Zimbabwean people are strong. They fight and they resist. Our interest for Zimbabwe is not new, and in March we posted about Owen Maseko: support free expression in Zimbabwe!, then in May: Zimbabwean artist Owen Maseko to appear in court. You can also read news about Zimbabwe in our weekly Friday Digest. Even if the recent news are not so good concerning civil society, human rights and freedom of expression, many Zimbabweans are committed to help their fellow citizens.

This is what Joshua Nyapimbi does. He is the director of Nhimbe, a non profit arts education organization and a leader in cultural policy research and advocacy in Zimbabwe. The Nhimbe trust was created in 2003 and with the objectives to conduct training in Theatre For Development (TFD), produce Forum Theatre plays, offer consultants services and raising funds with a view to promote a free and democratic nation in which people respect diversity, tolerate differences, and promote human rights using the TFD methodology in the sectors of art and culture; education and training. The project runs workshops for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Bulawayo. These workshops inform them of their rights and provide them with information about health issues.

The Nhimbe Artists Human Rights Program was launched in 2007 to advocate for laws and policies that advance universal rights and creative freedoms for artists in Zimbabwe. The program serves to protect and defend the dignity of artists through respect for human rights and the rule of law. The Nhimbe Artists Human Rights Program builds respect for artists human rights and the rule of law to help ensure the dignity to which every artist is entitled and to stem intolerance, tyranny, and violence. Nhimbe aims to address some of the needs identified by artists at risk themselves, including protection, networking, training and access to international bodies that can take further/complementary  action on their behalf.

Zimbabwe’s Creative Civil Society has always been under threat since 1980. The past decade has seen increased and open harassment of creative workers (particularly those in the performing arts/music, theatre, and visual artists) as works of art that advocated for human rights, rule of law and democracy are met with partisan politically motivated violence. Nhimbe continues to be on the receiving end of such violence; and has therefore seen it fit to carry out a study to analyze the forms and nature of security threats faced by the creative CSOs in Zimbabwe with the view to mainstreaming security issues in our programming; in addition to indentifying advocacy issues critical to the creation of an enabling environment.

Nhimbe is looking for funding to finance this study. It is important to support such initiative and if you think you can contribute or raise awareness about Nhimbe’s great work, don’t hesitate to contact them at ntfd@mweb.co.zw or by phone +263-(0)9-60002, 60019.

We will closely follow their news and actions, and let you know.