Sunday Mail
By Mtandazo Dube
26 July 2009
ALTHOUGH there has been a cash injection by the Culture Fund, this year’s Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), which kicks off tomorrow and ends on Saturday, could still lack the glitz and glamour of yesteryear due to financial constraints.
The money received from the Culture Fund, although well meant, is a paltry drop in the ocean for a book fair that now has to compete with other well funded fairs like the recently ended Cape Town Book Fair.
ZIBF received US$10 000 from the Culture Fund to resuscitate the literature exhibition, which was at the brink of collapse, but the acting director, Greenfield Chilongo, fears the money is way too little and can only help them carry out the basics.
The organisers agree that this amount is the epitome of the biblical five loaves and two fish, which will take another very holy miracle to transform into a meaningful event.
“This money that we received is not enough to cover our budget, but we are still very much happy with the little that we got, because it will go a long way in making this year’s exhibition better than it would have been without the money.
“We have been saved because stakeholders would have sacrificed a lot more if we had not received this money, therefore, it is important that we recognise the fact that the Culture Fund has tried to do everything they can to assist,†said Chilongo.
ZIBF used to be the largest and most important book fair in sub-Saharan Africa, held annually during the first week of August in the Harare Gardens before losing its lustre and finally failing to take place altogether.
The fair has now become a distant memory in the minds of former enthusiasts and the organisers may well need a separate US$10 000 to dole out to fair goers to pursuade them to attend as interest in the fair has all but waned!
To begin with, even in the Book Fair’s best of days, it made the headlines for an abstract annual dissembling and running riot of fair goers who disapproved of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe’s (GALZ) exhibition rather than for attracting mature debate and names around the theme of books around which it was woven. This year threatens to bring nothing new.
However, Chilongo says even though ZIBF may not live up to the standards set before, he is sure that the literature exhibition will eventually reclaim its place as the best and most important book fair in Southern Africa.
“There is no doubt that we will get back to the top, it is just a matter of when. I have been to the Cape Town Book Fair and let me say I have my reservations about the way they conduct their exhibition.
“It is quite big and glamorous, which is a plus, but it lacks that African touch that we have.
“It is like a European festival in Africa and that is not what we want in an African book fair.
“Many people may say most of our exhibitors and sponsors have left us for the Cape Town Book Fair, but I doubt that very much because most of our former participants are itching to come back,†he said.
The theme for this year is “Reading and Writing, Zimbabweâ€, which Chilongo described as centred on encouraging authors on writing literary works focusing on national issues rather than having local readers relying on international books.
“We want people to understand the country from a literature point of view. The use of such techniques as satire and irony is a rich way of disseminating important information about the country.
“We are, therefore, calling on writers and exhibitors to come up with products that embody the situation on the ground.â€
He said this year’s book fair was aimed at offering local authors more prominence as compared to foreign ones.
Some of the local authors expected to grace this year’s edition, include Shimmer Chinodya, Ignatius Mabasa, Charles Mungoshi, Chirikure Chirikure and Virginia Phiri, among many others.
The Minister of Education Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, will officially open the book fair and Professor Hope Sadza, the Vice-Chancellor of Women’s University in Africa, will give the keynote address.
Several topics have been lined up for the discussions at the Indaba session and these include media reading and writing, which will probe issues centred on the presentation of media stories.
Chilongo said unlike in previous years, there would be free entrance for the public to the fair this year.
The first three days of the festival will see acclaimed regional literary figures leading a number of workshops before the exhibition opens to the public on July 29.