Arts award a morale boost for outspoken Zimbabwean playwright

ZIMBABWEAN playwright Cont Mhlanga, who has challenged President Robert Mugabe’s rule throughout his career, has been awarded a new prize celebrating the role the arts can play in promoting human rights.

Mhlanga has seen his last two plays, both political satires, banned by the authorities, and welcomed the award as a morale booster and security blanket in a country where he says he is not safe.

“It’s not that safe,” said the playwright, who would not give his age but described himself as “just an old man.”

The play which won the inaugural ArtVenture Freedom to Create Prize, worth €38,800 ($50,000), was The Good President, which was staged in Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, last year before being banned for perceived parallels with Mugabe.

Prize organisers described The Good President as a political satire that depicts an African dictator who has ruled Zimbabwe for 27 years since the country gained independence in 1980. The play, presented as a fictional account, opens with scenes depicting police chasing street protesters and showing how the country’s laws prohibit a gathering of more than five people without police clearance.

The play also depicts an elected opposition leader being taken to a police station and brutally beaten.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who defeated Mugabe in a March presidential poll but withdrew from a run-off vote due to violence, was detained and badly beaten in police custody in March, 2007.

Mhlanga, who has written 21 plays, said the timing of The Good President meant it was widely discussed and debated.

He has since written another play, Overthrown, but it was closed down before it even began its run.

Also awarded was the ArtVenture Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artist prize, worth €19,400 ($25,000), which went to popular comedian and activist Zarganar, sentenced this month in military-ruled Myanmar to 45 years in prison.

Zarganar was detained in June after publicly criticising the ruling generals for their sluggish response to Cyclone Nargis, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.