… but I sure wish I could. And if I met him, what would I say? “Ey, Barack, how about doing some fund raising for our fiscus?”

There you go Rumbi. That’s a photo of me. Happy now?

I think it’s always fantastic when a Zimbabwean does well at international level and whatever support we can give as a nation we should.

Here’s a great opportunity for us to support a talented daughter of Zimbabwe. Rumbi Katedza’s film, Asylum, is up for an award (RCI Migrations People’s Choice Award) and can only win if we vote.

I’ve watched the film- over my dial up connection- and I LOVED it. It’s just under 5 minutes long so it won’t take much of your time. I may be a bit biased but I know where I’m putting my X.

Is this rigging? Stop asking so many questions. Log on to the website, watch it and decide for youself! Danke!

Finally!!! That is the thought that imprinted the expression on my face when I met Lovemore  Kambudzi. Finally. After seeing his paintings for so many years I met the man who turns daubs of colour- always on large canvases- into realistic depictions of scenes from every day Zimbabwe life.

^ Some of the guests at the 696 Exhibition launch admire some of Lovemore’s paintings.

The place was the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The event was the launch of the 696 Exhibition featuring paintings by Lovemore, Patrick Makumbe and Misheck Masamvu on 12th July 2008.

^ More guests at the launch admire the paintings.

Lovemore paints happy and sad scenes that capture the hardships that Zimbabweans face and the triumphs they achieve over these undesirables. And yet, every painting captures a Zimbabwe that we love.

^ Lovemore’s paintings are awe inspiring and capture the essence of every day events with amazing detail.

Whether it’s his painting of the Beitbridge boarder post, or the one about boarder jumpers- or the prison yard soccer scene, there is something in each one that screams YES! This is our Zimbabwe, unique in its every nuance of life.

^ Lovemore and a friend admire one of the paintings.

Lovemore is a graduate of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s BAT Visual Arts Studio, located in Mbare. When he finished college in 1995 he immediately set out to make a living from his new skills. He had a good mentor to emulate- His father, Livingstone Kambudzi, was also a painter.

^ Lovemore portrays a soccer game in a prison yard.

In a chat with him, he revealed to me how initially after his O’ Levels he looked for work but could not find it. He then decided to continue his studies and ended up at the BAT Visual Arts Studio.

^ A painting showing boarder jumpers in action.

Lovemore says it takes him up to three weeks to finish a painting. His work has been sold all over the world and at the tender age of 30 he is one of a handful of artists in Zimbabwe making a living from painting.

I’ve always wondered what his style of painting is called but I forgot to ask him. So I did some research on the Internet and found this: “Lovemore has a very individual style of painting, called a variant of Seraut’s pointillism, or tachism, with the application of diverse and contrasting large daubs of colour to make up the shapes.” I think that’s from a woman called Mai Palmberg. See her interview with Lovemore and his wife here.

Lovemore was born in Seke in 1978. He lives in Harare and is married to Nyasha Sigauke, who is also a painter.

Just in case you were wondering:

I found out what Pointillism and Tachism are and who this Saraut dude was:

• Pointillism is a form of painting in which tiny dots of primary colours are used to generate secondary colours.
• Tachism (alternativley spelt Tachisme) is derived from the French word tache which means stain. It was a French style of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s.
• George Seraut (1859-1891) was a French Pointillist painter.

Writer of the award winning Shona novel “Mapenzi”, Ignatius Mabasa, has released a second novel. At a function held in Harare recently to launch the Novel, some people who had read the book gave some very positive reviews of this second work.

^ Shimmer Chinodya poses with  Ignatius Mabasa at the launch

Below is a review of the book by University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Memory Chirere who, along with other writers, readers and critics, attended the launch.

Ndafa Here? By Ignatius T. Mabasa, 2008, Harare, College Press, pp154, isbn: 978-07974-3522-3

^ Playwright Noel Marerwa comments on the new novel

Popular writer, Ignatius Mabasa’s second literary offering, Ndafa Here? is a mature novel. This is a shocking novel in which people lose their values and turn the tables upside down.

In 1999 Mabasa published a novel, Mapenzi that was quickly accepted as one of the most innovative novels in Shona. It went on to win a Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association award of the year in the Shona novel category. Finally it was voted amongst the twenty-five best books of Shona literature since 1950 at the Zimbabwe International Book fair of 2004.

^ Author and University of Zimbabwe Lecturer David Mungoshi listens to comments on the Novel

But Ndafa Here? is a deliberately calmer novel than Mapenzi. The author chooses to employ intrigue ahead of experimentation with form.

Betty is the unwanted wife. Her mother-in-law thinks Betty is too ugly, and senseless to marry her son. Why does Betty have to elope to her son already full with child, she queries. I want to find my son a real woman, she rants.

^ British Council Director, Rajiv Bendre gave the opening speech

Betty’s sister-in-law is more awkward. She has had two children with two different men out of wedlock but she still thinks she is more decent than Betty! She is daring in a negative way, ganging up with her mother to assault her father each time he protests about her ways. She orders Betty to nurse her children as she goes about her business around the location.

Betty’s brother-in-law asks the most cruel question in the book when Betty gives birth to a child with albinisms: Maiguru, mwana makamuita sei uyu? (How dare you give birth to this albino?) That heinous question arguably makes the climax of this novel because nobody in this world ever makes an effort to bring forth a child with disability.

Betty’s husband, Wati is a henpecked man who is always in his mother’s clutches. Wati wakes up one day and suddenly realizes that the woman he marries is not the correct one. He flees to London. When he is generous enough to phone back, his wife is not allowed to talk to him. His mother grabs the phone and talks on and on asking for a house in Borrowdale, clothes, money and other things.

^ Mabasa reads from the new book

The irony is that Wati’s father has very different ideas. He thinks that his desolate daughter-in-law is the most beautiful woman he has ever met. He hounds Betty. He peeps through the gap in the curtain or the key hole to watch and drool at Betty’s naked body. As he playfully lifts Betty’s albino baby, he deliberately fondles Betty’s breasts.

Meanwhile Wati sends his mother and sister air tickets to London and never bothers about Betty and the baby.

Wati’s father strikes. Now that everyone has abandoned Betty, he verbally proposes to his daughter-in-law! At least he is the only person in this story who sets out to appreciate Betty.

This story challenges the ordinary feminist critic. Here is a woman who is heavily abused by fellow women because of their sharp appetites for petty things. Betty takes very long to realize that she has to assert herself and move on. She represents all women out there who are abused until they become invisible.

However the publisher needs to consider doing a more imaginative cover design in the next edition. One also notes, with deep regret, that even the date of publication is missing!

Ignatius Mabasa has also just released a music album called Yadhakwa. It is a gospoetry offering that is currently dominating the musical charts, lampooning hypocrisy amongst Christians.