Issue 2: Design//Life Magazine

FEATURING

DAECOLM CHIPO CHUNG DANIEL LASKER FLYING BANTU

THE DEFINITIVE BOOK ON ZIMBABWEAN ART

STOP. COLLABORATE AND LISTEN W E SALU T E THE ZI M BABW EAN S W HO AR E WO R K IN G TOG ETHER TO MAKE A DIF F ER EN C E DESIGN / CULTURE / OPINION / FASHION / TRAVEL / FOOD

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Personal High Performance

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Building and Growing the Right Team

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Business Ambition

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Creating a Strong Culture and a Brand that Competes

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Fundamentals of Successful Business Leadership

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21st Century Marketing, Sales and Customer Service

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The Numbers that Drive your Business

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Performance Measurement and Achieving Results

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Business Strategy

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Action Management and Building Success

CONTENTS

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009 // CONTRIBUTORS

RADAR

0 1 1 // LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

013 // Buy this: fine furniture from Zimbabwe

F E AT U R E S 042 // LISTEN UP

Daecolm is taking the sounds of southern Africa global.

052 // A HISTORY OF OUR ART

The new book documenting Zimbabwe’s cultural legacy.

062 // STATE OF PLAY

014 // Spotlight on... Chipo Chung 016 // The social: partying at the Design//Life launch 020 // Try this: soothing beauty balms from Bekah 021 // My cultural life... Daniel Lasker 022 // Read this: the latest book releases

How Zimbabwe’s musicians are keeping mbira music alive.

024 // Hear this: Flying Bantu’s new album

066 // GIRL POWER

026 // Wear this: fabulous new fashion

We meet Zimbabwean superwoman Nyasha Gwatidzo.

070 // UNSTOPPABLE

Celebrating artist Mukudzei Muzondo’s new collection.

028 // The vibe: what’s hip in Harare 031 // Visit this: art on show in Harare

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CONTENTS: ISSUE 2

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98 111 THE VIEW 033 // HOT OFF THE PRESS

The story of marula oil: from seed to skincare favourite.

037 // CHANGING CHANNELS

What can be done to save Zimbabwe’s TV industry?

040 // MAKING ART WORK How government policy can help artists and creatives.

DESIGN 089 // SITTING PRETTY

Bespoke chairs from Pachipamwe Africa.

092 // HOT DESK

In the office with designer Nora Müller.

093 // BUILD IT, AND THEY WILL COME

A sneak peak at the construction of a new Harare hotspot.

097 // TRENDS

Top interior design tips for the coming season.

MASTERPIECE 1 1 4 // MBARE, 2020

By Natasha Kudita

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FA S H I O N 078 // RE-GENERATION

Bold cuts and shape-shifting denim from designer BISAMU.

T R AV E L 098 // TRADING UP

We visit the Neela – Zanzibar’s hottest new boutique hotel.

1 03 // HOLD IT!

Journey in style with these fabulous weekend bags.

E AT / D R I N K 109 // SADZA OR TADZA?

Our Food Correspondent tests the new electric sadza cooker.

1 1 1 // COOK THIS

Chef de Ankarra’s hacha nut sponge with citrus yoghurt.

1 1 2 // HOT STUFF

Why mulled wine is all you need to get through winter.

1 1 3 // OUR FAVOURITE FOODS

The best ingredients from around Zimbabwe.

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Editor Milly McPhie Designer Tessa Moxon Photographer Simon de Swardt

For advertising enquiries, email: advertising@designlifemagazine.com

Contributing Editors Tafadzwa Anifasi, Charlotte Ashton, Tomas Lutuli Brickhill, Asa Jogi, Gus LeBreton, Sara Lowe, Marianne McPhie, Farai Mudzingwa, Jacqueline Nyathi, Simon de Swardt, Laura Tofts

For editorial, event and PR enquiries, email: editorial@designlifemagazine.com

Contributing Photographers Rodney Badza, Lennox Makurumidze

For subscriptions, email: subscriptions@designlifemagazine.com

Social Media Obscura Media

Design//Life Magazine is published by Design Publishing Africa (Pvt) Limited

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CONTRIBUTORS Tomas Lutuli Brickhill Tomas is a writer, musician and filmmaker.

His debut movie Cook Off was the first Zimbabwean film to be acquired

by Netflix; and his play, Mama Afrika, celebrating the life of singer Miriam Makeba, began its tour of the UK earlier this year. Tomas also fronts the groundbreaking mbira-punk band Chikwata.263 so he was the perfect person to write about the evolution of mbira music; you can read all about it in “State Of Play” on page 62. Tomas also had the pleasure of interviewing Zimbabwean actress and writer Chipo Chung for this issue’s “Spotlight” (page 14).

Gus Le Breton Adventurer, explorer and ethnobotanist Gus, aka the African Plant Hunter, is one of the leading advocates for sustainable plant use and conservation in Africa, helping to introduce the world to the African super-fruit the Baobab. In “Hot Off The Press” (page 33) he describes his marula oil journey, taking it from fruit to skincare favourite: “I read an article about the oil from the kernels of the marula nut being used to preserve meat and I thought, ‘If it does that for meat, maybe it could do the same for my skin.’” He was right. Thanks, Gus.

Rori We first came across Rori in 2023 at “Dualism”, the Harare fashion show for his design collective BISAMU. That afternoon planted the seed for this issue’s cover shoot with R’n’B singer-songwriter Daecolm, and provides the basis for the fashion feature “Re-generation” on page 78. Rori’s shape-shifting denim designs signal him as a talent to watch; but he’s a creative all-rounder – a talented artist as well as a dancefloor-filling DJ. “Being creative is a viable way for me to communicate my understanding of the world,” he says.

Farai Mudzingwa Farai is a mixed-media journalist who writes about technology, arts and business in Africa. He also runs Untold ZW, an acclaimed series which profiles Zimbabweans working within the country’s creative industries. For his inaugural article for Design//Life, “Making Art Work” (page 40), Farai looks at the ways in which government policies can support artists. “The time is ripe for the Government to embrace the arts and culture industries as a strategic investment in the nation’s future,” he says.

Lennox Makurumidze Lennox describes himself as a “pixel poet” – not only does he weave beautiful narratives into his outstanding photographs, he is a master of spoken word; his book of poetry, Sowing Kit And Building Blocks, is a must-read. His photographs have been exhibited at the National Gallery of Harare, artHARARE as well as at this year’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair. For this issue, Lennox photographs Daecolm for our cover as well as for the feature “Listen Up” (page 42). Lennox is also responsible for the “Re-generation” fashion story on page 78.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Cover

Daecolm, photographed by Lennox Makurumidze, Harare 2024.

Daecolm wears denim jacket by BISAMU. Makeup by Lesli Wroe

In her poem “Human Family”, the late Maya Angelou says, “We are more alike, friends, than we are unalike”.

This is a phrase I think about often. Her words resonate now more than ever as battles for land and power unfold around the world, and the social and economic gap between rich and poor continues to widen. These divisions are like cracks on a car windscreen, slowly spreading and weakening the structure until it shatters.

What I see in this country, however, is very different: Zimbabweans helping Zimbabweans; those with expertise sharing their skills; members of the diaspora using their experience to enhance people’s lives at home; the creative community coming together to ensure the evolution of their art forms.

This issue of Design//Life is a celebration of the spirit of collaboration that we see in Zimbabwe. We salute its citizens’ ability to recognise what they have in common and to use this to strengthen their communities.

In “Listen Up” (page 42) our cover star Daecolm toasts the great talent of Zimbabwe’s musicians and talks about his plan to share their unique sounds with the rest of the world. His fabulous photographs were shot by Lennox Makurumidze who in turn collaborated with BISAMU designer Rori for the “Re-generation” fashion story on page 78.

“Girl Power” on page 66 profiles Nyasha Gwatidzo, an astounding Zimbabwean woman whose foster care business has changed thousands of children’s lives in the UK, and whose investment and expertise is enabling a whole generation of African women to start their own businesses.

We hear how ethnobotanist Gus Le Breton helped to develop marula oil – one of the skincare industry’s most prized ingredients – which is now a hugely successful export supporting many rural communities around the country (“Hot Off The Press”, page 33); and we learn how musicians are working together to help the traditions of mbira music keep time with modern technology (“State Of Play, page 62).

Here’s to bridging divides, encouraging collaboration and helping each other out.

Enjoy the issue.

For up-to-date news and events from around Zimbabwe, follow us on Instagram @designlifeafrica

Milly McPhie Editor

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Art / Culture / People / Music / Books / Film / Style / Design

TURNING TA B L E S Zimbabwean furniture design company Pachipamwe Africa gives home-grown materials a modern twist

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imbabweans are very protective of their indigenous timber, and rightly so: the country has been exporting its top-quality wood since the early 20th century. One such premium timber is teak, a prized feature in many a Zimbabwean home. Furniture designers Pachipamwe

Africa have embraced this trend but taken it up a notch with these teak tables with brightly coloured steel frames. We love it when retro gets an update.

Pachipamwe Africa, call: +263 784 618 590, visit: www.pachipamweafrica.com IG: pachipamweafrica

This teak tray table, with powder-coated steel frame, can be made in any size and colour

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RADAR: SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT ON...

CHIPO CHUNG, ACTRESS & WRITER

Having honed her craft in the theatres of Harare, the star of Black Cake and Constellation looks back over her career and reveals her hopes for the next generation of Zimbabwean filmmakers

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I decided to be a filmmaker because I love films. People who know me from my early teens will remember that it’s what I always wanted to do. When I left Zimbabwe for Yale university in America my aim was to study film, but I opted for acting instead. Acting was kind of my joy, an addiction I couldn’t quite shake off.

When I was about 12 I joined the first intake of CHIPAWOWorld, a Zimbabwean arts education programme run by playwright Stephen Chifunyise and writer and director Robert Mclaren. The group was a fantastic cohort of talent and included, among others, Chiwoniso Maraire, Thando McLaren and Danai Gurira. While I was there I wrote and directed my first play, Out Of The System,

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and Chiwoniso, because she was always a genius talent, wrote the most spectacular music to accompany it, as well as playing the lead role.

I did a lot of drama in high school as well as a number of plays with the Repteens troupe at Harare’s Reps Theatre and the Over The Edge theatre company.

I had such a diverse theatrical life in Zimbabwe so when I went to university as a theatre person, I think I was more experienced than most. There was a great feeling of empowerment among us: we weren’t waiting for anyone to make something for us to do, we were just making stuff ourselves.

Coming out of university I had a sense that I was talented and that I had an

interesting look that made me different.

I remember thinking, ‘Well, with those two things I stand a chance.’ But there’s never a guarantee with acting. You need a great deal of luck because there are so many actors around. I think it’s taken me 20 years in the business to feel like I have a career.

During my first 10 years, I worked in London at the Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre. I did the 2007 film Sunshine with director Danny Boyle and a couple of episodes of the TV series Doctor Who for the BBC. It was great but always unpredictable and certainly times when I thought, ‘Should I quit?’

It’s taken me until now to know that acting has been, and is, my career.

RADAR: SPOTLIGHT

In the TV series Black Cake, out now on Hulu and Disney+, Chipo Chung plays the lead role Eleanor Bennett as an older woman.

‘I’m thrilled to be playing a character from two different cultures,’ she says, ‘because that’s my story too’ In 2017 I played Dido Queen of Carthage for the Royal Shakespeare Company and that was so important to me because not only had I always wanted to be in the RSC, but Dido was a great African queen who was later maligned, just like Cleopatra. But Dido was the original. That was such a memorable experience – I felt fulfilled.

Apart from acting, I have directed a couple of plays at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I loved doing it. I started writing in earnest during the Covid lockdown so now I’m focusing on creating my own stuff for both film and TV. So when I’m not acting, my creative life is all about writing and imagining and

Chipo Chung worked with Sweden’s Noomi Rapace (above) in Constellation

fantasising – and I hope this will develop into directing.

I feel lucky because as a freelance actor there are long periods where I’m not working and can fully engage with being a mother. I’ve had a child at a time where attitudes towards working women have really progressed. I don’t feel like having

‘ I WOULD LIKE TO WORK MORE IN ZIMBABWE BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE THE MOST INTERESTING STORIES COME FROM’ a child has slowed down my career but I do try to balance working with having fun. I can be a bit of a workaholic so when I do have fun, I really do have fun!

In 2022 I played the angel Xaphania in the BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials; and in 2023 I was in Apple TV+’s Silo. Currently I’m in Black Cake, running on Disney+ and Hulu.

It tells the story of Eleanor Bennett, a half black Jamaican, half Chinese girl, and I play the elderly version of her. I’m really proud of the production because not only is it such a global African story but I never imagined I would play my ethnicity [Chipo’s father is Zimbabwean, her mother is of Chinese extraction]. I’m so thrilled to be playing a character who comes from those two different cultures because that’s my story too.

In February, Apple TV+ released sci-fi thriller Constellation, in which I play space agency commander Michaela Moyone.

The series is about a team of astronauts who go out to space and come back to alternate realities. It’s amazing. The first episode was directed by Michelle McLaren who first developed Breaking

Bad. Actually all the directors on the series were really cool – it’s wonderful to work with people at that level who have such fine eyes and ears for detail.

In terms of my personal projects, this year I’m planning to direct a short film which is based on my experience as a young person in Zimbabwe – a rather privileged middle-class young Zimbabwean.

It’s about that disparity between the haves and the have-nots, the people who live in the house and the people who work in the house. We can be so close to each other and so intimate with each other and yet live in vastly different worlds. It’s a subject that’s always fascinated me. In the next year or so I’d also like to direct a feature set in Harare. It’s on the same theme as my short film but it’s a bit quirky and funny.

In the next five to ten years I’d love to have a sort of mid-career pivot to see the things I’ve written become actual films. I’d like to work more in Zimbabwe because that’s where all the interesting stories come from. In the UK there’s a definite system which is part of Hollywood, where I am a cog in a very giant factory that provides me with my livelihood. Working in Zimbabwe, the challenge is to find the money to produce the kind of work that I want to make. This takes a whole different skill-set: to be a businessperson, a producer, an entrepreneur – all at the same time. If I want to really contribute to the development of the film sector in Zimbabwe these are the things I have to learn. I grew up in such a fertile, creative place and I would love to see that revived in Zimbabwe for the next generation.

Chipo Chung was talking to Tomas Lutuli Brickhill.

Black Cake is out now on Disney+ and Hulu.

Constellation is out now on Apple TV+.

