Zimbabwe

A Love letter to Zimbabwe

Oh, Zimbabwe! Country of my heart! I don’t know anymore where I stand with you. Could you ever love me like I love you? Or is this love I bear for you that worst kind of love - unrequited?
I have loved you through so much! I have laboured with you, travailed on my knees, wept for you. I have turned my back on you, and sought to embrace others - and still found my way back to you. And yet still my heart is torn apart by you. Still, for the sake of my sanity, I must find a way to leave your suffocating embrace.

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Zimbabwe

Africa

#Fibroid Society

Almost three years ago I experienced extreme pain in my left lower abdomen. I could not run long distances. I could not squat or do sit-ups. The pain was so intense at times it would wake me in the middle of the night and I would struggle to get out of bed. With no medical insurance then, I decided to sit-it out, as if that was possible. The pain got worse and one day I willed myself to go and see my GP and the moment she felt my tummy she said I had fibroids, several she said and I was sent for a scan just to confirm. Five of them it was revealed, with the largest at 7.2cm in diameter.

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Fibroid

Batsirai Chigama

Zimbabwe

Making a Difference and Making a Living

Eight years ago I left the marketing company where I was working as a design sausage machine – cranking out fliers and adverts for clients and projects that meant nothing to me – to work for myself. It was a leap of faith as I had no clients lined up. I was just desperate to do something more fulfilling.

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The Design Activist’s Handbook

Ken Garland

First Things First Manifesto

Is Tourism in Zimbabwe Recovering?

In this article Luke attempts to discuss and answer some of the key questions relating to the current condition of Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, along with the future potential to become what he terms a Destination Giant.

Some of the questions posed include: What is the current state of Zimbabwe’s tourism industry? Is the destination turning a corner? What visions and aspirations does/should the destination have for the future? How can Zimbabwe create sustainable growth and become a travel
destination giant?

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The Exoticisation and Otherisation of the Afrikan by the Afrikan

In the last decade or so we have seen an increase in Afrikan visibility and participation in the marketing of the continent as a commercial and creative hub. We have embarked on re - branding the image of Afrika i.e. moving away from the traditional Afro-pessimistic narrative to a more positive vibrant one as well as reclaiming the marketing rights of our own continent and cultures. This paradigm shift has reaped benefits for more and more, mostly young, Afrikan designers, artists and entrepreneurs both on the continent and in the Afrikan diaspora.

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exoticisation of Afrikan

House of Bantu

Having grown up in beautiful Zimbabwe I can still remember all the colours that filled the air through the trees and all the colourful garments that the women wore everywhere. I am particularly inspired by splashes of colour that contrast dark spaces. I love how colour is such a good indication of life. It doesn’t matter what colours you use be it in a piece of artwork or a lovely piece of clothing, colour is such a good indication of life. Having lived in Australia for the last 12 years, I am constantly looking at colour through nature.

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Fashion in the Time of Cholera

African Gatsby Collection in sterling silver

Shape Up crocodile hornback and belly shoulder bag

Karma Chameleon eye half cuff and ring in brass

I was asked to write this opinion piece on the fashion industry in Zimbabwe and all the predictable adjectives like fledgling and emerging came to mind, when I realised that none of these truly captured what it was like to be in the business here and now. As I pondered how best to describe the state of designers in our country today, I began to relate to one of my favourite authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and decided to paraphrase one of his novel’s titles for this piece’s title.

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Fashion in the Time of Cholera

Ndau Jewellery

Zimbabwe

Love in the Time of Cholera Fashion

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Christie Brookstein

Women Artists Need Economic Independence Now!

In Ecclesiastes 3:7 King Solomon tells us that there is a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak. I believe the time we are living in demands that we tear instead of mend and that we speak instead of simply staying silent if we are going to change the status quo in our industry.

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Rewriting the Story for Zimbabwean Girls

For the past 6 months I have worked as an assistant grade 2 teacher at a local primary school. This means most of my days are spent listening to and teaching 8 year olds to read, as well as playing judge and jury to the many cases that arise between kids when there are 30 of them packed in one room together for about 6 hours daily. One of the perks of my job is knowing children’s books inside and out, books that most adults have probably forgot they have ever read; life lessons they probably don’t
remember learning.

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International Images Film Festival for Women breaking new ground

The festival will be running for 9 days in Harare and will proceed to Bulawayo, Binga and Gwanda for the months of November and December. The opening ceremony which will be held on the 15th of August at Ster Kinekor, Eastgate with the film directed by Biyi Bandele "Half Of A Yellow Sun" (which still hasn't premiered in Nigeria) we are pleased to announce that the director will be present and will shed some light as to the challenges he faced during the production of the us$10 million dollar film.

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Andrew Dosunmu

Half of A Yellow Sun

International Images Film Festival for Women

EU-ACP Cultures

Culture Fund and CAFOD

Arrey Enou Charmaine Mujeri