Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. ARTS and design lecturer, and founder of the Tertiary Institutions Festival of Arts in Zimbabwe (TIFAZ), Atanas Ruzive, envisions his organisation growing to be a reputable global arts powerhouse after the resounding success of its 9th edition, which ran from May 11 to 13 at the Belvedere Teachers Technical College in Harare.
It ran under the theme Heritage-based Creativity and Innovation for Economic Transformation.
Ruzive said the festival was aimed at augmenting the Colleges Applied Arts Curriculum, especially the Heritage-based Curriculum through its theme and relative displays and performances of works of imagination.
The 9th edition of TIFAZ was officially opened on May 12 by National Arts Council of Zimbabwe deputy director Barbra Gotore.
In attendance were several college principals and government officials.
Among them were Madziwa Teachers College principal and TIFAZ patron Edward Phiri, Poniso Watema (Mutare Polytechnic College), Chiedza Masanganise (Bulawayo Polytechnic College), Kizito Chitsama (United College of Education), Mavunga Dad (Kushinga Phikelela Polytechnic), Mr Gatsi (St Peters Kubatana) and Sifelani Jabangwe from Hillside Teachers College, among others from the close to 25 participating institutions of higher learning.
“This year the 9th edition of TIFAZ had in excess of 200 participating teams from various institutions performing and displaying their acts on electric concert bands, traditional dances, marimba, mbira, poetry, graphic arts and theatre including other innovations,” Ruzive said.
“The competition winners shall be rewarded for their efforts and shall as a matter of fact become role models and positive peer leaders.”
The inaugural TIFAZ event was held in Mutare in 2007 and since then, the city has played host thrice, Bulawayo twice and once each Masvingo, Gweru, Harare and Mashonaland Centra, respectively.
Ruzive said the festival put emphasis on quality, originality, level of creativity and functionality.
“We started off with competition disciplines such as music, industrial clothing and design, fashion and design, music, art and design, literal arts, hairdressing and cosmetology and we are breaking the silos to incorporate those in film and theatre arts including chemical engineering,” he said.
“We are looking forward to upscaling to an extent where we play a participatory role to individuals excelling in their works by recommending them for further studies, research and acceptance as patented works of imagination.
“We are also trying our level best to come up with regional and international networks and partnerships including participating as guests in other festivals like Chimanimani, Let Them, Hifa [Harare International Festival of the Arts], Shoko and choral competitions.”
Apart from a chaotic ending where five institutions challenged the jury’s decision on Mr & Miss TIFAZ, Mr & Miss Personality and Mr & Miss Avante, the event showed it has room for improvement to match or even supplant other mainstream festivals.
One thing of interest about the festival was its ability to maintain discipline and reflection on its inclusivity as most performances and displays had concepts that could be traced back to the classroom.
Each participating institutions came up with disruptive fashion designs, with some of them weaved and derived from black bin liner plastic.
Seke Teachers College emerged the platinum winner in traditional dances and in the poetry category Morgan ZINTEC College got gold, while Madziwa Teachers College walked away with silver.
In the mbira category Masvingo Teachers College grabbed the platinum award, Mutare Polytechnic got gold, Harare Polytechnic got silver, while United College of Education and Mutare Teachers College were tied on bronze.
In the marimba category Madziwa Teachers College was the platinum winner, with United College of Education getting gold, Mutare Polytechnic College clinching silver, while Masvingo Teachers College walked away with bronze and Mogern ZINTEC got copper.
Harare Polytechnic was the best in the electric band category, United College of Education (gold), Mutare Polytechnic (silver), Belvedere Teachers College (bronze) and Joshua Muqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic (copper).
Seasoned musicians and teachers Abigail Garikai, Fidelis Mherembi, Evans Mapfumo, Charles Nota and Christopher Timbe, who were the adjudicators, pointed out that there was vast room for improvement in the quest to maintain authenticity and originality in the melodies and harmonies of Zimbabwean traditional and folk music which is defined by fluidity.
In the mbira and marimba categories, the colleges battled for honours on the best composition founded on the Chemutengure mode, which slams drug and substance abuse, while the electric band competition was on identifying the best Jiti or Pfonde performers of an original protest on drug and substance abuse.
Timbe and Garikai shared the view that institutions of higher learning need to be equipped with financial and material resources to engage industrial and seasoned arts practitioners.
Bondolfi Teachers College was the platinum winner in the teacher’s colleges cosmetology category while Marymount got gold and Hillside silver.
In the polytechnic category on cosmetology, Bulawayo Polytechnic clinched the platinum prize, Harare Polytechnic got gold and Belvedere Teacher’s College walked away with bronze.
After receiving three awards in the visual arts section Charity Mambondiyani, the Mutare Polytechnic public relations officer, said the 9th edition of TIFAZ brought a lot of insights to the teaching of applied arts and sciences, adding that it should be resourced to become an internationally sought-after cultural event.
She added that cultural tourism stood out to be the only sustainable economic and employment back-up for developing countries.
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