The poor and famous

A friend of mine while holidaying in Zim from the UK could not believe his ears when after a show we attended at a local club , the esteemed artist, who we adored on stage, came and asked him for a lift home. Shock,Horror, but that’s the sad reality. To make matters worse, I open the News Day dated 18 February and see and article titled “Musician falls on hard times”, which talks about the “legendary lead guitarist” Handsome Mabhiza who confirmed that “we are struggling right now.” And yes I agree with him. Artists in Zimbabwe are struggling and I will add, if they are relying on their art alone. Now, Handsome Mabhiza is a veteran. He played with Southern Freeway which was fronted by Saxophonist par excellence Steve Dyer. If I ever played with Steve Dyer at any point in my life I would surely exploit that relationship to take me higher (I’m juss sayin’). Where did Mabhiza go wrong? We always have this conversation as we are driving back home after the acoustic night and its always interesting how we admire the cars of the patrons that come to watch us. Big contrast to the mode of transport taking us home! I have been lucky to have personal relationships with some of the more popular artists and I get to know their living conditions, which are not very amicable, or rather, not expected from people of their stature. Now again, where do we go wrong?
A fellow artist and friend highlighted to me the other day that we are not entirely to blame because our industry is not groomed to be a professional industry. Bankers are taken to school to learn how to be the best in their trade because someone decided that is a huge cash cow and so is the case with many other professions. Creatives go to school to perfect their skills and don’t really learn how to monetize their creativity. One can also ask, can you really put a price tag on creativity?
I look at international artists and admire how they create businesses around their art. Fragrances, clothing lines, recording studios, and the works, and it creates plenty of revenue streams for the artist. That is one way we can also sustain ourselves here in Zimbabwe. Maybe not to the level that these artists are, but we can start with practical solutions, like sharing skills and charging for it.
I also attended a seminar by Michael Kaiser, founder of the Kennedy Centre USA, which was held here in Harare on Arts Management and he spoke about an interesting cycle. First concentrate on the art and develop it and perfect it to make it “ sellable”. The thing that creates all the money is good art. Once you have the product, market it well. Then create the “family”, people that will follow you wherever you go and good marketing, with the perfected product will grow your family. The bigger your family, the more the money you will get. And then INVEST THAT MONEY BACK TO YOUR ART because that is what creates more money! What was illuminated to me during this seminar is that once we take our art seriously, it is very easy to get the money coming in.
Michael Kaiser highlighted that in a normal economy, it has been proven that for every $1 that a government invests in the arts, they get $7 back! So maybe Zim is not your typical economy, but even if you get $5 back its still a worthy investment. So why do we not get the investment we need? Is it because we do not have the correct business acumen to make it a thriving industry like other countries have managed to? Or are we too busy dwelling on the wrong aspects of our art and not realizing its full potential. I mean yesterday I saw a video on MTV Base with D’Banj and Snoop dog!!! Akomana! Nigeria is learning the ropes very fast and are getting somewhere with their arts industry.
Bottom line is that we are poor and famous and that needs to change ASAP! People value experiences more than tangible items and would most likely pay more for a good time! Who better to create those experiences than the artists? Lets get rich!!