 Art |
In any given year cultural life in Tanzania is limited to a few events, mainly centring on foreign production of art. These take place at sponsored by embassies and international or national organisations. Two major events like the Zanzibar film Festival and the European Film Festival fall into this category.
Moreover, since the closure in March 1998 of the Goethe Institute (German Cultural Centre), very few exceptions remain of local artists' works being exhibited (Raza Mohamed, Msagula, Doreen Mandawa, Muzu sulemanji and Veronique Laurent).
In the performing arts, concerts by African visiting singers or bands (particularly Congolese) will genuinely attract and please Tanzanians in large numbers.
Where then, can the contemporary Tanzania art to be found?
It is entrenched in the music by local bands, played at popular clubs, for the enjoyment of Tanzanians or very few initiated foreigners.
The Tanzania art can also be illustrated by the Tingatinga painters in Dar es Salaam, but now is taking a sharp twist towards consumers production; it is more and more lively in an annual Traditional Dance Festival (Ngoma), at Bagamoyo, with its annual Theatre Festival
The matter of truth is that artists living in Tanzania can hardly find a place to expose their works or to express themselves, and forcefully have to eventually funnel their production into the tourist -trade or find a marketing connection abroad.
 "Art in Tanzania" event |
"Art in Tanzania" was created as a forum open to the artistic life in Tanzania, and takes place each year in November- December. It is innovative in many ways:
It reaches out for all active artists, Tanzanian or living in Tanzania, including photographers, Tingatinga painters, Makonde Carvers, young sculptors, modern painters, songwriters and cartoonist
It shows one or more representative pieces of art from each artist
On the opening day, it introduces each artist to the public
An artist resumes and contact information is also made available for each of them.
This event brings the largest crowds for an Art
exhibition in Tanzania, including journalists, diplomats,
national and expatriate art lovers, school classes
and public. |
Number of the participating artists do sell their art work during the exhibition but in addition, they get considerable exposure by being presented to the public (most of them for the first time) and making contact with the media; in some cases, new orders are placed with the artists, following the exhibition:
| International film makers meet in Zanzibar |
Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), highlighting films from Dhow Countries where the dhow sailing vessel is intrinsic to its heritage, history and culture of its people, took place on Unguja Island, off the coast of Tanzania Mainland.
Film makers from Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Egypt, Iran, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Senegal, Mali, USA, Mauritius and Tunisia submitted over 60 short and long feature films and documentaries for general screening and competition. The awards were for the Golden Dhow for best feature film, the silver Dhow for best short feature, and the Golden Coconut for best actor and Sitti Bint Said for the best actress.
This event is significant in that it is the first international film festival in East Africa- a region that lags behind over in Africa in terms of the development of its film industry.
The international appeal of the Film Festival was assured given the nature of film and the allure of the Zanzibar Island. With the pomp and circumstance, it would have been very easy to neglect a very important group of people, the Zanzibari themselves. Festival organisers made a much concerted effort to make even the youngest to the most isolated Zanzibari stakeholder in the event.
Concurrently during the festival, there was a children's Panorama where over 12,000 students from primary to secondary school levels participated in film showings on HIV prevention, teenage pregnancy and the rights of African girls. There were follow - up workshops and discussions on the different themes, along with theatre animation and game Playing. The older students learned how to shoot videos and were given the assignment to develop a story about the children Panorama.
Just when you thought Zanzibar could not get any better, the first Annual Zanzibar International Film Festival provided an additional enriching atmosphere to an already culturally- vibrant island. |
