Netflixing Perceptions from the Global North to the Global South.

By Takura Zhangazha*

I would not have thought of it had it not been mentioned by a young comrade in relation to new ways of ‘socializing’ for young urban Zimbabweans. I had asked him how his weekend had been and he casually replied that he had managed to do something called “Netflix and chill.” 

Now I know and when I can, watch Netflix.  I did not quite get how it would be all ‘chilled’ since it has so much content at a comparatively high cost in Zimbabwe. 

It turns out that it is a fashionable or even a status symbol habit among young urban Zimbabweans to have occasional access to the online streaming platform Netflix and watch the content from the comfort of the home.  All one needs is a laptop, Wi-Fi/data or even a smart phone and you are good to go. 

It would be a little different from my youth days where a small stereo player, electricity (supplied directly or via batteries) to play cassettes would have made the weekend fairly special. 

With a key discussion point eventually being what did you listen to the whole weekend?  Or the contemporary equivalent question would be,  “So what did you watch?”  All preferably in bi-lateral intimacy as opposed to Solomon Skhuza or Leonard Dembo ‘with the boys and Chibuku scuds’. 

Upon a little more reflection I have come to consider that what entertains urban young Zimbabweans in audio visual mediated format is mostly via new accessible streaming platforms such as Netflix. 

Even if they do not have regular access to it, they actively work toward and aspire to acquiring it in the present.

In all probability Netflix, Showmax and other online content streaming platforms are probably ‘status’ symbols.  Almost like having a video cassette recorder (VCR) or access to satellite television and Music television (MTV) back in the 1990s. Together with World Wrestling Federation (WWF) choreographed for television shows which at some point became bigger than even the international religiosity around European broadcast football.   As was the case for some of us comparative oldies (no ageism intended) 

And we could argue for a while about the class/social ramifications implied by access to these new online platforms or the older analogue ones.  The more important matter would be the content that the new digital content streaming platforms such as Netflix and others convey in the contemporary. 

What is interesting in the latter regard is the fact that a majority of the content that we would access via these new internet based platforms in made for television or movie theater formats is both old and new.  Old in the sense that it represents the past about representations of the global south (juxtapose Black Panther with Tarzan) 

And new in relation to the reality that it represents the quantitative expansion of a globalized understanding of how societies in the global south and global north can come to regard each other. In what remains a largely one-sided/lopsided manner.

In some instances, the latter point can be considered as a democratization of perception.  When we, in the global south watch Netflix programmes as they are availed we often do so in as real time as a person in the global north.  Especially if the content is new in the form of documentaries, new drama series or movies.

Expectedly, based on the amount of content we consume as it comes in the quantitative majority of cases from the global north, we in the global south may not be in a position to say that platforms such as Netflix in their global reach are balanced in relation to this democratization of perception.  In some cases, and in the wake of the Black Lives Matter nascent movement, we have seen the removal of some global north oriented content (even if it was produced in the global south) that was deemed as promoting racist stereotypes. 

What matters more however is the fact that because Netflix and similar streaming platforms are not going to go away nor do they intend to, given their huge profit margins, those of us in the global south need to come to a more holistic understanding of how the content presented therein reflects how we are potentially viewed in the global scheme of things.  Especially in the age of Covid 19.  While we may have addictions to specific content about drugs in South America or glossed over political dramas on political systems in Western Europe, we would still need to be grounded in our own realities.  Beyond the mediums.

This includes the fact that we need to be able to create content that reflects on our own contextual realities and aspirations.  From documentaries through to made for television series’ and movies. Not only for our own contextual cultural appreciation but also in order to occupy these new platforms as enabled by the internet and access to it.

In this, a key question that emerges is always how do we capture our own imaginations outside of the cultural grasp of the global north?  It is a question that I do not have an answer to.  What I abstractly know is that the mediums through which we seek entertainment come with a significant amount of baggage (historical, economic, political and social).  And one sided perceptions except in relatively unique circumstances such as when these streaming platforms allow ground breaking historical/political documentaries or made in the image of the global north soap operas or television shows.

Harnessing these online and rapidly expanding in African urban areas content streaming platforms may be a long way off.  For now.  It may also controversially require state/government subsidies that we are able to sustainably produce content for emerging online platforms such as Netflix.  And in the process learn to truly ‘chill’.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

 

Rural Education in Covid19 Zimbabwe, Radio as Key.

By Takura Zhangazha*

In recent conversations about the impact of Covid 19 on rural livelihoods with relatives and friends from my rural home in Bikita, we touched upon the important subject of education.  The particular subject matter was, as is the conversational norm, initially approached from a generalized angle.  With the familiar subject being the safety and health of the children as the main reason why schools must remain closed. Or issues of how the difficult payments of school fees from communal farming incomes was now appearing to have been in vain.  With some schools still insisting on payments for school fees despite the uncertainty of when the teaching calendar will possibly resume.