IG: @chipochung

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RADAR: RADAR: BOOK THE REVIEW SOCIAL

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RADAR: THE SOCIAL

THE FIRST NIGHT

The launch of Design//Life was an evening to remember. Artists, musicians, photographers and friends gathered together at the Venue in Harare to celebrate the magazine’s momentous first issue. We laughed, we danced and we partied really, really hard. Seeing all the people we love the most in one room was a sight we will never forget – and a fitting celebration of the style and soul of Zimbabwe Photographs by Rodney Badza

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RADAR: RADAR:THE BOOK SOCIAL REVIEW

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RADAR: THE SOCIAL

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eauty product packaging people are very smart. They know that with a chi-chi font and some clever wording they can sell anything to anyone.

The psychology is that if the pot looks good, then what’s inside it will make you look good too; but nine times out of ten it’s a fail, right? Not so with these balms from new skincare brand Bekah.

Admittedly the packaging was a draw: we loved the psychedelic-style font and bright branding. But then we actually tried them: these balms are the bomb. Made with 100 per cent natural

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ingredients (that are biodegradable too), the formulas contain a base of olive, coconut, grapeseed and vitamin E oil held together with unrefined and locally sourced beeswax. The balms are then gently fragranced with a clever mix of essential oils: the Lavender & Rose Geranium Sooth & Calm Balm, and Sweet Orange & Spearmint Body Butter are particular favourites.

“I was tired of buying products that were damaging to my skin, and the planet, so I started experimenting with formulas and trying them out on my friends,” says

Bekah boss Rebekah Davies. “Everyone who tried them loved them, and this gave me the confidence to launch my onewoman show in Harare. It’s been nonstop ever since.”

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Made from 100 per cent natural ingredients and produced here in Zimbabwe, these beautiful new balms from Bekah are sure to get under your skin

RADAR: CULTURE

MY C U LT U R A L L I F E

DANIEL L ASKER

The Zimbabwean actor and award-winning director shares his love for Mordor, meditation and Matobo The first album I bought was Bob Marley Greatest Hits. I love Marley’s music and I appreciate the important messages within his songs. I’m deeply inspired by him as an artist and as a person.

At the moment I’m listening to “Makambo” by Ugandan musician Geoffrey Oryema, from his 1990 album Exile. This track puts me in a deep state of relaxation, and it’s great to listen to while reflecting.

Before I perform I do a brief meditation where I immerse myself in the world of the character I’m playing. I then bring my awareness to my surroundings and focus on the moment unfolding.

My top podcast tip is that ice baths are great for you. I heard this great piece of advice from Wim Hof. I’ve been most influenced by Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I was blown away by the incredible world that he created on screen. The scale of the vision was amazing, and of course I love JRR Tolkein’s story. One day I would love to be part of telling stories of that magnitude.

The films I watch obsessively are Lord Of The Rings, obviously, but I also love Spirited Away, The Lion King, Shawshank Redemption, Apocalypto... It’s hard to choose, I have so many favourites.

The film I wish I’d been part of is Lord Of The Rings. It’s one of the greatest modern artistic achievements.

The book by my bedside is The Prophet

by Kahlil Gibran. It’s so beautiful and has such profound meaning. It has inspired me to let go and be more accepting of things in life which are out of my control.

My favourite place in the world is the Matobo Hills in the south east of Zimbabwe. It’s right on the doorstep of my hometown of Bulawayo so I’ve been visiting this magical place since I was a child. It’s played host to many wonderful adventures for me and my friends.

I’d really like to meet Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson. I’m deeply inspired by the dedication and masterful work he put into the Lord Of The Rings films.

I would ask him a million questions!

I’m really excited about releasing my new feature film Hidden Within later this year. It’s a thriller/mystery that I wrote and directed, and we filmed it in Bulawayo.

I recently acted in a new action/comedy movie London Calling alongside Josh Duhamel and Jeremy Ray Taylor, directed

by Allan Ungar.

At the moment I’m on set working on a TV series about King David.

This year is going to be busy. As well as acting jobs at home and abroad, and directing and producing projects in Zimbabwe, I want to create as much art, and meet as many new people, as I can.

Hidden Within is out in 2024.

IG: @danny_lasker

Top right: the Matobo Hills provide much inspiration for Daniel Lasker who filmed his latest movie ‘Hidden Within’ in nearby Bulawayo

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RADAR: RADAR: BOOK READ REVIEW THIS

DEAR READER

Born in Equatorial Guinea but raised in North Korea by Kim Il Sung, Monica Macías searches for her identity in this fascinating memoir Words by Jacqueline Nyathi

M

onica Macías, author of Black Girl From Pyongyang, is a brave and complex woman, and hers is a remarkable story.

She was the youngest child of Francisco Macías Nguema, the first president of Equatorial Guinea, who was

deposed in 1979 and later executed by firing squad. When she was seven, Macías was sent, along with her siblings, to be the ward of her father’s friend, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. Upon her father’s death, Macías’ mother, who had accompanied her children to North Korea,

returned to Equatorial Guinea leaving behind Macías and her siblings to be educated and raised in North Korea.

Black Girl From Pyongyang is the story of Macías’ life, documenting her upbringing at the military boarding school just outside the North Korean capital, right up until her departure from North Korea. She was driven to go back to Equatorial Guinea, she says, by her desire to see the outside world, to connect with her past, and to find out whether her father really had been a cruel dictator.

Macías grows up to be a complex woman. She self-identifies as “brown” (her father was Equatoguinean, her mother Spanish-Equatoguinean), yet Macías feels culturally Asian, specifically Korean.

She also considers she had two fathers, both of whom were reviled by the world.

Having been completely dislocated from her father’s culture, and no longer able to speak her mother tongue of Spanish, she hates everything about Equatorial Guinea except for its staple food, plantains.

Macías’ story is fascinating, and it is delightful to read about her childhood

MACIAS’ UPBRINGING WAS COMPLEX: SHE BELIEVED SHE HAD TWO FATHERS, BOTH OF WHOM WERE SEEN AS DICTATORS AND REVILED BY THE WORLD although one empathises with her painful circumstances. However, her frequent declamations and the solutions she advances for fixing the world are far less interesting. And, in spite of promising to outline evidence of her father not being as evil as he was portrayed, Macías never gets round to this, only mentioning that propaganda against her father had been created by Equatorial Guinea’s Spanish colonisers and by his enemies.

Nevertheless, this memoir is enjoyable and valuable for its honesty, the insights she provides into life in North Korea, and her perspective as an Equatoguinean migrant travelling around the world.

Black Girl From Pyongyang by Monica Macías (Duckworth) is out now.

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RADAR: READ THIS

RIVER SPIRIT

By Leila Aboulela (Saqi Books) This novel is set in Sudan in the interval between Ottoman and British rule in the late 19th century. Orphaned Akuany (nicknamed Zamzam) is taken in by Yaseen, an upright and honourable merchant, who remains committed to her welfare despite many complications in his own life.

Salha, Yaseen’s wife, is a strong, intelligent and forthright woman who always does what’s right.

Through their lives, River Spirit tells the story of Sudan and its people, and of the powers, from within and without, fighting for control. Importantly, it’s about two very different, unapologetically complex women expressing agency within the constraints of their time and culture.

SIBANDA AND THE NIGHT ADDER

By CM Elliott (Carnelian Heart Publishing) Described as being for fans of author Alexander McCall Smith, CM Elliott’s novel is full of fun and adventure. Set in southwestern Zimbabwe, it tells of the exploits of the handsome Detective Sibanda and his hapless sidekick, Ncube. While entertaining, the problematic portrayal of Ncube – an unflattering stereotype, and reminiscent of McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe – rather detracts from the otherwise excellent writing. The novel is enjoyable for its car chase on a rural road, an escape from baddies through a national park full of dangerous animals, and a clever plot built around Zimbabwe’s diamonds; but please can we have better portrayals of African people, and fewer characters like Ncube and McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe?

P U N C H N E E D L E TOYS

By Caro Bello (David & Charles) Although crafting as a hobby never really goes away, every so often some technique or tool undergoes a revival when a new generation finds interesting ways to use it. Punch Needle Toys is for crafty people – whether they are new to punch needlework, or just want to try making something different. Author Caro Bello presents 20 characters, stories included, to craft into toys, including Helena Hen, Gaspar Giraffe, Camilo Crocodile, Domingo Dog and Zacarias Zebra, among many others.

Instructions are easy to follow, and the book explains everything from tools and materials, to how to use a punch needle proficiently.

D I G G I N G S TA R S

By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (WW Norton & Company) Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s first novel was the highly acclaimed and wonderful House Of Stone about the Eighties democide in Matabeleland. In Digging Stars, Tshuma tries her hand at Africanfuturism. Frank Siziba has been to space and dreams of stars and new worlds and Bantu geometries – to the exclusion of his family. Rosa, his daughter, chases her father through time and space, even after his death, until she must confront who he really was.

The two strands of this character-driven novel are the truly enchanting new worlds and the far less persuasive story of Rosa’s daughterhood and dislocation. Readers from Bulawayo will enjoy reminders of their hometown, a place now truly famous in literature.

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RADAR: HEAR THIS

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

With ‘Feja Feja’, Flying Bantu’s first album since 2019, the sky’s the limit for this Victoria Falls Afrofusion five-piece Words by Milly McPhie

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its newly released album Ceasefire had won wide acclaim, and its track “Sunshine City” had taken the prize for Most Outstanding Music Video at Zimbabwe’s National Arts Merit Awards. But then that most cruel twist of fate, Covid, shut down the world.

So many hopes and dreams were lost during the Covid years – young, brilliant talents immobilised by lockdowns and face masks and fear. But Flying Bantu hunkered down, waiting it out, refusing to be silenced by circumstance. They jammed, they wrote, they developed and most importantly, they polished themselves into the tight act that blew the roof off the Zanzibar festival.

Their new album Feja Feja will be released later this year, its title track a nod to the street gambling game that’s emptied many a man’s wallet, and a reference to the wearying, on-the-hoof decision-making that is life in Zimbabwe.

“This album speaks of the mood of disenfranchisement that we all feel,” says Flying Bantu frontman Nash. “But it doesn’t sound like we’re moaning, we’re just trying to express our emotions through our music.”

“This album also reflects the sentiments of loss that we all experienced during Covid – the feeling of missing someone and mourning the loss of the life that we led before,” says Nash. “Loss is an emotion, and we need to celebrate all

‘ EVEN THOUGH WE SING ABOUT DARK STUFF, THERE’S A SENSE OF JOY TOO’ of our emotions, even the sadder ones,” he continues. “So even though there are darker themes to this album, there’s a real sense of joy to it too.”

There is a lot of joy ahead for this talented band: a successful tour of South Africa earlier this year has paved the way for appearances at key festivals in Zimbabwe and across the continent in 2024. With the release of the brilliant Feja Feja, it’s clear that Flying Bantu has found its wings.

Visit: www.flyingbantu.com IG: @flyingbantu

PHOTO: RICHARD WATSON

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s stage backdrops go, the Old Fort in Zanzibar’s Stone Town is hard to beat. At this year’s Sauti za Busara music festival in February, the up-lit 17th-century courtyard played host to 24 acts from around Africa; bands from Uganda, DRC and Kenya shared the stage with fellow artists from Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique and, of course, Zimbabwe.

Maybe it was Zanzibar’s baking heat which made it too hot to mosh, but this year’s festival crowd was, for the most part, a little subdued. While the bands worked their talented socks off, the audience only managed some toetapping and neck-nodding – an odd sight in Africa, a place where if there’s music, there’s dancing.

All was not lost, though, as Zimbabwe’s Flying Bantu took to the stage on the Saturday night (right). Suited and booted in colourful kimonos and smart eyeletstudded jackets (all made by the 12-yearold Zimbabwean design prodigy, Evelyn Mubochwa) the five-piece act from Victoria Falls finally got the crowd going, the band’s glorious Afrofusion sound bouncing off the battlements buoyed by a raucous contingent of joyful fans from Zimbabwe.

We last saw Flying Bantu play live just before Covid took away our nights out and stopped rising stars in their tracks.

In 2019 the band was on the ascendant;

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STREETSmart Harare’s downtown weekly CBD Market is a melting pot of Zimbabwe’s creative talent

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his Friday night gathering at Harare’s First Floor Gallery is the very essence of collaboration, with artists, poets, musicians and the fashionsavvy coming together to sell their wares

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on the terrace overlooking Samora Machel Avenue. At the CBD Market there is fabulous thrift to dig through as well as the latest creations from new designers. If you stay long enough you’ll get to enjoy

a Rolodex of talented DJs – the perfect start to any weekend in the capital.

Every Friday from 4pm. Free admission.

First Floor Gallery, 2nd floor Karigamombe Centre, 53 Samora Machel Avenue, Harare.

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Subscriptions Never miss an issue!

Subscribe to Design//Life and get it delivered to your door It’s the perfect gift for your friends and family, at home and abroad Contact us at: subscriptions@designlifemagazine.com

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EXHIBITIONS MUKUDZEI MUzONDO Design//Life is delighted to present a new exhibition of work by Mukudzei Muzondo which will be running in Harare from 23 May until 20 June. “ The Overview” is Mukudzei’s most recent collection in which he seeks to examine the impact of migration – its effect on the migrants and their families, as well as how this flow of people is transforming societies. “We are so pleased to be working with Mukudzei on this show,” says Design//Life Editor Milly McPhie. “His artwork is subtle but its message is pronounced. To see so many of his paintings on display together will be an amazing experience.”

Mukudzei Muzondo’s exhibition “ The Overview”, in association with Design//Life magazine, will be at Sabre Business World from 23 May until 20 June. 146 Enterprise Road, Harare. Call: +263 787 513 555.

You can read more about Mukudzei Muzondo in the feature “Unstoppable” on page 70 of this issue.

IG: @mukudzei_muzondo

C A LV I N CHIMUTUWAH It’s been over a decade since Calvin Chimutuwah’s last solo exhibition so it’s with great excitement that we announce a new show of his latest artwork. Calvin spent five years living and working in Hwange painting wildlife and landscapes, but this new body of work takes him right back to his childhood. His bright, vivid canvasses reflect the nostalgia he feels for his days as a carefree kid, his attention to detail a beautiful observation of the world as seen through a child’s eyes.

“I’m so grateful to my late father Robert, who was also an artist, for keeping all my exercise books from when I was child,” Calvin says. “My early drawings inform my creative process and have inspired some of the work in this show.”

Calvin Chimutuwah’s exhibition runs at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe from 20 June. IG: @calvinpaintings

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THE VIEW W H AT W E T H I N K A B O U T E V E R Y T H I N G

Hot off the press Marula oil,

one of our finest products, is skincare’s secret weapon.

