A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation from a South-African NGO called the Arterial Network for a “sponsored cultural tour [for African journalists] to the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA),” from April 26 to May 2. The offer, I must confess, sounded inviting. Egypt has always held little to no connection with its African roots. Our sole link to the black continent has primarily been restricted to football and minor business enterprises. Save for our close northern neighbors (Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria and Morocco), the cultural ties with the rest of the continent have been largely non-existent for several decades. Out of the many identities Egyptians have come to assume over the ages — Arab, Muslim and even Pharaonic — African has rarely been considered. Perhaps that's why I didn't know what to expect of this ‘tour,' particularly since the information I was sent didn't reveal much about the organizing network or the proposed program itself. In addition to the festival, which, according to the invitation, was supposed to be the main objective of the tour, the program offered “meetings with a range of cultural players in Harare, meeting with representatives of Arts Councils in Africa and an opportunity to be part of a team to establish a network of cultural journalists on the continent.” As it turned out, that wasn't the case. And for the four-day duration of my stay in the Zimbabwean capital, I found myself trapped between two worlds that have little in common; herded around by an autocratic organization whose main goal is, ironically, encouraging freedom of expression. The grand, articulate picture of the Zimbabwean art scene given to us by the Arterial Network began to rapidly crumble, divulging a far more complex world laden with contradictions, oppression and lies; an abandoned world I'm still struggling to fully decipher. HIFA is an international arts festival that, for the past 11 editions, has worked towards the dual purpose of opening the closely-guarded Zimbabwean culture to the world while establishing itself as one of the biggest platforms for showcasing African art. The festival was founded in 1999, at “a time when [Zimbabwean] artists felt isolated,” HIFA's Artistic Director, Manuel Bagorro, explained to us. “The idea was just to provide a melting pot of different genres and different types of artists,” Bagorro added. In a poverty-ridden country hampered by severe economic hurdles, it was nearly impossible to set up the festival without the aid of corporate money and international donors. Against all odds, Bagorro's strategy ultimately succeeded as the fest grew with every passing year. In 2009, in the midst of the global economic recession, HIFA still managed to sell 650,000 tickets. The festival's program encompasses a mixture of international and Zimbabwean art works, providing a significant means of networking for Zimbabwean artists. Bagorro has also set up a new venture called Young Producers Project whereby young Zimbabwean artists collaborate with their international counterparts for new, different projects. Educational workshops were also created to engage the city's street kids in the fest's activities. As commendable as HIFA's intentions are, the organizers' decision to render it a ticketed event contrasts with the prevalent catastrophic economic reality of the country. According to a report from 2009 by UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Zimbabwe's unemployment rate stands at 94 percent. And despite the relatively low ticket prices, which range from $2 to $10, the activities of the fest remain primarily accessible only to the six percent of the population with disposable incomes. The Arterial Network Upon arrival, my fellow African journalists and myself were introduced to the Arterial Network team. Founded in 2007 by renowned South African theater-maker Mike van Graan, the network, according to its official homepage, aims to “contribute to development, to the eradication of poverty, to human rights and to democracy on the African continent.” Other cited targets include “building effective, sustainable national, regional and continental networks within and across arts disciplines to play advocacy and lobbying roles; provoking debate, discussions and theorizing around arts, culture, creative industries and contemporary arts and culture discourses and to collect and distribute relevant information, data and documents to empower civil society arts and culture organizations in African countries.” As lofty as the network's intentions may seem, neither the program, nor the unbending fashion by which it was implemented, amounted to anything remotely substantial. From day one, me and the 20-participants of the tour found ourselves shackled with a rigorous schedule and absurd rules — which we were never informed about in the first place — designed for school children. We were initially told that all program activities were ‘optional;' but that was far from the truth. For some “security measures,” which I discovered later to be bogus, we had to report every step we took. The freedom the organizers promised to give us was nothing but an illusion. The program required us to meet particular Zimbabwean cultural figures from all art disciplines — poets, artists, rappers, etc. It, conspicuously, also included discussions with several governmental officials — General Director of the National Arts Council, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe National Arts Council, Program Director of the Department of Arts, Culture and Sport, etc. Not only were these discussions pointless, they felt at one point to be some kind of propaganda aimed at painting a different, more polished picture of the Zimbabwean art scene. The strong impulse of doubt that struck me upon meeting Director of the National Arts Council, Elvas Mari, was missing when we visited the outdoor studio of Zimbabwe's foremost sculptor, Dominic Benhura. With his trademark Shona stone sculptures; the 42-year-old self-taught sculptor managed to penetrate the international art scene, having his works exhibited in galleries across the globe. Benhura has also been awarded the Zimbabwean National Merit Award for Art for many consecutive years. His studio also functions as an art sanctuary for other resident artists. The work on display is nothing short of impressive, blending the traditional with the modern/abstract in a very unique context. Zimbabwe, Benhura explains, is known for sculpting more than any other art form. What's even more admirable about Benhura is his reluctance to take commissions from the artists he houses; a rare gesture of generosity difficult to sustain in a destitute city like Harare. The rosy impression we all had during the Benhura meeting would soon be stained the next day. On Tuesday, April 27, three artists — Zimbabwe-born Dan Halter and Gerald Machona from Cape Town and South African citizen Stefan de Wet — were arrested by the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) while shooting a video project on the rooftop of a Harare downtown building. The three were beaten, threatened with murder and interrogated for four hours at the Zanu PF headquarters before they were rescued by the police. Had the word not spread about Halter's arrest; he could've indeed been axed by the CIO. “Although I'm an atheist, the situation was so dire that I found myself praying at one point,” a blazing-eyed Halter told me. “I thought that was it.” Before Halter and company were discharged, a group of bailers, including Mail and Guardian reporter Anthea Buys, were solicited by one CIO officer to pay a large bribe for Halter's release. The bribe was eventually returned when a HIFA security officer turned up later at the police station. According to artists and regular folks I met during my trip, the arrest of Halter and co. was no exceptional incident; it was a common practice in a country that continues to be ruled by a repressive, corrupt regime. That is the reality of Harare, a reality concealed behind the fanfare engineered by HIFA and the Arterial Network. And over the next couple of days, the picture grew clearer. Follow Daily News Egypt next week for the second part of the HIFA coverage.