The conversations became slightly more organic when it shifted to that most difficult of subjects called home-schooling. As caused by Covid 19’s impact.  In this there was an evident difference between how it is being done in urban and rural areas. In the urban areas it was explained that there are online learning platforms that are being explored by parents and schools such as live online teaching or in poorer residential areas, Whatsapp platforms for home schooling.  Or that schools were examining and utilizing the option of emailing lessons/modules for parents to try and teach their own children from home at scheduled intervals. 

In the rural communities however the idea of home-schooling the children at either primary or secondary education levels is almost practically non-existent.  For a number of reasons outlined in conversations with colleagues based there.  The most obvious being the fact that the teacher and regular teaching materials cannot be availed to the parents due to the lack of mediums with which to do so.  These mediums being threefold; electricity, internet/data accessories (computers/smart phones) and/or television sets.  The only medium much more widely available would be the radio receiver which again requires electric power either directly or in the form of battery or solar power. I will come back to the radio a little later on.  Suffice to say the online home education option is one that technically is not available to a majority of rural parents, teachers or students. Or even the schools themselves as they cannot integrate it into new teaching strategies due to the fact that parents cannot access them. 

A second element pointing to differences between urban and rural homeschooling was what one parent advised was a lack of their own capacity to teach.  In rural areas most parents and grandparents who are permanently based there have not have had much formal education.  And in most cases are unable to grasp concepts that they would be assumed to teach their own children even at primary education level. While this is a characteristic common to both urban and rural households, it is more pronounced in the latter.   So even if rural schools were mandated to come up with user friendly printed manuals for home-schooling, the parent/guardian may not be in a position to enable it.

As a third observation, it was interesting to hear what the children who had initially been somewhat happy about what they thought would be a temporarily extended holiday had to say.  From the conversations it was fairly apparent that there is a desire to go back to school.  Not just for educational purposes but to also occupy time with friends and other extra curriculum activities. Especially because there is no access to television or smart mobile telephony connected to the internet.  Even their parents recognize the boredom of necessary chores (cattle herding, fetching water etc) for their children but it would still appear that there would, for the moment, be no other options.

A fourth observation is the telling psychological impact on rural based parents of this closure of schools and the (temporary perhaps) uncertainty of the future of their children.  By way of general analysis, education in rural areas is/was seen as a means through which parents can give their children a chance of escaping rural poverty for what remains mythical urban employment and therefore success.  So tilling the land, keeping livestock all in order to raise the necessary school fees to see the child through the required levels of education is an aspirational priority for the rural parent.  It gives one a sense of purpose and drive to work hard even under tenuous rural circumstances.  Where it is disrupted as is the case with Covid 19, these dreams are dealt a heavy psycho-social blow.  This is also the case in the urban but the context and available options as outlined above differ significantly.

While I am certainly no expert on education policy, I would still hazard suggesting a couple of way forwards on the emerging challenges in rural education.  As alluded to earlier, radio is the most ubiquitous medium of access to information in our rural areas. It is therefore the primary medium through which rural homeschooling must be undertaken.  The Zimbabwean government through the ministry of education in collaboration with the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) must urgently set up a national educational radio station on frequency modulation (POTRAZ and BAZ have the FM frequencies) in the short term.  And this national radio station can interchange broadcast lessons for various primary and secondary education levels per week and publicise these to schools and parents as is pragmatic. 

In the medium term there is a need for a radio receiver roll out programme to poorer rural households as identified by school authorities and parent’s associations. This would also include the attendant power accessories such as storage batteries or solar panels.

In the long term the role of community radio will be important for home schooling. Work on licensing and capacity building of these to respond to not only Covid 19 but also embrace new ways of learning for rural and urban children is key. 

All of this with an understanding that where we seek to mitigate the challenges posed by the Covid19 pandemic in Zimbabwe, the rural is not a distant hinterland.  It is an integrated national space that requires, as anywhere else, urgent national attention.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

Emerging Temporality, “Ephemeralism” in Zim’s National Consciousness

By Takura Zhangazha*

It is always going to be a difficult question to answer.   The one about how something that effectively represents temporality can evolve into a more regular/cyclical pattern or occurrence.  And generally with the same probable results. 

Almost as a situation in which the immediate suddenly also becomes the future. On repeat.

I am referring here to the emerging patterns of what would be Zimbabwean’s national consciousness or to be more straightforward- national or ‘nationalized’ emotions.