Gus Le Breton recalls his journey getting the magic oil to market

Making art work Zimbabwe’s

creative industry is in need of investment and support.

Farai Mudzingwa looks at how government policy can help

Changing channels What

does the future hold for Zimbabwe’s TV industry? Simon de Swardt analyses the impact of Zimbabwe’s new TV channels

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THE VIEW

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Gus Le Breton, aka the African Plant Hunter, swears by the anti-ageing properties of magical marula oil [so that’s your secret, we all thought you’d had Botox – Ed]. Here he documents his journey of discovery – from extraction disasters to helping marula oil become one of the skincare industry’s most prized ingredients

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magine you live on the fringes of one of the world’s harshest deserts where daytime temperatures often exceed 40 degrees and trees and shade are rarer than hens’ teeth. Think about if you had to survive on a blend of foraged plant roots, insects and reptiles, supplemented by the occasional hunted mammal. And then imagine that one day you’re lucky enough to bring down a 200kg adult male gemsbok with your bow and arrow, one big enough to feed your family for months. You’ve got a few days of fabulous feasting ahead but you have a major technical issue you need to address: how can you preserve the rest of the meat in a world where fridges and vacuum-sealed packaging don’t exist? It’s not just a conundrum, it’s potentially a matter of life and death. Enter, stage left, our hero: marula oil.

The OvaTwa of Northern Namibia (a hunter-gatherer sub-group of the Himba) are not the only people in Africa to have discovered the astonishing meatpreserving properties of marula oil, but

they certainly live in one of the continent’s most testing environments. If meat preserved by marula oil can survive for months in the extreme conditions of the Namib desert then surely it can stop the skin on my face – only subject to the relatively benign environment of Christon Bank, just north of Harare – from ageing prematurely?

I first came across the almost miraculous anti-ageing properties of marula oil in the mid-Nineties. I was working with a rural community in Nyamatikiti, a small village near Rushinga in the north east of Zimbabwe, where we were trying to figure out ways to help people protect their indigenous woodland. There were a lot of marula trees in the area and it seemed to me that creating an economic value for these trees would provide a compelling incentive for their conservation.

Our initial attempts were focused on the fruit. Marula, as anyone who’s ever tasted one will testify, produce the most startlingly delicious plum-shaped fruit. For centuries these have been the basis for a variety of intoxicating beverages and

there are many communities in southern Africa who revere the fruit so highly that they celebrate the annual harvest with parties and, in some cases, full-blown festivals. The Oshituthi Shomagongo Marula Fruit Festival in northern Namibia is of such enormous cultural significance that it is protected and celebrated by UNESCO as part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”.

However, the very thing that makes marula fruit so wonderfully delicious also makes them incredibly hard to work with: yeast – those single-celled fungal organisms that are the basis for all breadrising and beer-brewing. Marula fruit are covered in millions of tiny wild yeast cells that ferment really quickly. This is wonderful if you want to produce an alcoholic beverage but a disaster if your intention, like ours, is to produce a more wholesome non-alcoholic fruit juice. No matter how hard we tried we couldn’t stabilise the product quickly enough to stop it fermenting. Our first batches proved remarkably popular with the village schoolchildren who kept coming

The myriad benefits of marula oil mean that it is still a prized ingredient in thousands of skincare products around the world; its production provides a valuable source of income for many rural communities across southern Africa

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THE VIEW back for more. I couldn’t help noticing increased levels of joviality after a single serving and by the time they were on their third glass, the assembled company of Grade 7s were all demonstrably intoxicated. Back to the drawing board.

Then I read an article about the oil from the kernels of the marula nut being

Trying to extract oil from the marula kernels proved to be much, much harder than we anticipated used to preserve meat and it got me thinking. By far the most plausible mode of action would be antioxidant. Lipid oxidation is the main non-microbial cause of quality deterioration in meat. Perhaps marula oil somehow inhibited oxidation?

“If it did that for meat,” I thought, “might it not also do that for human skin?”

Antioxidants are something of a holy grail in skincare: the push-back against the use of mineral oils (such as paraffin) was driving a growing demand for natural, plant-derived oils. If we could figure out how to produce oil from marula kernels there could be a market for the oil as a skincare ingredient. So we set out on the next stage of our journey: how to extract the oil from the kernel. It turned out to be much, much harder than anticipated.

Humans have extracted oil from plant seeds for millennia. The traditional technique involves boiling the seed, allowing the oil to rise to the surface in the resultant soup and then scooping it out.

This is fine for home use but it doesn’t work for industrial production because you can never fully separate the oil from the water. Also, the act of boiling may materially alter the very properties you want to preserve to make it effective in skincare. Hence the focus on cold-pressing.

We sourced an oil press from a supplier in Harare, brought it down to Rushinga, persuaded the nice men at ZESA to rig us up a power supply and switched it on. The resultant mess still gives me shivers when I think about it.

This press was made for sunflower seeds which have just the right amount of hard shell and soft kernel to produce a nice, clean oil. But the outer shell of the marula nut is impossibly hard and there’s no way a sunflower oil press can break it down properly. So we had to laboriously crack the nuts by hand and extract the soft, oily kernel from inside.

When introduced into the oil press, this produced a thick, glutinous mess with the consistency of peanut-butter – wholly unsuitable for skincare.

Eventually we found some folks in Namibia who were facing the same conundrum and had come up with a hydraulic cage press to extract the oil.

A batch of kernels were placed into a cylindrical mesh in this simple but ingenious device and then slowly squeezed

The production of marula oil not only supports rural communities but it also helps to protect the trees themselves

The production of marula oil is a laborious process and although there are now presses advanced enough to extract the oil from the kernel, the best quality oil undoubtedly comes from those pressed by hand

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THE VIEW so that the oil came out through the tiny holes in the mesh while leaving the bulk of the kernel inside. It was very slow and very labour-intensive but the quality of this oil was incredible.

The next challenge was to find a market for the oil. Hand-in-hand with our new Namibian friends (and soon joined by others from Botswana and South Africa) we found our way to the headquarters of the Body Shop, situated at the time in Southampton in the UK. With immense pride and absolute conviction that a sale was guaranteed, we showed them our marula oil samples. “This is wonderful,” they told us. “If you can guarantee us a minimum of 30 tonnes a year, we’ll look at it.” We gulped. So far the combined production between four countries didn’t exceed 30kg. We had a long way to go.

But we did it: the Body Shop took on marula oil as one of its Community Trade ingredients. Other brands followed suit and marula oil gradually became recognised as one of the skincare world’s most effective natural antioxidants.

Fast forward three decades and today there are thousands people in rural areas who make a respectable living from the harvesting of marula fruit and the extraction of the kernel from the nut (the best quality oil still comes from kernel extracted by hand). Skincare brands fall over each other to find reliable sources of the oil. Here in Zimbabwe we now have

Skincare brands fall over themselves to find reliable sources of quality marula oil multiple companies producing the oil, one of which was commissioned by the President himself. Marula oil has well and truly made it and there is a high chance that you have used it at one time or another in your own skincare regime.

I think the most remarkable part of this story is how three different ethnic

groups – the OvaTwa in Namibia, the Venda in South Africa and the Tonga in Zambia and Zimbabwe – all discovered, independently of each other, that meat would keep for far longer if marula oil was dripped onto it before it was air-dried to make biltong. It’s a real testament to human ingenuity.

These southern African groups still benefit from the traditional knowledge passed down from previous generations because these are the very communities who are producing marula oil for the skincare industry today. So every time you use a skincare product that contains marula oil, not only are you doing your skin a massive favour, you’re also helping these rural communities by providing a market for their products. This, I think we can all agree, really is a genuine winwin for everyone.

Gus Le Breton (aka the African Plant Hunter) is a Zimbabwean ethnobotanist dedicated to the development of novel plant-derived ingredients from indigenous plants in Africa.

IG: @africanplanthunter

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THE VIEW

CHANGING CHANNELS

The introduction of several new TV channels should have heralded a new era for the platform in Zimbabwe, so why is the industry still in decline? As long as the majority of Zimbabweans are unable to pay for TV subscriptions and the technology remains substandard, TV broadcasting in Zimbabwe will continue to disappoint, says Simon de Swardt

T

here was a time when Zimbabweans could only watch state television, but Zimbabwe’s TV landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years.

In 2020 the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe issued licences to six new independent stations. Four years later, four of these channels – NRTV, 3KTV, ZTN and KeYonaTV – are up and running, broadcasting local content to Zimbabweans across the country. While this may sound like real progress, the reality is quite different.

NRTV began broadcasting in the second half of 2023, showing a wide range of programmes on everything and anything from news and current affairs to lifestyle and entertainment – and does so 24 hours a day. Since its inception it has attracted over five million cumulative

views on social media. “We are a fullspectrum programming channel,” says Brian Musuna, NRTV’s Executive Producer and Content Assessor. “We cater for kids, youth and adults.”

Bulawayo-based KeYonaTV is also aiming at a full-spectrum service: “We cater for everyone and the content is mainly family-based,” says KeYonaTV Programmes Manager Nonhlanhla Nkala.

“Our viewership is at about 20,000 viewers locally and 1.4 million regionally.”

Nkala points out that although based in Bulawayo, KeYonaTV is not focused predominantly on Ndebele content: “We are not positioning ourselves as a regional station,” she says. “Bulawayo is our home but KeYonaTV is a national station.”

3KTV and ZTN, the other two stations given licences in 2020, are both competing for the same general audience as NRTV and KeYonaTV, although ZTN, which is

owned by Zimpapers, has a more factual offering, drawing on the group’s strengths as a news organisation.

These channels may be transmitting but they also have to reach their audiences. At present these channels can be accessed through paid subscription satellite services such as DSTV, but the monthly subscriptions – which start at $5 – and the cost of a satellite dish and decoder are out of reach for the majority of Zimbabweans. People don’t have the money for data to watch the channels online, either.

However, these TV stations are also being broadcast terrestrially from Zimbabwean transmitters on the ground so you can bypass the satellite services.

The high-quality HD signal is up and running so in theory you can tune into it on your TV. So far, so good. Or so I thought.

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THE VIEW Watching these channels on digital TV is harder than it should be. All modern HDTVs have built-in digital tuners but I wasn’t able to scan the available frequencies on my TV. Then I discovered that a TV’s built-in digital tuner only works when it’s connected to a digital antenna. Not having such an antenna I went on a search for one around Harare but to no avail. Facebook Marketplace also drew a blank. A digital antenna is a one-off $15 investment, but either no one knows about them or no one cares.

There is another way to watch: the famous DTT set-top boxes, whose mysterious absence is frequently discussed in Zimbabwe’s media. These devices incorporate a digital tuner and allow older analogue TVs to receive the digital signal, but their appearance in Zimbabwe has been held up for years (in Mozambique, someone told me). This is

If the new TV channels fail to attract viewers then they will fail to attract advertising not proprietary technology and the DTT signal is not encrypted, so it’s frustrating that it’s so hard to buy a DTT box. As KeYonaTV’s Nkala says, “People want to watch our channel but accessibility is a challenge. The DDT decoders need to reach the people.”

Of course, if the new channels fail to attract viewers they will also struggle to attract advertising – the lifeblood of any commercial TV station. Charles Mutemera is the Managing Director of Dicomm McCann & TotalMedia UM, a key player in Zimbabwe advertising. In his view the new stations have brought healthy competition to the sector. While before his clients would shy away from TV advertising saying that no one watches ZBC this argument has now become less and less common. “We have more options for ad placement, with more TV shows and segments appropriate for different sets of target audiences,” Mutemera says. “We now produce far more TV commercials and video content than when we had only one TV station.”

But the limited reach of the new channels means that advertising still remains limited. “We have placed a few commercials on ZTN and 3KTV, but most of ours are for ZTV,” says

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Mutemera. “The majority of people still only have access to ZBC so it makes sense to advertise there for big campaigns – the reach is always going to be higher. I see the other stations occupying a niche area.”

Another source in the advertising sector (who did not want to be named) has a different view: “The advertising landscape hasn’t changed at all. The new TV stations haven’t made a difference because they are sitting on the DSTV bouquets. The most trusted medium right now is radio.”

Of course the new TV stations are anxious to attract advertising dollars.

NRTV’s Musuna says progress has been slow: “I think this is probably because there was a need for proof-of-concept and to show how solid our content is,” he says.

“Going into our third season there are now sponsorship deals on the table. This is definitely different to how we started.”

But advertising and audience are only two of the three sides of the TV broadcast triangle; the third side is content. For TV producers the new stations represent a glimmer of hope, albeit one that is currently frustrated by small budgets and limited viewership.

Beauty Nakai Tsuro is a TV producer responsible for the reality talent show I Can Act and drama series Faking It for 3KTV. Currently she has a weekly show on NRTV called Broken Lives, a drama series about the struggles of family life in Zimbabwe. “I write social drama, stories that are relevant to our society.”

Nakai’s experience is that TV channels have shifted their target audiences, moving from more middle-class content with higher ambitions and production values, to broader, lower-cost content that covers all bases. This is evident in her own programmes which have changed from reality and competition shows to drama and soaps.

Nakai has experienced the problem of audience reach first-hand. As the financial barrier to entry is still too expensive for mass audiences, Nakai found that when she uploaded an episode of one of her shows online for marketing purposes, Zimbabweans were surprised to learn about the new programmes and channels, not realising that local content was now being produced in Zimbabwe. “It’s such a pity because people are putting so much energy and effort into trying to make the channels work, but the majority of Zimbabweans don’t subscribe to DSTV.” Because the new stations are struggling to attract eyeballs, a vicious circle has

HOW TO WATCH ZIMBABWE’S NEW TV STATIONS VIA SATELLITE

• Subscribe to either DSTV or AZAMTV and install a satellite dish and decoder • Tune into the following channels: DSTV ZTN – 294 NRTV – 288 3KTV – 293 AZAMTV KeYona TV – 398

WITHOUT SATELLITE

• Ensure you have a digital tuner on your TV • Plug in a digital antenna (below) which you can buy in South Africa • Run an autoscan to find all the Zimbabwean channels

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE A DIGITAL TUNER ON MY TV?

In practice nearly all modern HDTVs have built-in digital tuners, but there is a simple way to test: • Turn on your TV and select TV as source • Then tune it to an unused channel If you see fuzzy snow on the screen and hear a rushing sound then it’s analogue. If the screen goes blank and there is no sound it’s digital.

THE VIEW already started: no eyeballs means no advertising; no advertising means no revenue; no revenue means not enough budget for good content; poor content means no eyeballs. Budgets for later seasons of Nakai’s shows are declining and this is stalling further production. With lower budgets come lower production values and worse content.

