Rich pickings for thieves at HIFA 2012

It’s no secret that many diasporans plan their visits home to coincide with HIFA week, or that Zimbos countrywide begin a saving fund in June to benefit from as many performances as possible in the following year. Even so, there will have been a collective sigh of relief from audiences, artistes and organisers alike, when the last empty Coke can and Styrofoam food container was cleared away, people could resume their every daily lives, and Harare Gardens was restored to the general public.
Since it’s inception, HIFA has been a success and a special event to mark on the calendar. Love them or hate them, Manuel Bagorro, founder and artistic director, and his sister, Maria Wilson, executive director, form a dynamic duo, which succeeds time after time in providing affordable first-class entertainment in a country continuously bedevilled by economic challenges.
This year, the festival theme “A Show of Spirit” had everyone pulsating with curiosity, and the opening performance at the main stage, whose content is always a closely guarded secret until the last minute, was filled beyond capacity.
A considerable disappointment, however, was the absence of ebullient compere and host, Gavin Peter. Without his customary welcome and introduction, the performance, although varied and polished, appeared to lack identity and narrative, providing only visual enjoyment. The following night, at the Opera Gala, things were put to rights as Gavin, in his trademark tall hat, engaged the audience with a warm welcome and introduced the visiting cast of American opera stars.
Opera lovers were encouraged to bring picnic hampers to the green sward in front of the main stage and to enjoy an evening of “love” as arias, duets and ensembles from the world of opera floated sweetly into the night skies. All too soon it was time to vacate the main stage arena to prepare for the next performance, and disgruntled revellers had to gulp down the remains of their Beaujolais, pack away their canapés and move on.
The Global Stage was packed for the performance
of the Ngoma Buntibe Music of the Tonga People, and cameras clicked continuously. Thirty musicians, whose spiritual home is on the banks of the Zambezi in remote northern Matabeleland, initiated us into the mysteries of their culture, with the blowing of antelope horns, beating of drums and complex dance sequences.
Across the road, a drama was being enacted. The tale of ex-slave Frederick Douglass’ voyage to Ireland from America, to escape bounty hunters was played out by Donal O’Kelly and Sorcha Fox, who convincingly juggled multiple accents and roles to portray a mysterious black man travelling incognito (Douglass), a bigoted slave owner from New Orleans and his daughter, the ship’s captain, a seaman and a female missionary. Although the theatre, which adjoins the Dutch Reformed Church, was crowded and hot, the audience’s attention was riveted throughout.
A few hours later, in the same theatre, Patrice Naiambana who thrilled audiences last year with the Man who Committed Thought, appeared in The Accused, with the Zimbabwean ensemble Hothaus. As an asylum seeker in Britain, his performance was occasionally powerful: in his role as a transvestite TV show host, hoping to make money to send home to his family, his performance became outrageous. Members of the audience, who made eye contact with this red-wigged apparition dressed in a scanty loincloth and shiny bustier top, did so at their peril, becoming targets for his acerbic tongue and ready wit.
After eating a dodgy take-out at HIFA on Friday evening, I succumbed to Delhi Belly, and had to forgo a host of spectacular performances on both Saturday and Sunday. This was disappointing, but not as devastating as the loss of a backpack containing camera, cell phones, money and car keys by the couple seated next to me on the stands at the main stage.
It would seem that while providing world-class entertainment for lovers of the arts, HIFA also provides rich pickings for the thieves of Harare.