Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts , livre ebook

ZIMBABWE S CINEMATIC ARTS
ZIMBABWE S
CINEMATIC ARTS
LANGUAGE, POWER, IDENTITY
KATRINA DALY THOMPSON
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2013 by Katrina Daly Thompson
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Katrina Daly, [date]
Zimbabwe s cinematic arts : language, power, identity / Katrina Daly Thompson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00646-2 (cloth : alk. paper)-ISBN 978-0-253-00651-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)-ISBN 978-0-253-00656-1 (electronic book) 1. Motion pictures and television-Social aspects-Zimbabwe. 2. Mass media and language-Political aspects-Zimbabwe. 3. Zimbabwe. Broadcasting Services Act. 4. Motion picture industry-Zimbabwe-Foreign influences. 5. Zimbabwe-Social conditions-1980- I. Title.
PN1993.5.Z55T48 2013
791.43 096891-dc23
2012028173
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
For my friends, family, and colleagues in Zimbabwe.
Pamberi nevanhu!
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
Cultural Identity in Discourse
CHAPTER 1
A Crisis of Representation
CHAPTER 2
Cinematic Arts before the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act: Two Decades of Trying to Build a Nation
CHAPTER 3
Authorship and Identities: What Makes a Film Local ?
CHAPTER 4
Changing the Channel: Using the Foreign to Critique the Local
CHAPTER 5
Power, Citizenship, and Local Content: A Critical Reading of the Broadcasting Services Act
CHAPTER 6
Language as a Form of Social Change: Public Debate in Local Languages
CONCLUSION
Possibilities for Democratic Change
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe a great deal to colleagues, students, friends, and members of my family who have helped extend my involvement in African studies, cultural studies, and applied linguistics and who have encouraged and enlightened me. I am grateful for funding from Fulbright-IIE, which enabled me to do research in Zimbabwe, as well as from the Academic Senate and the Dean of Humanities at UCLA, who provided me with time to write. Thanks also to Dee Mortensen, Marvin Keenan, and Sarah Jacobi at Indiana University Press for helping bring this book to fruition.
I would like to thank the professors who nurtured my interest in the verbal arts and in African studies. At Grinnell College, Saadi Simawe encouraged me to be an English major, while Christine Loflin, George Drake, and Roger Vetter introduced me to African literature, history, and music. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Magdalena Hauner and Antonia Schleicher nurtured my interest in African languages. Linda Hunter showed me that I need not choose between linguistics, literature, and other verbal arts, encouraged my interest in African popular cultures, and has served as a valuable mentor. Jim Delehanty, Aliko Songolo, Jo Ellen Fair, Dean Makuluni, Hemant Shah, and Shanti Kumar encouraged my research and gave invaluable feedback on drafts of this book. Judith Kaulem of the Scripps-Pitzer Program in Zimbabwe instilled in me a deep interest in Shona language and culture, which was further developed through work with Thompson Tsodzo, Albert Natsa, and Robert Chimedza at Michigan State University.
I owe a great debt to colleagues at the University of Zimbabwe, where I was welcomed into the Department of African Languages and Literature while conducting research. In particular, Pedzisai Mashiri, Rino Zhuwarara, Mickey Musiyiwa, Peniah Mabaso, and Aquilina Mawadza provided invaluable advice and assistance with the project.
At UCLA, my mentors Joseph Nagy and Vilma Ortiz have been incredibly generous with their time, offering very useful feedback on my writing and, more importantly, encouragement. I am also grateful to Susan Plann, Olga Yokoyama, Tom Hinnebusch, Andrew Apter, and Ned Alpers, who have helped me make an academic home at UCLA. Thanks also to students Michelle Oberman, Olga Ivanova, Deborah Dauda, and Nancy Gonzalez, who helped with data analysis and copyediting.
Friends and colleagues elsewhere have also helped with this book. Sally Campbell Galman, Heather Dubois Bourenane, and Jane Zavisca have been wonderful writing partners, as have anonymous members of my writing group on Academic Ladder. Sarah Cypher at the Threepenny Editor gave me many helpful suggestions on an early version of the manuscript.
I am grateful to my mother, Brenda, my stepmother, Amy, my son, Coltrane, and numerous friends who have never stopped cheering me on. Thank you.
Finally, I would like to thank the families in Zimbabwe with whom I lived in 1996 and 2001, who made me feel at home and helped with my research. This book is dedicated to my Shona brothers, Netmore and Clemence, and to Lisa, Heidi, and Meghan, good friends with whom I explored Zimbabwe for the first time in 1996. Meghan, you are missed. Ndatenda chaizvo!
ABBREVIATIONS
AIASVF
An International African Stories Video Fair
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation
BSA
Broadcasting Services Act
CAFU
Central African Film Unit
CCJP
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
CDA
critical discourse analysis
CFL
Central Film Laboratories
CFU
Colonial Film Unit
CGI
computer-generated imagery
CNN
Cable News Network
DSTV
digital satellite television
FBC
Federation Broadcasting Corporation
GALZ
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe
GNU
Government of National Unity
IIFF
International Images Film Festival for Women
MABC
Munhumutapa African Broadcasting Corporation
MDC
Movement for Democratic Change
MFD
Media for Development Trust
MISA
Media Institute of Southern Africa
NBC
National Broadcasting Corporation (of the United States)
NDA
National Development Assembly
NGO
nongovernmental organization
PSI
Population Services International
RBC
Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation
RTV
Rhodesian Television Limited
SABC
South African Broadcasting Corporation
SADC
Southern African Development Community
SFP
Short Film Project
UDI
Unilateral Declaration of Independence
URTNA
Union of National Radio and Television Organizations of Africa
ZAMPS
Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey
ZANLA
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
ZAPU
Zimbabwe African Peoples Union
ZANU-PF
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
ZFVA
Zimbabwe Film and Video Association
ZBC
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
ZIFF
Zimbabwe International Film Festival
ZIPRA
Zimbabwe Peoples Revolution Army
ZTV
Zimbabwe Television
ZIMBABWE S CINEMATIC ARTS
INTRODUCTION
Cultural Identity in Discourse
This book offers a critical discussion about cultural identity in Zimbabwe by analyzing talk and texts about the cinematic arts. Zimbabwe s economic and political crises have been well documented by scholars and the Western media; I argue that a related cultural crisis is also under way. With a dual focus on cinematic texts and on discourse about them, this book shows that a reductive framework of foreign and local identities assigned to cultural products, as well as to those who produce and consume them, not only builds on a history of exclusion from Zimbabwe s national resources but also helps perpetuate current inequalities and consolidate an authoritarian state. Attention to marginalized discourse, however-talk produced by viewers and filmmakers-opens up possibilities for less polarized identities and more democratic futures.
Becoming Zimbabwean: Understanding Identity as Socially Constructed
When we use talk or writing to communicate with others, we present ourselves in ways that construct our own and others identities and produce meanings that may come to be shared. Cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall outlines two ways of understanding identity, the first of which focuses on the shared meanings that can develop through talk about national or cultural concerns. The first position defines cultural identity in terms of one shared culture, a sort of collective one true self, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed selves, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common. Hall argues that, although such a position ultimately offers only imagined identities, it remains important because of the critical role it played in struggles against colonialism. Moreover, it continues to be a very powerful and creative force in emergent forms of representation among hitherto marginalized peoples such as the cinema of black Caribbean filmmakers that Hall examines. 1
The second view of cultural