As our unnamed source says: “If your content is poor your viewership will be poor and your advertising revenue will be poor – because content is key. The target audience is after content not adverts.

TV is a poor platform in Zimbabwe because the content is poor. The bottom line is that the channels need to improve their content to make TV a powerful medium. We don’t need foreign or international content – people love stuff from their own countries. If the content is right, people will watch. The success of South Africa’s SABC and eTV is because they focus on local content rather than international movies or blockbusters.”

Producer Nakai agrees: “People are really hungry for local content,” she says.

The rise of streaming services and the internet means that traditional broadcast television might already be at the end of its life. Nakai is working on her own streaming app. Still in beta-testing, Byskopo Yako is a promising service which aims to be the Zimbabwean Netflix. It offers a pay-per-view service accepting most Zimbabwean and international payment methods with no monthly subscription charges. With over 600 betatesters, and show purchases starting at $0.50, it sounds like a really great idea.

Nakai believes the app could shake up the broadcast sector and finally bridge the gap between content producers and audiences: “I’m passionate about distribution because that is what our industry here is lacking.”

Maybe the underlying problem is neither technical nor financial; perhaps it is just that after decades of poor content and ancient analogue transmitters Zimbabweans have lost faith in TV as a medium. Let’s hope that changing this mindset is much simpler than changing the channel.

IG: @simondeswardtwildlife

Whether or not you have a satellite or even a digital tuner, trying to watch Zimbabwe’s new TV channels is a lot harder than it should be

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THE VIEW

MAKING ART WORK

Zimbabwe’s arts and culture scene is crying out for support and investment. Farai Mudzingwa looks at ways in which governments can help creatives sustain a decent living

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any people within Zimbabwe’s creative scene will tell you that the country is currently going through an artistic renaissance. Fashion, music, fine art, dance and theatre are all enjoying a positive momentum, the like of which we haven’t seen in years. The artists themselves are just as excited but there’s a question that still needs answering: how can we make this upsurge in the arts sustainable and build markets for Zimbabwe’s creative industries?

There are a number of problems which plague our cultural industries. For example there are no clearly defined roles within the ecosystem – an artist needs to be a jack of all trades, proficient in marketing, business, accounting. Another issue is the lack of cultural statistics data which makes it hard for creatives to build on their previous efforts as they have no record of their success. This information access gap was highlighted in 2023 by Hendrix Chigiji, manager for cultural and tourism statistics at ZIMSTATS. Paul Damasane – Zimbabwe’s former principal Director of Arts, Culture & Heritage noted another problem in the arts sector in 2021 when he said, “Cultural and creative industries are becoming mega-money spinners in many different ways, but I think our higher and tertiary education sector has not yet responded to that.”

While these are interesting insights into the problem at hand we still need to ask: how much can government policy actually impact the creative industry?

Zimbabwe’s traditionally negative view of art education can be traced as far back as the colonial era when art as a subject was considered a non-academic pastime for non-achievers and women (the latter had few career options available to them outside of marriage). Unfortunately this situation didn’t notably improve until 2017 when the Ministry of Primary & Secondary Education made art compulsory in all schools. But the effect of this change is yet to be quantified.

This is especially regrettable when you consider Zimbabwe’s rich artistic heritage.

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Our stone sculpture is famous around the world; the 26-acre Chapungu Sculpture Park at Centerra, Colorado, is the largest outdoor art centre in the United States devoted to Zimbabwean stone sculpture.

So what can governments do to help arts students sustain a decent career?

If Zimbabwe wanted some inspiration as to how to grow and support its creative industries it could take a look at what has been done in Australia – its National Art Scholarship is a great example of how policy can positively impact art education.

Established in 1997 by Australia’s National Gallery, the scholarship gives 400 high-school students the chance to attend a one-week residency at the National Gallery in Canberra.

As part of the programme students are taught about the inner workings of Australia’s leading visual arts institution;

Zimbabwe’s vibrant culture scene holds immense potential for economic growth and social cohesion they meet and develop connections with staff from curatorial, conservation, registration, programming, digital and marketing; and they discover how the various departments work together to collect, display, research and care for art from around the world.

The programme not only gives the young students the chance to see how the gallery is run but they also begin to develop a network within the art world and develop an understanding of how it all works – knowledge that will prove invaluable should the students decide to try to make an acceptable living in their chosen creative industry.

Beyond this, the scholarship also gives students an idea about how many different career paths are available within the arts industry. They attend workshops on what art is, what it could be and what making art involves, giving them a head start on

what it takes to make it in the art world.

The Australian Government claims that 68 per cent of scholarship participants have gone on to have a career in the arts or creative industries. It’s a great example of how an arts-positive approach to policy can help students and future artists recognise the many roles on offer within the creative industry.

Beyond education, there is much to be done to develop Zimbabwe’s film industry.

In 2017, Professor Nyasha Mboti, formerly a film lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, published a research paper entitled “Zimbabwe’s Film Industry” in which he stated that the “distribution of audio-visual products in the southern African region is arguably the primary blockage in the film and television value chain in the region”. He went on to say that this was due to a lack of resources, and there was not much interest from consumers due to a lack of exposure – consumers neither knew of local films’ existence nor where to watch the films.

Over the last 20 years, access and exposure to film in Zimbabwe has increased but we still have a middling film industry. What could the Government do to help?

South Korea, a country with one of the largest film industries in the world, is a fine example to follow. In 2022 its film industry released 817 films, raking in a staggering US$1.3bn (4.5 per cent of Zimbabwe’s GDP). South Korea managed to do this with a 50 per cent domestic film share (percentage of total box office revenue earned by domestically produced films), a percentage much higher than film powerhouses such as France (39.5 per cent) and Britain (37.4 per cent).

How did South Korea do this? In 1986, its Government removed import quotas on film after the signing of a film agreement with the United States. Initially the local industry couldn’t keep up with Hollywood’s quality, but eventually South Korean filmmakers and theatres realised that they no choice but to produce films that were good enough to compete with Hollywood. South Korean filmmakers enlisted the help of companies within

THE VIEW

the country to produce the films; global electronics giant Samsung was one of the first brands to come on board.

This corporate support transformed the structure of the South Korean film industry: it introduced a modern – not government-engineered but marketdriven – vertically integrated system of production covering everything from finance to distribution. The opening up of the market by the Government sparked the creativity that motivated filmmakers and businesses to come together.

While the South Korean Government removed the import quotas, it kept screen quotas (first implemented in 1966), ensuring a mandatory number of days on which South Korean movies had to be shown. Usually quotas are used by countries to protect their own film industries but South Korea used this quota to guarantee equal opportunity for South Korean films. This addressed some of the distribution pain points that South Korean filmmakers had experienced.

In 1993 the South Korean Government reclassified the film industry from a service industry to a manufacturing industry which led to an influx of capital into film.

The recognition that the entertainment

industry was a commercial product enabled filmmakers to access bank loans for the first time, and they were able to enjoy tax exemptions that were previously only available to manufacturers.

This reclassification also meant that South Korea’s film industry was able to apply for subsidies. These have played a big part in the financing of the South Korean film industry since the Nineties.

The South Korean Government has always offered tax exemptions to smaller filmmakers and studios – those which employ less than 1,000 people. These tax breaks, which last for four years, apply to studios outside of the country’s capital Seoul ensuring that studios located in smaller markets can compete with their urban counterparts.

Tax subsidies alone can’t prop up smaller studios, but these efforts show a government intent on ensuring that its film industry remains competitive and viable.

It’s no surprise, then, that in five decades since the heavy involvement of its Government, the South Korean film industry now outperforms many of the world’s largest film industries in terms of audience, number of films produced and

quality of the films produced. Today its film industry is the seventh largest in the world.

Australia and South Korea illustrate just two examples which show how governments taking strategic and intentional policy positions can help educate and create more sustainable markets for artists.

Zimbabwe’s vibrant arts and culture scene holds immense potential for economic growth, social cohesion and international recognition. By learning from successful models such as those in Australia and South Korea the Zimbabwean Government can play a crucial role in nurturing this potential.

Increased funding for the arts, tax breaks for creative industries and investment in infrastructure and training will empower Zimbabwe’s artists. This in turn would lead to a flourishing creative sector that strengthens the national identity, attracts investment and positions Zimbabwe as a cultural powerhouse.

The time is ripe for the Government to embrace creative industries as a strategic investment in the nation’s future.

Farai Mudzingwa is the founder of Untold ZW. IG: @untoldzw

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LISTEN UP

He’s collaborated with some of the world’s most famous musicians but now Daecolm – the renowned Zimbabwean producer and songwriter – is going solo, determined to take the sounds of southern Africa right around the world Words by Milly McPhie Photographs by Lennox Makurumidze

‘ If we really want to be seen as a great nation then we need to empower our youth and invest in their talent’

MAKE UP: LESLI WROE

D

awn has just broken in downtown Harare.

The pigeons are taking full advantage of the quiet streets, hopping around in the middle of the road pecking at scraps, taking their chances before the thunderous rush-hour traffic begins. People are walking to work, heads down, steadying themselves after an undoubtedly bone-shaking combi ride into the centre of town. Among the commuters turning the corner of Sam Nujoma Street onto Union Avenue comes Daecolm who, apart from wheeling a smart hard-shell silver suitcase, blends seamlessly into his surroundings.

With his hair wrap hanging loosely around his shoulders, headphones on and head buried deep in his phone, there is no fanfare to Daecolm’s arrival – no entourage or assistant, nothing to suggest that this man leads a rather extraordinary life. For Daecolm’s usual commuter route is between Johannesburg, London and LA; his work is crafting the words and melodies for many of the tracks that are probably playing on the headsets of the people he walks beside along Union. The Zimbabwean singer, songwriter and music producer has flipped his flights and fiddled with his schedule to make it to Harare (via Johannesburg and Bulawayo) in time to make the photoshoot for the magazine’s second issue.

Daecolm’s understated, unfussy arrival to the downtown Design//Life cover shoot turns out to be typical behaviour. He deals with our rudimentary set-up like a pro (his changing room is the boot of a car, hair and make-up is done on the passenger seat). We have a limited amount of time to get the shots before the morning light changes and we get chased away by shop keepers and parking attendants. But Daecolm gets it; he moves quickly and changes position proactively and we are done in little over an hour.

Although born in Zimbabwe, Daecolm Diego Holland spent the most part of his early childhood in England at an all-boys

boarding school just outside London.

“I made the best of friends there,” he says.

His manager Chris is one such buddy. “We got to know each other when we were 12,” Daecolm says. “We were some of the only black kids at the school. While everyone else was listening to Oasis and AC/DC, we bonded over our love of R’n’B, Mario’s Turning Point – “Nikes Fresh Out The Box” was our favourite.”

A five-week holiday to New Zealand turned out to be the start of a new life for Daecolm and his family, who settled in the North Island’s capital Auckland when he was 15. “I loved it,” he says. “It has such a special place in my heart because it was where I got my first big break as a recording artist.”

A little more coy than fellow wunderkind chart-topper Justin Bieber, Daecolm is shy about disclosing the name of his first release which went to the top of the New Zealand charts when he was just 16. “It was mad,” he says. “I went for an interview at a new school and while I was talking to the headteacher, all the kids had their faces pressed to the window, shouting my name. It blew my mind.

That recognition was so weird to handle at that age but I’m used to it now,” he continues. “I can still get awkward about it, but then I think to myself, ‘Come on, bro, you’ve got a song out that people know. Deal with it.’”

A brief foray into the world of boybands also helped Daecolm to deal with his rising level of fame. After completing a degree in digital design at Auckland University, Daecolm joined his family back in London and, as part of a managed pop group, auditioned for the UK version of The X Factor. His band Juke Box made it through the initial auditions – admirably surviving the critical gaze of Simon Cowell and his panel of fauxterrifying celebrity judges – through to boot camp where his dream of being the next *NSYNC died. “I wasn’t passionate about being in a boyband but I got so much from the experience,” says Daecolm.

“It was such a learning curve and really gave me an idea of what the music industry was like.”

A connection early on with music producer Wayne Beckford of British band Nine Yards was also a helpful step-up for the young Daecolm. “My dad put me in touch with Wayne and I used to just go and watch him work in his studio. I was fascinated by what he did and one day I said to him, ‘How do you do this? Please can you teach me?’ Wayne was amazing, he taught me everything I know.”

He may have cut some early breaks, but Daecolm’s musical talent is innate: “I can pick up any instrument apart from the drums,” he says. “They just take way too much coordination. I can’t read music either so I play by ear. I listen a few times to something, figure out the chords and then I’ve got it.”

Daecolm’s inbuilt musicality soon caught the attention of LA songwriter and producer Andre Merritt – the man responsible for hits such as Rhianna’s “Disturbia” and Omarion’s “Entourage” – who invited Daecolm to LA and soon after offered him a publishing deal. Conscious of nailing his flag too fast, Daecolm turned down the deal but carried on writing and producing, still determined to one day perform his own tracks. “I really looked up to Elijah Blake [co-writer of Usher’s hit “Climax”]. Through Elijah I saw that there was also an avenue to being an artist as well as behind the scenes as a writer and producer.”

While his personal singing ambitions simmered, Daecolm perfected his writing and producing, working with luminaries such as dancehall DJ Beenie Man, Nigerian favourite Ayra Starr and Zimbabwean queen Tamy Moyo, until he came to the attention of R’n’B’s controversial Chris Brown. Together they wrote and produced 2022’s “It’s Giving Christmas”, the track that would take Daecolm to a whole new level within the music industry.

His collaboration with Brown seemed to give Daecolm the confidence to step out of the shadows of the synthesizers and samplers and get in front of the microphone and monitors. He had enjoyed solo success in 2021 with the release of “Hot Topic”, but 2023 was

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‘ The music of southern Africa is where it’s at right now. You can hear our sounds starting to spread around the world’

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‘What you love is up to you, there are no boundaries. Love is love,’ says Daecolm of his latest single ‘I Might’. He has the track’s artwork (above) tattooed on his right arm (opposite) to remind him of this

the year in which his singing career truly took off, releasing two singles – “Confidence” and “Lonely” – as well as an EP, Lessons.

February 2024 heralded the new single “I Might”, a melodic, cascading track that beautifully showcases Daecolm’s superb vocal range. Released to coincide with Valentine’s Day, the song speaks of the comfort of love, the peace and security that love can bring when it’s right.

“I think that it’s the most heartfelt song I’ve put out,” he says. “It’s about a universal type of love, not just personto-person love. What you love is up to you, there are no boundaries. Love is love.

That’s why I have the track’s artwork tattooed on my arm – it’s there as a reminder that I should love like this as constantly as I can.”

