Action alerts

Book Café: Appeal for help

Pamberi Trust (2008-09-10)

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/50448

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Pamberi Trust and African Synergy are independent registered charitable trusts, governed by constitution, and under authority of Board of Trustees.

Today free expression in Zimbabwe is bloodied and torn. Crisis and repression have trampled basic tenets of our social and cultural life. Some of us inside the country have decided to create the kind of life we wish to live; our chosen power is the arts. The humanity and freedom of African arts and its role in fostering social cohesion, is upheld at Book Café in Harare.

At Book Café we have created a place of beauty, joy, togetherness and tolerance; an arts centre that celebrates free expression, where artists work with dignity and audiences appreciate a diverse multitude of perspectives.

Since 1997 our Book Cafe in Harare has guaranteed no censorship. It is a refuge from violence and threat that imposes cruel uniformity; a refuge from the denial of free creation that is the antithesis of African values. Book Cafe has grown into a cultural icon in Zimbabwe - everyone goes because they can say things they feel must be said. We cry, laugh, sing and dance together. If you sit at Book Cafe long enough you meet every type of Zimbabwean.

Art is not a weak force: with freedom threatened, the economy in ruins and mob brutality tearing people’s lives apart, there is humanity through the arts. Art is not escape, it is transcendence. Book Café fights for human dignity. Through Book Café hundreds of artists derive their livelihood and thousands more benefit from development, training, support and services.

BOOK CAFÉ IS UNDER THREAT

Economic freefall in Zimbabwe is painful. Zimbabwe is operating at 5% of manufacturing capacity, the economy has shrunk by over half, unemployment is 85%, life is expectancy 35 years, the main referral hospital cannot perform surgical procedures, universities and schools barely open, the currency has collapsed and over a quarter of the population has fled.

Aside from surveillance, intimidation of artists, and threats Book Café faces impossible economic conditions – 2,000,000% inflation, shortages of every commodity, spare parts, unbearable poverty and extreme hardship. One billion Zim dollars, the largest note in circulation, is now USD 80c and falling.

In April the authorities ‘quarantined’ (ie ‘borrowed or stole’) our entire project funds and financial reserves. We have begged permission to obtain our own funds, and very little has been availed to us. Book Café and its hundreds of artists are suffering. It is illegal, arbitrary and punitive.

Because of these 3 reasons: economic disaster, repression and theft of our financial assets our very existence is threatened. Our survival and phenomenal growth in arts (from 500 to over 650 events a year, plus huge increase in the numbers of artists engaged, maybe double, and now over 1000) counts as big past achievements. We intend to survive. OUR SURVIVAL

We have survived everything thrown at us (including attempted bombing by apartheid agents in 1987 and threats from our own government for 25 years). We are determined to survive this most difficult and trying period ever.

Having cut expenditure to bare minimum, we have reserves to see us through to September. Thereafter, we are uncertain. We are asking for help. If you or your friends would like to make any donation, please write to Steve Khoza, Director skhoza@zol.co.zw We will reply with details.


* For BBC and Al Jazeera footage "Six Nights a Week at the Book Cafe" see, Part I at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HeYLB0ok_e4 and Part II at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oo3JUXNkftQ

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

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