth. It’s also not enough anymore for a pastor to prefix his name with that designation. It seems that it’s not grand any more to simply be pastor.
You have to be prophet so and so or at least apostle. Therefore, we now see the proliferation of prophets which the Bible warned would be the case in these last and shady days. My question is: Does going to these churches provide believers with an authentic salvation experience or it is just catharsis wherein raging emotions are palliated by so-called prophecies? Heaven only can judge I suppose.
Caveat emptor!
Da Grape Vine in the grapevine
Da-Grape-Vine, a local outfit fronting the cause of hip-hoppers will host a rap battle at the National Art Gallery tomorrow. The Rap Battles started in August 2013 as “a way to help the urban culture to take notice of Spoken Word art in Bulawayo”.
According to the company’s statement: “Most people, when they think of hip-hop it’s all about songs and curse words and people half-dressed. So we wanted to show the positive side of a healthy hip-hop event stimulating minds to do good things instead of the guns and drugs usually glorified.
“Our mission is not just to do hip-hop shows, but to also provide youths with something positive to do during their spare time as well as introduce them to new ways of making money to sustain themselves and their families.
“We do hope to be able to make payouts to all participants as this is an art that is commercially viable as it is a means of entertaining a crowd. In the United States, battle rappers are known to bag $20 000 on a single 30-minute show appearance doing a spoken-word rap battle performance.
“We do hope one day we will be able to add this income-generating project to schools, especially literature students and music pupils so as to encourage them at a young age and hopefully more endorsements from the education sector will allow us to grow this movement.”
Culture Beat is also reliably informed by Naboth Rimayi, the outfit’s founder, that the audio from the rap battles we are doing this Saturday will be played live on National Radio next week.
Parting Shot
Local artistes have been spared criticism for their absence on our shop shelves or streets. When was the last time readers saw local artistes flogging their CDs on the streets?
The music pirates are definitely not doing it for them!
Are our artistes too big to do it? How come injivana are seen doing it by Renkini, especially around Christmas time?
Local artistes need to know that they can’t just “slide” into fame or cash for that matter!
Next week I will touch on the upcoming Namas and recently-held Grammies. So watch out for this one.