“I Might” is also a love letter to Daecolm’s country of birth: at the end of the song he is joined by the choir of Girls College Bulawayo, whose longer choral arrangement can be heard in all its glory on the acoustic version released in April.

“I loved working with them,” he says.

“I want to do whatever I can to get kids inspired. By singing on the track and watching it stream they can see that they can go places. It’s rewarding for us all.”

“I’m not back in Zimbabwe just to further my career,” Daecolm says.

“I want to help elevate the talent in this country. I’m so sick of hearing, ‘That kid has so much potential,’ and then nothing happens. If we want to be seen as a really great nation then we need to empower our youth and invest in their talent. We need to get them equipment, visas. We

need to start reinforcing the ideas of resolutions and conclusions, not just problems. We have the same amount of talent as the rest of the world but we don’t have a support system that will take us all the way.”

“I love Zimbabwe and I want people to know that I’m from here,” he continues.

“The music of southern Africa is where it’s at right now, we’re in the thick of it and you can hear our sounds – like amapiano, SA house, gqom – starting to spread around the world. Just look at the global success of South African DJs such as Shimza and Kabza de Small, and singer Tyla. I don’t want this music to stay here, I want to take it around the world.”

There’s no doubt he’ll do just that.

Daecolm’s single, ‘I Might’, is out now.

IG: @daecolm

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‘ I want to do whatever I can to inspire kids so that they can see that they can go places’

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These figurative tsvimbo (staffs) were held by representatives of both spiritual and secular leadership.

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A history of our art Zimbabwe: Art, Symbol And Meaning is an outstanding volume of photographs taken over a 20-year period which for the first time comprehensively documents Zimbabwe’s extraordinary cultural legacy

Gill Atherstone, curator of traditional and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe from 19791988, has selected an expansive range of artworks from the three cultures of Zimbabwe – the Shona, Ndebele and Tonga – which vividly illuminate the breadth of Africa’s art. Written from an African perspective, Gill’s accompanying text is insightful as well as educational – she has been researching the subject for over 40 years.

“I hope that this book is a contribution towards the growing drive to reclaim African cultural realities as a source of key principles in the future,” Gill says.

Gill’s son, the acclaimed painter Duncan Wylie, was responsible for the book’s imagery. “On every occasion in the remote communities of Zimbabwe, people responded enthusiastically to the idea of taking photographs as a record of culture – aware as they frequently told us that their culture as it was would not survive into the future,” he says. “Above all this is a work of transmission and a valuable insight for the non-African world towards a deeper appreciation of African life forms, and a wider perception of the possibilities of art – a key to a world few have experienced.”

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The traditional hearth of a home in the Last Destination, a cultural village in Mudzi in the far east of Zimbabwe, where Pendeke Chiunye has preserved and honoured traditions for over 40 years.

These are bukanu (Tonga ceremonial axes) from Kariangwe in north west Zimbabwe, the distinctive red, white and black colours marking them as sacred. These colours may also feature on the famous buntibe (Tonga funeral drums).

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This is the most famous stone Zimbabwe Bird – the national symbol of Zimbabwe – photographed in its original position outside the walls of the Great Enclosure in Great Zimbabwe. The shaft features a carved crocodile as well as circular and chevron motifs – all symbols found on Shona sacred objects, particularly on the mutsago (headrest), bakatwa (ritual dagger) and tsvimbo (staff).

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This is a mutsago, a Shona headrest. It includes the distinctive symbol of the chevron and, unusually on a headrest, symbols of the feminine. Symbolic breasts were more usually featured on ceremonial pots.

A living space in Mudzi. Traditionally these areas, which incorporated the hearth, were minimally furnished. It was the human who took centre stage.

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The cover image of Zimbabwe: Art, Symbol And Meaning was taken by Duncan Wylie ten years ago. It features a young girl called Memory who was well-known to Gill and Duncan’s family. Memory’s love of fashion past and contemporary tied many of the threads of the book together, and it was felt by the book’s authors, as well as its publisher, Eric Gysels of 5 Continents Editions, that Memory perfectly encapsulated the purpose and values of the book. In February 2024 Duncan took this photograph (above) of Memory holding the book on whose cover she stars.

Zimbabwe: Art, Symbol And Meaning, written by Gill Atherstone with photographs by Duncan Wylie and foreword by Doreen Sibanda, former Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, is published by 5 Continents Editions, an independent publisher of art books focusing on the traditional arts of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania.

To order your copy in Zimbabwe, email: dzimbapublishing@gmail.com To order your copy outside of Zimbabwe, and for further information on the book, visit: www.zimbabwe-art.com An exhibition of images from Zimbabwe: Art, Symbol And Meaning will be at the Africa Centre in London from 18-31 January 2025. A book launch and discussions about the exhibition will be held at the Africa Centre on 26 September 2024 and on 5 October 2024 to coincide with Black History Month.

For more information, visit: www.africacentre.org.uk

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state of play The mbira is an instrument sacred to this country, its hypnotic sound has been used to summon the ancestral spirits for thousands of years. As music tastes and technologies have evolved, enterprising Zimbabweans have been developing their mbiras and its music to ensure it doesn’t get left behind Words by Tomas Lutuli Brickhill

I

t’s just before midnight on Friday 3 August 2012. Something magical is about to happen at Book Café on Samora Machel Avenue in Harare.

As rain pounds rhythmically onto the tin roof, the audience watches as the band members of Mbira dzeNharira, one of the original superstar traditional mbira bands of Zimbabwe, return to the stage. The band has already entertained the crowd for the first half of this mbira double-bill with a perfect showcase of traditional Zimbabwean mbira music. Nyamasvisva’s group Mawungira eNharira then took the show up a notch with its more dynamic and frantic energy. Now Mbira dzeNharira is going to join their younger rivals for a rare collaboration. This is what the audience has come to see: not the clash of the titans, but rather a merger.

I was aware of the goings-on of Harare’s traditional mbira scene and I knew that Nyamasvisva had once been part of Mbira dzeNharira before

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leaving to lead his own mbira ensemble, Mawungira eNharira. I had the honour of facilitating the first reunion of these two groups three months earlier but the bands had not been that keen at first.

Friday night mbira had become a regular event in Harare’s CBD and there could often be two or three different mbira gigs across town competing for their share of the traditional mbira music fanbase.

Times were tough and people had less disposable income so audience numbers were down from the previous few years.

Both bands had been worried they would end up having to share a meagre door taking between them, but in the end the double-bill proved a worthy draw card and everyone had gone home with more cash than usual. This August night in 2012 was going to be their third such gig so I knew what to expect.

At a good traditional mbira show there is an almost trance-like energy in the music; the multiple layers of melody and

harmony, created by three or four mbiras playing in unison, dance and weave with each other, sometimes merging and then breaking off on their own path in infinite hypnotic patterns.

This effect, with six or seven mbiras from both bands playing together at the Book Café, was magnified and magical.

A couple of audience members felt so possessed by the spirits of their ancestors that their dancing became wild and out of control. The crowd simply gave them their space; this was normal, almost expected.

It’s no accident that there is a strong tie between traditional mbira music and Zimbabwean spirituality. Biras – the traditional ceremonies where people try to communicate with the ancestors for guidance or assistance, or to bring the rains or celebrate the seasons changing – are synonymous with mbira music, often accompanied by hoshos (gourds with seeds inside) which are shaken to create their own hypnotic off-time percussion.

Many of the mbira songs that are played today were composed so long ago that no record remains of the musicians who composed them, or of the ensembles who made them popular. But at the Book Café that night I was transported back to the peak of the Munhumutapa empire to a bira that the king had instigated in the very heart of Great Zimbabwe.

Gwenyambiras (mbira masters) had travelled from across the country to be part of an ancient mbira orchestra now forgotten to time. Outside a clap of thunder rang out as if to punctuate this image with an auditory exclamation mark.

I remember the musician Ambuya Stella Chiweshe’s analogy at a mbira panel discussion. She said that we could imagine an mbira as if it were a time-travelling telephone allowing the player to connect

across time to the ancestors. As manager of the Book Café I had seen probably a hundred mbira shows – but I hadn’t really thought too hard about what that meant.

The oldest mbira artefacts ever discovered come from west Africa, in what would be today’s Ghana, and have been dated to be around 3,000 years old. This ancestor to our modern-day mbira, found across much of central and southern Africa, had keys made of reed. Then almost 1,500 years ago, in the Zambezi escarpment region, an evolution (or a musical revolution) occurred: mbira started to be made with metal keys. This was the birth of the present-day mbira as we know it.

It is easy to miss the significance of this mbira evolution; nowadays metal mbira keys

Above: two of the best mbira bands, Mbira dzeNharira and Mawungira eNharira (including Nyamasvisva, top left), created mbira magic at the Book Café in 2012

are often made from recycled bed springs or bicycle spokes, such is the abundance and accessibility of steel. But 1,500 years ago the keys would have been smelted directly from the rock containing iron ore.

This material was valuable because it was used in the production of arrow tips, spears and tools to work the land, so for it to be made into mbira keys shows us the high regard in which the instrument was held.

When the missionaries arrived with the British South Africa Company to colonise this land, the Christian church declared the mbira an evil and satanic instrument because it enabled the player to communicate with, and channel the

During Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle the popularity of mbira music grew once more spirits of, the ancestors. As large numbers of the population were converted to Christianity, traditional beliefs and spirituality were abandoned as they were thought to be sinister and demonic. While attitudes have changed today (there are now musicians who even play gospel music on mbira) for generations mbira playing was actively discouraged.

During Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, however, many of the freedom fighters turned to their traditional beliefs and spirits for inspiration once more. Mbiras had been the vessels of two of the most powerful ancestral spirits, Nehanda and Kaguvi, who had famously been martyred during the first chimurenga (liberation struggle). Now, as these spirits’ memories were rekindled to inspire the people fighting for freedom, the popularity of mbira music grew once more.

But by this time the world had changed: new technologies and acoustic instruments had largely given way to electric ones.

Now the humble mbira, amplified only by a deze (a gourd’s resonating chamber), could no longer compete with drum kits and electric guitars. Using a vocal microphone to amplify the traditional mbira’s sound often resulted in a lot of painful screeching audio feedback.

Searching for ways to incorporate the mbira sound into contemporary music,

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musicians such as Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo took the songs and melodies from mbira music and adapted them to be played on the guitar thereby inventing a new genre: chimurenga music as we know it today.

In the newly independent Zimbabwe of the Eighties, reggae, rhumba, chimurenga and its cousin-brother jit were now the order of the day; and within Zimbabwe’s borders all of these genres were, and continue to be, influenced by mbira music. However the colonial hangover notion of mbira music as being primitive and backward remained. So it was that for much of the Eighties and Nineties traditional mbira music existed, but no venues were willing to promote it. Mbiras were largely still limited to being played at traditional ceremonies or as novelty tourist attractions in the plush garden restaurants of upmarket Harare hotels.

In the Nineties the Book Café appeared on Harare’s arts and culture landscape and, as one of the many innovative impacts that it had on the nightlife of the city, it became the first venue to promote mbira music and mbira bands as primetime Friday night entertainment.

By now mbiras had started to be electrified using re-purposed acoustic guitar pick-ups. As this technology became more accessible and affordable, so suddenly the sound of a traditional mbira band went from being a purely acoustic one to a fully amplified experience, enabling contemporary afro-pop bands to more easily incorporate the mbira into their music.

It was in this environment that I was first exposed to mbira music. In those days, Mbira dzeNharira and Mawungira eNharira were the two big rival bands on the local traditional mbira music scene. However the acclaimed mbira player Chiwoniso had made the sound international by experimenting and finding a sound that was more contemporary but one that still resonated with hardcore traditional mbira music fans. Musicians such as Adam Chisvo and Hope Masike experimented even more, pushing the mbira into jazz and a more contemporary, avant-garde direction.

After some time overseas I had come back to Zimbabwe in 2010 with my guitar and a notebook full of lyrics. I wanted to start a band and already had my own punk rock style, but I knew that I had to somehow fuse that with something more authentically Zimbabwean. I liked jit and

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Above: Hector Rufaro Mugani and Tomas Lutuli Brickhill started performing together at the Book Café in 2010. Hector (top right) has spent over a decade perfecting his electric mbira (top left)

chimurenga but I didn’t really know much about mbira music.

As I settled and became reacquainted with living in Harare I soon became a regular at the Book Café’s Monday open mic nights; I made friends with Hector Rufaro Mugani, an ethnomusicologist and mbira player who had studied at Zimbabwe College of Music, who organised the weekly Book Café event. It was during one of our early conversations (when I was telling him how I was looking for this “certain sound” but I didn’t know what it was yet; and he was telling me that he thought that the mbira instrument was trapped in the traditional mbira genre) when suddenly something in us just clicked. From that moment we began attending mbira shows together, both traditional and contemporary, and we started rehearsing.

We jammed and experimented with genre: I would play my punk compositions and Hector would figure out which mbira

lines he could play that would fit with those chords. Often I would have to wait for several minutes while he talked of diminished sevenths and circles of fifths and so much musical theory – it was like another language to me.

Other times he would play traditional mbira songs and I would figure out how to simplify the complicated progressions into the minimum number of simple

Why couldn’t people play punk or blues or jazz on the mbira? They could; they just didn’t punk power chords. In acoustic rehearsals it sounded great but we often struggled with feedback when we tried to perform amplified on stage at the weekly open mic nights, accompanied by random

drummers and bassists. It wasn’t quite working. Little did we know that Hector, with me bearing witness, was about to take the mbira instrument into another evolutionary stage – just as we hoped our sound would do for mbira music.

One Monday in early 2011, after the open mic night had ended and the customers and staff had all gone home, Hector and I took out the guitar amp and plugged in a prototype mbira that Hector had hand-built to incorporate electric guitar pick-ups instead of acoustic guitar ones. This had involved carving holes into the mbira’s wooden soundboard to house the pick-ups, as well as a lot of gaffer tape.

With all the electronics and wires hanging out it looked a bit ominous and quite like a homemade bomb. We turned up the amp to a modest halfway point and the resulting sound that boomed out across Fife Avenue Shopping Centre exceeded

PHOTOS: ALBERT CHIMEDZA

Maybe 1,500 years from now musicians will come together to play their futuristic mbiras even our wildest dreams. Suddenly everything was possible.

And so our band Chikwata.263 was born. In 2012 we were voted Mbira Band Of The Year by the Zimbabwean Mbira Society. I remember discussing our surprise at this accolade with the Mbira Centre’s Albert Chimedza. Chikwata.263 was very rough around the edges and didn’t have the tightness and polish of so many other mbira bands playing in the country at that time.

