Maze of Muse: Zimbabwe’s budding writers
The urban budding writer does not necessarily go a long way in search of new developments in the field. The internet, libraries, writers’ meetings and workshops, magazines, arts festivals, book launches, et cetera, et cetera are at his disposal in the city. At least the activities motivate, encourage and build degree by degree certain connections instrumental to the growth of the writer/ artist.
The rural based aspiring writer/artist has no newspaper or internet to get cutting edge information, has nothing but the natural environment (an inspiration) in which to brood and write and then in the evening it’s the oil lamp or the fast burning candle by which to read and write, and maybe he owns a few books stolen or borrowed earnestly from a friend or from the outdated school library or, if lucky, from a modern teacher who has an interest in the written word.
The teacher acts as an agent who is supposed to trip between Harare and the curious student(s) in the countryside who want(s) to be a writer or poet, but him (the teacher) too has problems travelling to the city to get more information about books or events or aspiring writers’ opportunities. To travel to Harare to get some copies of the Writers Scroll or the new book on the market or the newspaper with a book review means a huge subtraction from his salary and so he waits for a time when he has a solid reason to travel to the main town or city, for example, when he comes to withdraw his salary at the tail end of the month.
The school head may know about the significance of the arts but still they cannot cope with the cost or time to organise full-time writing events for the school unless a certain writers’ organisation or arts group comes from the city to the area to offer such motivation or awareness on the power of the arts. The Ministry puts so much weight on ‘Education and Sport’ and not necessarily on the ‘Arts and Culture’; triggering calls for the establishment of an independent Ministry of Arts and Culture.
The rural based budding writer, if lucky to belong to a school that has a writers’ club or a literature teacher who has time to look at the manuscripts, then grows and one day stumbles upon a serious published writer in a workshop or organisation who/that helps him/her to form a writers club at the school or to subscribe to BWAZ OR ZWW. What then is the answer?