Annual Report 1999-2000 from Zimbabwe
REPORT BY – PLAXEDES VIMBAI CHEMUGARIRA1 - Background
Women in Music – Zimbabwe,
which was established in January 1997, is growing from strength to strength
and has achieved some of its aims and objectives as will be explained in this
presentation.
2 - Aims
2.1
To expand the base for women in music
2.2
To provide
music education to the women and the girl child in both rural and urban areas.
2.3
To change
the attitude of women themselves so that they believe in themselves and have
total control of their lives, to educate them and build their self-esteem
2.4
To encourage
women to compose and perform their own music
2.5
To build
a music library that will store women compositions to benefit present and future
generations.
2.6
To promote
music literacy in both rural and urban areas
2.7
To give music education to the rural women and bring hope for
better living to the unemployed school leavers, single mothers and windows through
music as many will find occupation for the mind and also to get an income for
living. They will also spend their time in meaningful and constructive way
rather than resort to all sort evil behaviors like prostitution due to frustrations.
2.8
Change the
attitude of society especially parents, and more important, when today’s young
people become parents, in order for them to encourage their children to take
music as a career without being biased towards boys.
2.9
Change the
attitude of the audience and men in the music industry towards female musicians
in order for them to respect them and not just exploit them.
2.10
Develop the
spirit of oneness and let the women promote each other and not involve themselves
in petty jealousies.
2.11
To bring
together and foster networking on a national, regional and international basis
for individuals and groups of women in music.
2.12
To facilitate
the development of music for women and the girl child on the highest artistic
level
2.13
To work for
the girl child and women’s rights to music experiences
2.14
To work for
the recognition and acknowledgement of music by women.
2.15
To work for
the improvement of the conditions for women in music and work for the protection
of their artistic rights.
2.16
The organization
is free from all political, cultural, racial, religious discriminations but
works for women and the girl child.
3 - SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
3.1
To establish
permanent training centers for women to learn, teach and perform music in both
rural and urban areas.
3.2
To promote
research and documentation of music composed by women
3.3
To record
music compositions and performances by women.
3.4
To teach
music reading and writing to the women and the girl child in both rural and
urban areas.
3.5
To run skills
development workshops in different types of music, especially for women at all
age levels from the age of three.
3.6
To establish
bands composed of female musicians only.
3.7
To raise
funds through performances to help run the organization in terms of its expenses.
3.8
To provide
family entertainment for the community through live music shows affordable to
the majority.
3.9
To organize
concerts and festivals as a demonstration of skills developed in workshops.
4 - MEMBERSHIP
1999-2000 saw the increase of membership to 450. It is very
interesting to note that there were more students from university and teachers
colleges that joined the program. When we started it was mainly the women with
nothing else to do (unemployed and school leavers who failed at school) who
joined the organisation. We opened a new center in Chimanimani about 400 km
away from Harare and in the rural.
5 - MEMBERSHIP FEES
It has been very difficult for new members to pay any membership
fees because of economic hardships our country is experiencing. This was worsened
by the political conditions and natural disasters like the Cyclone Eline this
year.
6 - WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCES
Workshops were successful and motivated many women to join
the organization. Performances this year were not as many as the previous years
because the President was busy with organizing the Pan African Society of Music
Educators conference and had not enough time to look for performance venues.
This however meant that we had to limit the number of workshops because performance
money usually was the money that normally financed the workshops.
7 - PAN AFRICAN SOCIETY OF MUSIC EDUCATORS CONFERENCE
21-23 AUGUST 2000
The President for Women in Music – Zimbabwe Plaxedes V. Chemugarira was given
the task to organise the Pan- African Society of Music Educators Conference.
This was a big challenge for it had been a dream for all African countries to
have this organisation established since 1998, but it had been difficult to
do it resulting in several postponements of dates. Plaxedes Vimbai Chemugarira
was only given this task on
17 December 1999 and without wasting time effectively started to organise the
Pan African Society Music Educators (PASME) Conference from January 2000. August
21, 2000 it was a big success and a historical event in Africa.
Some men had to fight to the last day of the organisation of this conference
to try and sabotage it and make sure it collapses but all was in vain. It is
not easy for a woman to organise a conference in this part of the world but
we made it. However there are some women and men who are gender sensitive who
supported the organisation of PASME.
Ironically when the conference succeeded, even those that were against its
success because they did not want it to be organised by a woman all now wanted
to be identified with it and even thanked the organiser for holding on till
it succeeded forgetting that they were trying to destroy it. (We have videos
and photos to show for PASME).
8 - GOOD LESSON AND WAY FORWARD FOR WOMEN IN MUSIC
A lot of experience was
gained in this process which is beneficial to Women in Music here, as we are
preparing to host the first Symposium and Festival for Women in Music next year,
which will be another historic event in African History for no such a thing
has ever happened.
We managed to make contacts
with other women from other African countries and shared ideas and music and
agreed to maintain communications as we plan for our Symposium and Festival.
9 - INVITATION TO THE FIRST WOMEN IN MUSIC SYMPOSIUM AND FESTIVAL
We would like to invite all Women
in Music internationally to the Symposium and Festival next year. Patricia
Chiti has already been informed about this invitation. We had initially planned
to hold this Festival this year but we had to postpone to next year because
of the PASME and economic hardships in the country. We still need to agree
on the dates for it. We would like if possible to discuss and finalise on dates
when we come for the performance in October. We wish Women in Music from all
over the world would be there. Our proposal is that it should happen in June
2001. It will be very difficult for us to sponsor women coming to this Symposium
and Festival from the international community as it is very difficult on our
side to raise the funds. However we will try to raise funds for local participants
from the local donors. Women in Music from the international community with
ideas on fund raising for such big events are welcome to share with us those
ideas for we wish this Symposium and Festival to be a success. We are still
hoping to raise funds for a computer and printer to aid our communication with
other women worldwide. Conditions and requirement to be allowed to use our
University computers are getting tougher and tougher for us.
10 - A PERMANENT STRUCTURE /CENTRE FOR WOMEN IN MUSIC
A lot of progresses has been made in as far as acquiring
land and premises for Women in Music. The City of Harare has agreed to lease
a large piece of land about 3 and 1/4 acres (13 000 square metres) in Harare,
Kensington Area for the women. Here we will build the Women in Music Headquarters
and College where all from African countries and even those who wish to come
from other continents would meet for music classes, performances, workshops,
seminars, symposiums, exchange programs, festivals and conferences etc. There,
we will also build the Women in Music library.
We are in the process of approaching individuals,
companies NGOs and embassies for donations to build this dream institution.
One company in Zimbabwe has donated its services to draw the building plans.
The Foundation Donne Musica in Fiuggi Italy is an inspiration for us.
11 - MUSIC LIBRARY
We are still collecting library books, cassettes and CDs
for the dream library. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Patricia
Chiti and Diana Blom, for donating some books and Dr. Jeanne Shaffer for donating
CDs for the library. So far we have collected 25 books and 12 CDs.
PLAXEDES V. CHEMUGARIRA
WOMEN IN MUSIC – ZIMBABWE
4 CHURSTON CLOSE
MARLBOROUGH
HARARE
ZIMBABWE
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