“Yes, but you guys are innovative,” he said. “You did something that no one else thought of before!” As he shared his thoughts on how mbira music needed to evolve, and that people needed to stop limiting the mbira instrument to only being used for “mbira music”, I remembered Hector sharing exactly the same sentiments when we first began to collaborate. Why couldn’t people play punk or blues or jazz on mbira? The answer was, of course, that people could but they just didn’t. Even the jump from traditional mbira music to contemporary was considered sacrilege by some traditional mbira players. The obvious

Albert Chimedza of Zimbabwe’s Mbira Centre produces a wonderful array of topquality mbiras (above left), including the chromatic mbira (above right) which can be used by anyone who can play a keyboard

truth however is that nothing is ever really static unless it’s dead. We knew that the mbira was alive and well and needed to be in a constant state of evolution.

Hector Mugani is now on his forth prototype for his electric mbira design.

The wires and electronics have been incorporated into the model to make it look and feel more professionally constructed, and he’s trying to streamline his process for production. Meanwhile the Mbira Centre’s Albert Chimedza has elevated the production of his own Gonamombe-branded mbiras to the same high level of quality that any professional musician would expect if purchasing a known brand instrument such as a Gibson guitar or a Selmar Paris saxophone. As well as using the traditional mbira layouts and tunings, Albert has added a chromatic mbira to his production line so that anyone who can use the keyboard can pick it up and play.

If we truly want to preserve the mbira we must let it continue to evolve so that perhaps in another 1,500 years some musicians will come together to play their futuristic mbiras with digital displays and lights, somehow incorporating augmented reality or some technology we can’t even conceive of yet. But when they once more play the old songs of a bygone era they will channel us and remember their history, and the intergenerational connections across time will continue indefinitely into the future.

IG: @tomas_lutuli

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MBIRA MUSIC CONTEMPORARY • Rebel Woman by Chiwoniso • Mbira, Love And Chocolate

by Hope Masike TRADITIONAL • Tozvireva Tingaputike Neshungu by Mbira DzeNharira • Dumi-Maichi-NaChiMaraire & Nyunga Nyunga Mbira by Dumisani Maraire MBIRA INFLUENCES • (Chimurenga) Chimurenga Forever: The Best Of Thomas Mapfumo by Thomas Mapfumo • (Chimurenga/Reggae) Mdzimu Mukuru by Zig Zag Band EXPERIMENTAL • (Jazz) Don’t Start Me Talking

by Pascal Makonese • (Punk) Chauya by Chikwata.263

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GIRL POWER

Nyasha Gwatidzo doesn’t believe that charity and aid are the answer to Africa’s problems. Instead she’s empowering and financing women across the continent to build their own businesses to better their own lives, and those of their children Words by Charlotte Ashton

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lenty of 60 year olds in Nyasha Gwatidzo’s shoes would be thinking about retirement. She has grandchildren to enjoy, a beautiful farm in the English countryside and, judging by the size of her business empire, enough money to do anything she wants. But Nyasha has no plans to stop.

“We’re growing all the time, every day,” she says. “We’re never stagnant.

We’re growing in our thoughts and how we feel. Our values also change as we get older. We’re so easily influenced as we’re growing up; I was very influenced by my parents. They were very strong personalities, very ambitious for us as children, as potential African leaders.

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So that was such a huge responsibility from a very young age. And then as you get older you find your own space, your own niche.”

Nyasha’s parents, born in Rusape and Nyanga, were both teachers and dedicated freedom fighters. When Nyasha was young, Robert Mugabe visited the family home – Nyasha remembers having breakfast with him – and her father helped to smuggle him over the border into Mozambique. When Rhodesia got too dangerous, the family moved to the north of England, though her mother did return home in 1980 to campaign for Mugabe’s ZANU party in the country’s first election after Independence.

Nyasha did well at school and university and started a PhD in chemistry but her heart wasn’t in it. She wanted to work with people, children especially, so she quit and trained as a social worker and psychotherapist. A job working for Westminster council in London followed, but budget cuts in the recession of the early Nineties meant she soon found herself unemployed.

She was given an £800 redundancy pay-out – more money than she had ever had – but it wasn’t quite enough to start the business she dreamed of: a children’s home where she could care for traumatised, unaccompanied minors. On top of the usual, tragic

cases that passed her desk as a social worker in London, Nyasha had seen children arriving alone into Heathrow or Southampton, their desperate parents having saved enough money to fly or ship them out of their war-torn home countries. Driven by her own memories of arriving in the UK – the shock of the cold weather and the (possibly even colder) culture – Nyasha couldn’t imagine how these children were able to survive without their parents. She was determined to give them love, care and a safe place to live.

Nyasha says that her lack of money was her superpower: “You need to have nothing,” she says. “If you’ve got lots of money, if you’re comfortable, why should you start a business? Having nothing makes you hungry and that is a resource in itself. You need the comfort of nothing.

I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, it was just determination that kept me going.”

Determination – and a generous vicar who let her use his home in south London rent-free for three months. She then got a small community loan which she used to form a team of trained therapists, and six months later she was turning over £1m.

Local councils were desperate for the service she was providing and she could scarcely keep up with demand.

“I always say that when you’ve got a passion and purpose in life and you provide a service or a gadget – it doesn’t matter what it is – money always follows.

When it comes from the heart, you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to make money out of it. People will buy into your purpose and passion. They can feel that it’s coming from a good place so they’re prepared to pay for the service, whatever it is you’re providing.”

Having established two more homes, her business soon became a chain and in 1996 she set up the Banya Family Placement Agency, training and supporting foster parents to care for children in need. The agency has worked with more than 7,000 children and 400 carers to date. Its “disruption rate”

‘ IT’S SUCH A PRIVILEGE TO WORK WITH THE KIDS WHO HAVE PASSED THROUGH MY FOSTER HOMES. THEY ARE MY UNSUNG HEROES’ (placements not working out and a child having to move) is less than two per cent, compared with the national average of 20 per cent. Nyasha has become a leading figure in the UK’s foster care system.

Thousands of children have passed through Nyasha’s care. “They keep me in touch with what they’re doing now,” she says, eyes sparkling. “It’s just such a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with them. They’re my unsung heroes.

The things they’ve survived, I would never have survived.”

The evening before our interview, browsing testimonials from carers on Nyasha’s website, I briefly consider whether my husband and I should become foster parents in the UK. After all, I know plenty of Zimbabwean women who have other people’s children living with them. But my gut feeling says we shouldn’t. It would mean so much upheaval and impact on our own children, not to mention the financial cost. It’s just not something my English family has ever considered. Perhaps this is why Nyasha

has been so successful: she has imported a part of Shona culture to the UK, skills that are so desperately needed in Britain.

“In Shona there is no word for fostering,” Nyasha explains. “It’s an alien word.

A child just gets looked after if they need to be looked after. I wouldn’t think twice about living with another child who’s not blood-related to me. At the moment I’m looking after my brother’s four children after he died of Covid in 2022. I don’t know what would have happened to them if they’d come from another family.”

“This care is one of the most wonderful things about African culture,” she continues, “but it’s also a huge burden.

You have to share that dollar, divide it, and it has to go a long way. In Zimbabwe, in Africa, it does go a long way for sure.” That burden is set to increase as populations across Africa boom and new job creation struggles to keep up. More than ten million young Africans enter the labour market every year, but only three million new jobs are created, forcing working-age adults, many of them parents, overseas in search of work.

The thought of it keeps Nyasha awake at night and has inspired her latest venture: a multimillion-dollar fund to provide female African entrepreneurs with finance to grow their businesses: to create jobs, empower women and ultimately prevent children from living in poverty. “Behind every woman there’s always going to be a child,” Nyasha says.

“My goal has always been, and always will be, caring for children. So if I empower a woman and they become financially stable they’re going to feed their kids, they’re going to send them to school. The biggest impact is always going to be felt by the children.”

Nyasha has travelled around the world to learn more about empowering women through social enterprise: ‘My goal has always been to care for children,’ she says. ‘So if I empower a woman and they become financially stable they’re going to feed their kids, they’re going to send them to school. The biggest impact is always going to be felt by the children’

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‘ I WANT TO CREATE MILLIONS OF JOBS. IF SOMEONE HAS A DECENT JOB, ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA, I KNOW IT WILL HAVE AN IMPACT’

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“I really want to stop the migration of people,” Nyasha continues. “It’s really not good for your mental health. For example there are millions of Zimbabweans in South Africa where they’re not wanted.

So many young people and families from north Africa want to get to Europe but they are drowning at sea, travelling on boats designed to carry two people but there’s 20 people on board. This is all about economic wellbeing. Sometimes it’s presented as political, but in my view you have to feed yourself. It’s a basic human right. Before you can even think about the luxury of governance, about who your political leader is right now, you need to feed yourself.”

Over the past few years Nyasha has visited 29 different African countries, meeting hundreds of women who run small and medium-sized businesses and who dream of being an entrepreneur.

She’s in talks with microfinance institutions and banks about potential partnerships, but money isn’t the only thing she wants to give women. One of the surprise lessons from her travels is that often women already have enough cash to get started – or they require less money than they think. What they really need is some business expertise, someone with experience off whom they can bounce ideas.

For Nyasha that person was Anita Roddick, founder of the famous cosmetics and skincare company the Body Shop. In 1991, Roddick published Body And Soul: How To Succeed In Business And Change The World, the year before Nyasha launched her first business. “I read everything Anita wrote,” Nyasha says.

“She was my virtual mentor. She never knew it but I was watching her. Everybody needs a mentor or a coach. That person doesn’t have to be a formal person, it can be your best friend, your mum, your dad, just someone you can talk to about your plans.”

“I don’t want to get two or three jobs going, I want to create millions of jobs,” she continues. “If someone has a decent job, especially if they live in Africa, I know that it will have an impact, I’ve done the multipliers. About 30 people are impacted

‘ WE NEED TO QUESTION WHY CHARITY AND AID AREN’T WORKING AND STOP POURING MILLIONS INTO THOSE INDUSTRIES’ by one person, then that effect gets multiplied by 30 because they’re not just feeding their own immediate family, but they’re looking after their cousins and nieces too. I saw it with my mother and I’m doing it myself. My charity work is an extension of my family.”

Stopping migration, creating millions of jobs, protecting basic human rights: Nyasha’s vision wouldn’t be out of place on a presidential manifesto. But she doesn’t talk like a politician, far from it; Nyasha presents her ambitious plan to help alleviate poverty across Africa clearly and pragmatically.

“We’ve done the politics,” she says.

“I grew up in a very political family.

Everything we did was political. We followed the political path and it’s

not working.” Despite running a large foundation in the UK – the Vana Trust, which supports people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health issues, and in Zimbabwe where it sponsors children to go to school – Nyasha believes that charity and aid are also failing Africa. “We’ve been doing it for such a long time,” she says. “We need to think of alternatives to charity and aid.

We need to question why it isn’t working and stop pouring billions of pounds into those industries.”

Nyasha’s alternative to politics and charity feels tantalisingly within reach: ethical, female-run businesses creating millions of quality jobs, financed by a Zimbabwean woman who started out with a small loan and a big heart.

It’s not hard to imagine future African entrepreneurs citing Nyasha as their inspiration, their virtual mentor, especially with the forthcoming publication of her book Scaling For Good: Six Ultimate Strategies To Grow Your Business.

“What would you say to the 25-year-old you?” I ask Nyasha. “What advice would you give that young woman setting out with no money and a big dream?” Her answer reflects the modesty and kindness that have become her hallmark. It also reflects the ambition of millions of African women like her: “It’s simple really,” she says. “I’d say, ‘If I can do it, so can you.’”

If even a fraction of those women achieve the same success as Nyasha then her optimism – that her generation “will see a different Africa to the one I was born into” – will not be misplaced.

For more information, visit: www.nyashagwatidzo.com

A 16-day walk along the River Thames in the UK inspired Nyasha to write her book ‘Walk With Me Through Sixteen Inspirational Business And Life Tips’. Walk4Difference, based on her original journey, is now an annual fundraising event

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UNSTOPPABLE Artist Mukudzei Muzondo is on an exciting upward trajectory, bringing uncomfortable issues to the surface through his subtle yet thought-provoking artwork Words by Milly McPhie Photographs by Simon de Swardt

Mukudzei Muzondo pictured in his Marondera studio with his artwork ‘Unstoppable’

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or us to fully understand and appreciate the work of artist Mukudzei Muzondo, we’re going to have to bring in the very antithesis to aesthetics: statistics. Bear with me here – what follows contains some percentages, but it’s important.

In 2002, Zimbabwe’s Population and Housing Census recorded that, at time of counting, 908,000 of its citizens had left the country – 84 per cent emigrating in search of employment, five per cent to further their education and training (ZIMSTAT, 2023). This figure of nearly a million emigrants is said by some to be a vast underestimation, with organisations such as Afrobarometer claiming that out of Zimbabwe’s population of 16 million, over a third are now living abroad.

There are many reasons for this exodus: tempting visa offers from short-staffed countries are compounding the problem.

In the year ending June 2023, the UK granted 20,152 health and care worker visas to Zimbabweans, compared with just 4,270 in 2020. (Quite why foreign governments continue to pump money into countries while simultaneously luring their vital skilled workers away is a story for another day – and probably another publication.)

This issue of migration – specifically of people leaving Zimbabwe – is a hot topic both at home and abroad, and it’s of paramount importance to the art of Mukudzei Muzondo.

‘ I WANT TO EXPLORE HOW MIGRATION AFFECTS BOTH THE PERSON MOVING AND THOSE THEY LEAVE BEHIND’

Mukudzei himself is not one of these statistics. Born in 1983 in Kwekwe in central Zimbabwe, he still lives in the country although he has recently swum against the migration tide by swapping urban downtown Harare for the relatively rural Marondera, a district about an hour and a half from the capital. His only foray into a life abroad was in 2009 when he was selected to be artist in residence at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town – certainly an achievement since at the time he was still a third-year student at Harare Polytechnic College.

Returning to Zimbabwe to complete his National Diploma in Fine Art (which had been preceded by training at both Peter Birch School of Art and Harare’s National Gallery) Mukudzei has since been using his experience of home and abroad to explore what he calls the “state of being” – what it is to exist as a human being within societal and political spaces.

“I use my own silhouette in most of my paintings,” he says. “It’s my way of representing the society that I’m in – a society that is changing as more and more Zimbabweans leave the country.

I want to explore how these transitions affect both the person moving and those they leave behind.”

