ABSTRACT
This study brings into critical focus the relationship between the National Arts
Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) as an aspect of the government’s cultural policy and
theatre in Harare. It demonstrates that the birth and well being of the NACZ has been
shaped by global and African perspective of arts councils as well as politics in form of
colonisation and decolonisation processes. It argues that the NACZ played an
influential role in the development of theatre before 1995, mostly through
administering legislation that facilitated, provided a framework and regulations that
created the surrounding in which theatre operated as well as providing minimal
funding. It has also been effective in facilitating the movement of local and
international theatre artists into and out of Zimbabwe during the period under study
(1985 to present date). Generally this promoted the development of community
theatre.
However it maintains that its role was negatively affected by the restructuring process
it underwent in 1995, and worsened by the changing economic and political
conditions after 2000. Due to those circumstances it has not been able to regularly
disburse enough funding yet that is the biggest area of deficiency in the sector. Instead
it is the donor community that has shouldered this aspect mostly, in some cases with
the assistance of the NACZ, which in turn has promoted largely, the development of
political and theatre for communication. Theatre artists are continuously aligning
themselves to the expectations of the donor community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/7065 |
| Date | 02 July 2009 |
| Creators | Mukanga, Florence |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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