Where some artists represent movement with broad brush strokes and busy canvasses, Mukudzei uses the repetition of human silhouettes like an animation storyboard, evoking someone’s journey;

Top left: Passages (Afama apota) Bottom left: Moses (Mhozisi) Opposite: Passages (Afama apota) 4

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Above: Origins – The Return To Innocence series Opposite: Pawns (Zvidhori)

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‘ I PREFER CONTRAST IN PLACE OF VIVID COLOUR. I LIKE TO FOCUS MORE ON THE NARRATIVE’

Using screen-printed canvasses as a base, Mukudzei adds a variety of textures to his artworks, from eyelets to embroidery – as can be seen on his 2024 artwork ‘Loopholes (Maburi)’, opposite

sometimes he even fixes household castor wheels to the bottom of his canvasses to represent our constant motion.

While some of his pieces reflect an emigrant’s journey, others embody the solitude of leaving one’s home country: lone figures stand at the end of a corridor, the eye drawn to the furthest point by carefully calculated lines of perspective.

“When you leave your country there is so much loneliness, so much uncertainty about where you are going and what’s going to happen,” he says. “And so much happens on the way to making the decision to leave, so many transitions.”

Mukudzei sometimes writes about the feelings that these transitions cause on the canvasses themselves: “The writing is a recent thing for me,” he says. “I want the artwork to evoke emotion and

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sometimes this comes out best in the form of words – so it’s as if the artwork is actually speaking.”

Writing on the canvas is one of the last steps in Mukudzei’s creative process. He uses old-school screen-printing techniques as the base artwork on each painting, but his palette is narrow: “I prefer contrast in place of vivid colour,” he says, “I like to focus more on the narrative. The joy of screen-printing is that you never know what’s going to come out. There’s no accuracy in the process and no two works are ever the same.” Eyelets and handstitching complement the drawing and print techniques: “I’m always trying to see how I can present something in a different form,” he says.

Mukudzei’s work certainly feels very different to other art coming out of

Zimbabwe at the moment. While there may be feelings of discontent within the country’s creative community, Mukudzei’s message is far from blatant: it’s a whisper rather than a scream but its impact is no less powerful. “I’m trying to express reality with a strong voice but in a quiet, calm way. In this country you learn to be subtle about the way you communicate and that is an art in itself.”

Through his energetic yet understated artwork, Mukudzei’s message is coming across loud and clear, and we are listening.

Mukudzei Muzondo’s exhibition, “The Overview”, in association with Design//Life magazine, will run from 23 May to 20 June at Sabre Business World, 146 Enterprise Road, Harare. Call: +263 787 513 555.

Email: sabre@sabrebusinessworld.com IG: @mukudzei_muzondo

Chiedza wears ribbed polyester ‘Virgin’ turtleneck and reconstructed denim studded blue jeans

regeneration Bold cuts, strong shapes and a re-imagining of how we wear denim mark design brand BISAMU as an exciting new star of Zimbabwean fashion Photographs by Lennox Makurumidze

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Above Tatenda wears reconstructed denim knee zipper jeans and signature BISAMU turtleneck Opposite Matthew wears Zimbabwean denim bolero and ‘Llvidus’ jorts, and ribbed cotton ‘Usual Night’ tank top

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Above Kenny wears reconstructed denim ‘Poltergeist’ jeans Opposite Nisha wears Zimbabwean denim slim-fit jeans and side-less bolero

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Above Lenchy wears reconstructed denim ‘Sturdy’ jeans with press studs Opposite Bone wears signature BISAMU turtleneck, Zimbabwean denim wraparound skirt and upcycled denim and upholstery jeans

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Above Laurah wears grey washed wool knitted vest and upcycled fleece draped mini skirt Opposite Niasha wears denim crop top and denim and upholstery ‘Chute’ jeans All clothes by BISAMU. IG: @bisamu_collective

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Bubbles & Brews is an Italian three-wheeled Piaggio Ape that has been lovingly converted into an elegant mobile bar that serves chilled prosecco and craft beer on tap.

Our Prosecco Cart is a wonderful addition to any celebration or corporate event.

BubblesandBrewsZim

@bubblesandbrewszim

+263 789 564 749

bubblesandbrewzim@gmail.com

DESIGN: FURNITURE

DESIGN Interiors / Architecture / Trends / Furniture / Experts

PHOTOS: SIMON DE SWARDT

SITTIN G PRETTY Form and function can be fashionable too – just take a look at this beautiful bespoke furniture from Zimbabwean design company Pachipamwe Africa

Padare dining/boardroom chair Teak, genuine leather W590mm D600mm H700mm

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DESIGN: FURNITURE

Dandaro reading chair Mahogany, African cotton print W580mm D780mm H940mm

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DESIGN: FURNITURE

Mushana lounge chair Teak, hand-printed cotton and linen fabric W700mm D950mm H800mm

Deck chair Cypress, textured plain and African cotton print W710mm D900mm H830mm

All chairs are available in a choice of timber and fabric. Call: +263 784 618 590.

Visit: www.pachipamweafrica IG: @pachipamweafrica Pachipamwe Africa furniture and accessories are also available at Kwamambokadzi. IG: @kwm

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DESIGN: EXPERTS

HOT DESK Nora Müller, designer

The director of Pachipamwe Africa, Zimbabwe’s ground-breaking furniture design company, is a dedicated treasure hunter and “strangely attracted to abandoned urban spaces” (her words, not ours). A skilled architect from Germany, she has brought her eye, experience and enthusiasm to Zimbabwe’s art and design scene. Not only has she helped establish the Mbare Art Space, she’s also causing quite a stir with her furniture.

These festival tags and lanyards remind me of the hectic, beautiful and exciting days of ZICCA, the Harare arts festival, and of the European Film Festival that we hosted at the Mbare Art Space.

I love creating urban cultural experiences and turning vacant spaces into thriving art hubs.

Zimbabwe feels like home, but my family in Berlin is always on my mind.

Yoga keeps me sane and grounded. This is a yoga bench by Pachipamwe Africa.

This folding ruler is always in my handbag. I’m constantly measuring proportions of furniture, spaces and sometimes people...

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This portrait of a waste picker at Pomona dumpsite is one of my favourites. It was taken by my husband, Tendai Mandimika.

This leather tray helps to keep small stuff together.

It was made by Mukanya Creations with whom we collaborate on furniture, combining local timber and leather.

These flat caps are made from offcuts of upholstery that we’ve used at Pachipamwe Africa. They are inspired by my dad’s hat that I snatched from him and wore as a teenager.

Whenever you see me, you see this bag. I’ve had it for 25 years and it’s still going strong. It‘s made from recycled truck canvas and a seatbelt. You might find a variation of this in our range soon.

I am so excited by collaborations between creative fields. We made this pair of Japanese Geta-inspired clogs to go with a garment designed by KWM for a fashion presentation at the Showroom in Harare.

Tracing paper, sketchbook, models: I like to jump between physical and digital media to work out how to translate an idea or an image into workshop drawings for new prototypes.

This vintage spirit level was given to me by a good friend. “Level” is my nickname: on construction sites, or while doing quality control of furniture, my eyes do just as good a job as a spirit level.

Call: +263 784 618 590.

Visit: www.pachipamweafrica.com IG: @pachipamweafrica Kwamambokadzi – IG: @kwm

PHOTO: SIMON DE SWARDT

These metal objects are part of the new signage we’ve created to add an interesting identity to KWM. They’ll be appearing on accessories and other fun objects soon, so keep an eye out for them at the KWM showroom.

This map of Mbare was made and designed in collaboration with the amazing graphic designer and jeweller Niiunia. The map is great for discovering the creative spots in the historic township. We sell prints of it, and other fabulous posters, at our Kwamambokadzi (KWM) showroom.

DESIGN: STRUCTURES

The arch windows on the Hunter’s Moon house were salvaged from Harare’s Meikles Hotel when it was demolished and rebuilt

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME Hunter’s Moon is going to be a new destination hotspot for hanging out in Harare. Design//Life had a sneak preview of the work in progress Photographs by Simon de Swardt

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DESIGN: STRUCTURES

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ow many times have you heard the phrase, “It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters”? It’s a saying that can provoke varying degrees of annoyance depending on the length of your car journey and how many times your kids have asked, “Are we nearly there yet?” But it’s absolutely the right thing to say about the construction of Hunter’s Moon Estate, the new shopping complex at the bottom of Ridgeway North in Harare.

The words “shopping complex” can conjure all sorts of images of soulless grey concrete buildings, airless boxes of bright lights, terrible music and staff who’d rather be anywhere else but there.

But Hunter’s Moon is going to be very, very different.

Set on almost two acres of prime Highlands real estate, the heart of the project is a beautiful old house that is being lovingly restored and converted into a restaurant. Its verandah, which overlooks the lush lawns, will be the perfect spot for sundowners – the Hunter’s Moon gin bar and wine store providing a wide selection to suit every taste. Around the house will be 15 independent shops selling everything from kids’ toys to handmade leather goods, as well as a farm shop stocking fresh fruit and vegetables.

Pete Morrisby – who, along with his wife Louise, is in charge of the building project – has great plans for the Hunter’s Moon plot. The mature bamboo forest in

Pete Morrisby (above) is in charge of the Hunter’s Moon project. ‘We hope that this will be a place for people to come to enjoy the best of Zimbabwe,’ he says

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the centre of the garden is a wonderful feature; and a dedicated kids’ area will keep children entertained in between their multiple visits to the on-site ice cream parlour. Grown-ups will then have ample time to shop, sit or sip in peace – or wander round the art gallery after an energetic weights session at the nextdoor Jungle Gym – if they’re so inclined.

“We want the Hunter’s Moon Estate to encourage and support the community spirit,” says Pete. “We’re hoping that this will be a place for people to stop off for a coffee or a meal, or to meet their friends for a relaxing glass of wine and some tapas in the evening. It’s somewhere to come and enjoy the best of life in Zimbabwe,” he says.

And there will be so much to enjoy here. We can’t wait.

Hunter’s Moon will be opening in June.

3 Ridgeway North, Harare.

DESIGN: STRUCTURES

As well as a restaurant, the new Hunter’s Moon complex will have 15 independent shops as well as a gin bar, farm shop and wine store. Jungle Gym (bottom left) is just next door, too

C AN DL E S , B AT H B OM B S B AT H S ALTS , H AN D & B O DY WA S H H AN D & B O DY LOT ION, S OAP N AT U R AL MO S Q U I TO R E PE L L E N T DI FFUS E R S , BU R N E R S , WA X M E LTS L I N E N & FAC E M I S TS

PERSONALISED HOME DECOR A l l p ro d u c t s a re b e sp oke , ha n d-ma de a n d p ou re d i n Ha ra re , Z i mba bwe

O U R FAVO U R I T E C AN DLE S AR E NOW B E I NG H AN D-MADE I N S O U TH AFR IC A AN D LON DON We a re stron g b e l i e ve r s i n sust ainab ili t y. Wh e n y o ur c an dle is f in ish e d, ple ase brin g us y ou r e m p t y c an dle jar an d y o u c an buy a re f ill

One67 Enterprise R oad

+263 7 7 2 437 6 41

L onCraeHome

@loncrae home

DESIGN: TRENDS

MAN Y H A N D S M AKE BR IG H T W O RK Colours, Materials, Finishes Consultant Laura Tofts selects her top trends for the coming season: natural materials, upcycling and pink (and no, it’s not just for Barbie) TREND Natural materials

As we seek sustainability and a sense of grounding – a connection to our Mother Earth – our love for wholly natural furniture continues. What we have available to us in terms of materials is truly a gift from the planet: not only are they beautiful to look at and lovely to touch, but their durability should not be underestimated. Looking deeper into this trend we can see that our longing and passion for things handcrafted is still going strong; we love and respect artisans’ traditional skills and we want to keep their incredible craft alive.

I love this shop display I saw in Johannesburg’s Sandton City. Not only is it eye-catching, but the use of fibres and feathers evokes feelings of warmth, safety and familiarity.

Ruwa Furniture has a lovely range of chairs and footstools made from natural materials.

Call: +263 242 331 611, email: ruwafurniture@gmail.com

TREND Re-purposing

Zimbabwean designer Bev Dalton of Pretty Knotted creates wonderful macrame pieces. Her bespoke wall hangings cover large and otherwise stark spaces beautifully. IG: @prettyknottedzw

TREND Pink

Our love for the colour pink started way before the Barbie movie, but there’s no doubt that the film reinforced it. Pink is a colour of comfort and brings calm and peace to us (which is one of the reasons it’s used on prison walls). Post-Covid we seek anything that makes us feel safe and happy, and pink for both fashion and décor is so pleasant on the eye. You won’t be stuck for choice once you start looking.

In our continued bid to save our planet and lessen our impact on our beloved Mother Earth, the re-purposing of clothes and objects has become ever more popular. This trend has opened up an avenue of creativity, making us really think out of the box to re-imagine objects innovatively. The end results are truly surprising pieces that have a story woven into them which we love to tell and share. This light (above) by Ralph Gallagher is a great example of this re-purposing trend.

The Showroom Msasa, Bay 2, St James Building, 3 Borgward Road, Harare.

Call: +263 782 919 191.

Borrowdale Racecourse Showroom, call: +263 780 765 064.

Email: msasa@theshowroom.co.zw Visit: www.theshowroom.co.zw IG: @theshowroommsasa

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ABROAD: ZANZIBAR

T R AV E L Where to visit and what to take with you

trading up Swap the bustling streets of Stone Town for heavenly peace and quiet at Zanzibar’s fabulous five-star Neela Boutique Hotel Words by Milly McPhie

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ABROAD: ZANZIBAR

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hen visiting a place as culturally rich as Zanzibar’s Stone Town, it’s tempting to go full-tourist and opt to stay at one of the Tanzanian island’s many “heritage” hotels. This alleypacked city was once home to Omani and Yemeni traders who swapped spices, silks and slaves with their Swahili counterparts on the Tanzanian mainland just 22km away. Stone Town is brimful of Islamic, Persian and African influences which means it’s a fabulous place for food, furniture and fabric, but it can also be a bit too overstimulating for an enthusiastic hotel interior designer.

In a place such as Stone Town, hotels which try to cover every ethnic design base can feel suffocating to the hot and harried traveller, especially in a place

where the average temperature is in the mid-thirties. In many hotels, walls are bright and bold, there are porticos aplenty and rooms have been stuffed with a range of heavy, ornate furniture. After a day treading the hot alleyways bartering for Maasai material and Tanzanite gems one can feel a bit less “hakuna matata” and a bit more “please can I lie down in a cool, quiet room?”

Enter, then, the Neela Boutique Hotel which opened its beautifully carved doors in late 2023. Set a couple of alleyways back from the main road that leads to the famous Old Fort, the Neela offers a refreshing, welcoming break from the streets outside. The four-storey building, once home to a prolific spice trader, has been lovingly restored by Steve and

Views, the Neela’s rooftop bar and restaurant, is the perfect place to take in the cool evening sea breeze and sample the freshest fish Zanzibar has to offer

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ABROAD: ZANZIBAR

The Neela’s interior design is smart and sophisticated without being suffocating.

Beautiful artworks, including canvasses made from re-purposed dhow sailcloths, have been sourced from countries around the region including Kenya (above) Raju Shaulis and furnished by renowned interior designer Nelly Levin. Walls are white, the décor a gentle mix of old and new. There are soft furnishings sourced from France sitting side by side with tribal fabrics; local wood and stone have been crafted into modern pieces that provide form and function. In an age when hotel rooms are packed with gadgets and gizmos and far too many light switches, the Neela is a study in less is more: nothing in its 14 hotel rooms is without purpose, and they look fabulous, too.

THE NEELA HOTEL OFFERS A WELCOMING BREAK FROM STONE TOWN’S BUSTLING STREETS The Neela’s rooms provide a tranquil haven from Stone Town’s bustle, but if you’re looking for something a bit more lively there’s also its Views rooftop restaurant and bar; it’s the ideal place to enjoy the fresh evening breeze and take in the sounds of the call to prayer and coconut-sellers announcing their wares on the streets below. With a view out to sea over the city’s white limestone buildings with their terracotta-tiled roofs,

this is also a great place to eat. The hotel’s excellent Breadfruit restaurant services the rooftop dining, and here you can sample fresh seafood and delicious desserts: a simple steamed nduaro fish with shiro dashi is the perfect precursor to a cardamon-spiced crème caramel.

In line with its “there is beauty in simplicity” USP, the Neela’s walls have not been overcomplicated by challenging artwork. Instead, huge canvasses made from upcycled dhow sailcloths take their place quietly along the corridors and courtyards. Although unobtrusive, the paintings – made by Kenyan art collective Ali Lamu – do deserve a second glance. One canvas particularly caught our attention: “When you start to feel claustrophobic from the stress of human company, the barbaric wire fence, the concrete jungle,” it says, “close your eyes and see this... An elephant walking across the wide open plain of Africa... And you will feel better, lighter, stronger.”

Better, lighter, stronger – exactly how you feel after a stay at the Neela.

Rooms from $340 per night. The Neela Boutique Hotel, House No. 67 Shangani, Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Call: +255 777 603 559.

Email: res@neelacollection.com IG: @theneelacollection

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HALF-DAY PACKAGE + Full body massage + Hand & foot massage + Indian head massage + Breakfast or lunch FULL-DAY PACKAGE + Full body massage + Hand & foot massage + Face massage + Indian head massage + Full body exfoliation + Breakfast + Lunch

Just 45 minutes from the centre of Harare, Wild Day Spa is the ultimate get-out-of-town experience. We offer fabulous therapeutic massages, punctuated by delicious food and a glass or two of bubbles.

It’s the best way to unwind, unplug and go into human airplane mode

For more information, call: +263 787 071 360 IG: @wilddayspa

TRAVEL: WEEKEND BAGS

HOLD IT! Sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination so make sure you turn your fellow passengers’ heads with these fabulous carry-ons

PHOTOS: SIMON DE SWARDT

Safari khelim bag by Tana Africa, $525 L58cm W34cm H32cm Available at Kumba

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TRAVEL: WEEKEND BAGS

Green canvas bag by Bomba, $145 L56cm W27cm H43cm Available at Nomadic

Brown leather Adventurer bag by Humble Hides, $280 L 50cm W32cm H30cm Available at Kumba

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TRAVEL: WEEKEND BAGS

Geometric fabric bag by Mongoose, $105 L50cm W26cm H24cm Available at Kumba

Wild croc safari bag by Tana Africa, $1,850 L47cm W28cm H24cm Available at Kumba

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TRAVEL: WASHBAGS

Protea washbag by Mongoose, $26 L22cm H12cm Available at Kumba

Blue and white striped box washbag by Laini, $25 L26cm H11cm Available at Nomadic

Blue and white checked washbag by Laini, $25 L29cm W18cm Available at Nomadic

Brown hide washbag by Maturi Safari Collective, $150 L23cm H14cm Available at Nomadic KUMBA 34 Haslemere Lane, Umwinsidale, Harare.

Call: +263 774 125 363.

IG: kumba.gallery

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NOMADIC 56 Kingsmead Road East, Borrowdale, Harare.

Call: +263 775 464 291.

IG: nomadic_retail_zw

experience the magic of the savanna Just a short trip from Harare, Dana B Savanna Camp is a hidden gem waiting to be discovered by adventurers and nature lovers of all ages.

Treat yourself to a stay in private tented bush camps offering an authentic outdoor experience, or book into our exclusive River Lodge that is nestled on the tranquil banks of the river.

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EAT/DRINK: GADGETS

eat/drink Kitchen innovations / Recipes / Cocktails / Food artisans

S A D Z A O R TA D Z A ?

The way we cook our favourite food is set to be modernised by the invention of a new machine. Our Food Correspondent Chef de Ankarra takes the new electric sadza cooker for a test drive

S

adza is a food that unites all of us Zimbabweans. We believe that it can be eaten at any time, anywhere – and don’t even think about adding any flavourings such as salt, herbs or cheese.

Well, imagine this: someone has invented an electric cooker that is set to revolutionise the way we cook sadza.

What will we make of a sadza machine?

I was able to find out for myself when I met Caroline Gundu, the enterprising

woman who has just launched her very own electric sadza cooker.

As a busy consultant and catering business owner, Caroline was looking for a faster way to cook sadza as her menus included so many dishes that used it

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EAT/DRINK: GADGETS

Chef and business owner Caroline Gundu (above left) developed her electric sadza cooker in China and hopes to sell it in Zimbabwe soon. As well as sadza, the machine makes many other delicious dishes such as pumpkin porridge (above right) as an ingredient. Caroline spent a long time looking for a device that could help her but she found nothing. It was then that she began thinking about pressure cookers and slow cookers, wondering if they could in some way be developed to work for sadza.

With this in mind, Caroline partnered with an appliance producer and together they began to develop the electric sadza cooker. Initially Caroline had no plans to make the cooker available commercially, she just wanted something to help her own business. But the response from friends and family made her think again.

She started receiving pre-orders from people who had never even seen the machine, and realised that there was a real gap in the market.

Caroline insists that her machine is not an invention but an innovation driven by realising the value of time. Making sadza is a long process and this machine can save precious minutes, enabling the chef to do other things. Stirring sadza is also so physical: Caroline speaks of the many people who suffer from arthritis thanking her for making sadza cooking so much easier. “I’m an African girl who has created an African solution that’s Africanfunded,” she says.

As a chef, Caroline was also concerned that the cooker could make sadza that tasted the same each time. She travelled to China, where the machine was being made, and was involved in every stage of the manufacturing process, checking that the cooker produced top-quality sadza

again and again. I have tried the cooker, and the sadza it produces passes the taste test – the subtle sweetness that I love so much is still there.

Caroline’s sadza cooker is an eight-inone energy-saving multi-cooker: in it you can make soup, steam ingredients, slow cook meats and make other traditional dishes such as nhopi (thick peanut butter and pumpkin porridge). She hopes that she will soon have the authorisation to supply the Zimbabwean market at an accessible price so that, as her product motto says, “Anyone can cook sadza”.

Some traditions deserve innovation, and this sadza cooker is hopefully the start of an evolution of our cooking practices.

We wish you the best of luck, Caroline!

IG: @cookingwithcaz

The electric sadza cooker is an eight-in-one energy-saving multi-cooker which aims to save time in the kitchen

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EAT/DRINK: RECIPE

COOK THIS...

Hacha Nut Sponge with Citrus Yoghurt Filling

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE 4 large eggs 1 cup sugar ¼ cup flour ¾ cup hacha nut powder 1 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp melted butter 1 tbsp hot water 1 tsp vanilla essence FOR THE FILLING 250g cream cheese 250ml full-cream yoghurt ½ cup icing sugar Zest of 1 lemon Zest of 1 orange Berries for garnish

METHOD 1.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2.

Line a flat 30cm baking tray with greaseproof paper.

3.

Whisk all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and set aside in the fridge.

4.

Whisk the eggs on high for two minutes until it foams, then add the sugar one spoon at a time, and continue whipping until it doubles in volume and the mixture is pale and airy.

5.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add the melted butter, hot water, vanilla essence and a quarter of the egg mixture and fold in.

6.

Then fold in the rest of the egg mixture, being careful not to over-mix.

7.

Pour this cake batter onto the tray and make sure it is spread evenly.

8.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven.

Test it is ready by inserting the point of a knife into the sponge; it is ready when the knife comes out dry.

9.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool.

10. Cut the cake into three equal rectangles.

PHOTO: SIMON DE SWARDT

11.

Lay one layer of cake on a board and spread half of the filling over it.

12. Add the next layer on top, and another layer of filling, before placing the final layer of sponge on top.

13. Put the cake in the fridge for at least an hour to help the filling set.

14. When serving, cut the cake lengthwise and place it on its side so you can see all the layers of the filling.

15. Garnish with berries and serve.

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EAT/DRINK: COCKTAILS

HOT STUFF Mulled wine is the perfect winter warmer to get you through the chillier months Words by Asa Jogi

H

ello to you once again. I hope you are doing well and managed to enjoy my Rosella Mojito from the last issue. To keep life interesting I thought it would be glorious to find you something new and divine to enjoy.

We are firmly approaching the colder time of year here in Zimbabwe, so what would be a nice drink to have while you’re cuddled up at home, maybe watching your favourite show or hanging out with your friends? Personally, I am a huge fan of mulled wine.

A warm red wine-based drink, mulled wine can trace its origins back to Europe almost 2,000 years ago. Today there are so many different versions to try – some are made with white wine, other non-alcoholic sorts are made with red grape juice. There’s even a Polish version which has vodka added to it. Mulled wine is so popular that nearly 50 million litres are consumed in Germany every year.

Red wine is usually the base for mulled wine, and I would suggest that you use any affordable full-bodied red such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot. You can use fruit wines or even white wine, but this isn’t as popular as the red wine.

Spice-wise, most people like cinnamon sticks and cloves, but star anise, vanilla beans, cardamom pods, juniper berries or allspice can be added as well. Remember to always use whole spice, not ground.

Citrus options are lemon or oranges and you can use both or either. I love to add some orange zest as it produces a remarkable aroma. Finally, you can sweeten the drink with sugars or even honey which is what was used originally.

Mulled wine is a such beautiful, comforting combination of wine, spices and citrus and can be consumed immediately or bottled and warmed up for whenever you need it.

IG: @probar_263

MULLED WINE INGREDIENTS 1 bottle red wine 2 cinnamon sticks 3 whole cloves 2 star anise 1 orange, cut into slices Zest of half an orange ½ cup sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)

METHOD Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until almost boiling (careful not to boil it otherwise you’ll lose the alcohol content). Reduce the heat and let it simmer for at least 15 minutes (or up to three hours). Strain over a fine mesh and remove and discard the other ingredients. Taste the mulled wine and add more sweetener if needed. Serve warm, and garnish with fresh orange and cinnamon sticks.

Mulled wine can be traced back to the Roman Empire, to the year 20 AD, when it was called ‘Conditum Paradoxum’.

To make it the Romans boiled honey in wine, then added dates and spices such as pepper, laurel and saffron 112

EAT/DRINK: ARTISANS

OUR FAVOURITE FOODS GROWN AND MADE IN ZIMBABWE EARTH BEST MUSHROOMS Encouraged to grow mushrooms as a child by her uncle, Marvelous Maninji (left) began her career teaching rural communities how to use farm waste to grow mushrooms to sell for extra income. Recognising that there was an increasing demand from restaurants and hotels as well as individuals, she founded Earth Best Mushrooms in 2014. Her range is fabulous: choose from sundried or fresh; button, oyster, chestnut, portobello or chanterelle, as well as indigenous species such as nhedzi, huve and porcini.

Available in Harare on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Maasdorp Market, 11 Maasdorp Avenue; on Fridays at the Italian Club, Enterprise Road; and on Saturdays at Old Stables Market, Borrowdale Racecourse.

Call: +263 778 880 885.

LAMB DIRECT SHIRL’S DUCKS Operating for over 15 years, Shirl’s Ducks is one of the finest purveyors of duck meat in Zimbabwe. With a flock of 2,000, it now breeds other birds such as quail, guinea fowl and indigenous chickens. Its duck eggs (left) are great too: twice the size of a chicken egg, duck eggs have more omega 3 proteins and are used by bakers-in-the-know to make beautifully fluffy cakes.

Available on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Maasdorp Market, 11 Maasdorp Avenue, Harare. Call: +263 772 268 565.

From whole carcasses to premium bespoke cuts (above), Lamb Direct is now Harare’s prime seller of lamb, supplying supermarkets and households alike with its delicious produce. Founded by Allister Banks, whose expertise in raising sheep and goats goes back generations, Lamb Direct’s motto is “Go on – be a hero in your own kitchen!” And with such a fine ingredient, every dish you make is sure to be a win.

Available on Saturdays at Old Stables Market, Borrowdale Racecourse, Harare.

Delivery available on request.

Call: +263 772 913 595.

PHOTOS: SIMON DE SWARDT

THE GOOD CHILLI COMPANY Growing up in a children’s home run by American missionaries, Faye Mohamed (right) found the food they served too bland so would go to the caretaker’s garden to pick chillis to flavour her food.

A love for chilli was born and in 2020 she founded the Good Chilli Company which specialises in artisanal chilli products such as sauces, marinades and dips.

Faye’s secret weapon is the addition of peppadew which helps to balance the flavours – her coconut milk sauce goes wonderfully with grilled fish.

Available on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Maasdorp Market, 11 Maasdorp Avenue, Harare. Call: +263 772 925 581.

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MASTERPIECE The art we like looking at right now Mbare by Natasha Kudita (2020, print on canvas)

There’s a little bit of everything in this artwork: cubism, abstract expressionism and a whole riot of colour blend together to create the sensory overload that is the Mbare district of Harare. Kudita’s perfect placement of shape and colour evokes the movement and noise of this hectic place: the artwork’s form is simple but its effect is complex.

Natasha Kudita is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Zimbabwe. Her prints are available to order.

For more info, call: +263 784 618 632, email: natashakudita@gmail.com IG: fineart_bytash

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