But with an explainer that this is not just peculiar to our own country.  It is probably a global phenomenon caused by various factors.  With the most prominent being the world political economy as determined by the neo-liberal ideological straightjacket and misplaced faith in the ‘free market’ as defined by the interests of private capital and our general global consumerism/hedonism.

But for this write up it would be much simpler to focus on Zimbabwe.

In doing so I am aware that not many of us would be aware of the turn of phrase ‘national consciousness’.  Save for those who may have encountered revolutionaries such as Franz Fanon and read their organic analysis of what should inform struggles for the liberation of not only African countries but also African minds. 

In our current context however this may be too complex an analytical angle to attempt.  Not for lack of trying but because of the very same emerging culture of ‘temporality/ immediacy’. Or what I would call ‘ephemeralism’ that is emerging in our national political, economic and social culture.

In this, there is no general national desire to understand things, events as they occur more holistically.  We function essentially in the immediacy of the moment. With convenient and scant references to our preferred versions of either national history or societal models in the global north/east. 

And it is understandable. For at least four relatively ‘easy’ reasons. The first and more obvious being that of the fact of the mediums in which we now expand our understanding of issues and the world.  Foremost among these being social media as we immediately access it via technologies such as the mobile phone and its accessories. Or how those with the aforementioned access bring it to those without. 

Social media is essentially designed to function in the immediate for its users.  But not its owners, a point often lost to us when we claim it as our very personal own. And there have been a number of researches on the psycho-social impact it has had in either modifying human behavior or establishing ‘echo-chambers’ that fortify our own prejudices or even resistances to progressive change.  Hence you will not find that much critical or ideological analysis in the privately owned Twittersphere’s, Facebook and WhatsApp platforms in Zimbabwe or its Diaspora.  Again, for emphasis, this is not a bad thing because free expression can never be prescriptive. It can however be assumed to have some sort of long term progressive perspectives and understanding of events as they unfold. 

And this is where we probably are.  It is easier to move from one #hashtag to the next than take a step back and try to understand the underlying causes.  Probably for fear of getting left behind.  In any event it would definitely be easier than trying to speed-read an e-book or detailed article on the #hashtag subject matter.

A key question would then be,  “Are events that have been occurring in Zimbabwe that unexpected beyond social media’s ephemeral gaze?”  Their (events) shock and awe characteristics as presented via social media platforms tend to make the heart skip a beat but the mind to also set aside some sort of due contextual cognitive process.  It is therefore a question of, “How does it make you feel?” As opposed to, “what does it make you think?”

The latter two questions are now interplaying themselves in real life offline situations such as how we handle the short and long term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Zimbabwean society.  And many other forms of activism that either seek to challenge or affirm the ruling establishment.  And in this, as individuals, we function with too much that we may want to be ‘recognized’ for.  Even if briefly and with too little time.

To the extent that before we know it, our target audiences have moved on to the next new phenomenon with limited little learnt or gleaned. Except for entertainment and probable expansion of again, ephemeral influence.

Beyond the new mediums of ephemeral national consciousness/emotion there are also other factors that play a significant role in its expansion. 

These include in the second instance the role of religion in its new found focus on the materialist aspects of Zimbabwean human existence. Almost as though it is arguing ‘we are what we consume’ in order to find ‘eternal life’.  The inter-changeability of material hedonism with mainstream and newer religious outfits in an age of global neoliberalism has been phenomenal to say the least.  Especially in Zimbabwe’s last twenty or so years.  Something that some have called the ‘rise of the prophets’ into our national consciousness.  And in most cases, for rather short term reasons and end-effect.

Thirdly, the ‘curious’ state of mainstream political parties (ruling and opposition) has unfortunately led to an undermining of what should have been a long term ingrained democratic culture in Zimbabwe. In the instance of the ruling party the fact that it could not effect a democratic leadership succession plan brought Zimbabwe to the precipice via the intervention of the military in a coup. 

In the mainstream opposition, again the same affliction of a lack of intra-party democracy means that consciousness remains mired in the immediacy of power than any longer term considerations beyond the same.

Fourthly and finally, our increasingly ephemeral national consciousness is probably down to a lack of a continuum of previous and new ideas that sift and shift through our national history for organic alternatives that young Zimbabweans can learn from, look up to or at least teach others. A situation that in borrowing from Gramsci refer to as the lack of a ‘generational praxis’ approach to an ideologically liberatory history.  It may sound a tad too intellectual or academic for social media, religious institutions or mainstream political actors. But I am sure it will help at some point.

Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com) 

The Important Symbolism, Consciousness of the New Nehanda Statue.

By Takura Zhangazha*

 The Zimbabwean government unexpectedly announced that it is going to place a statue of liberation icon Mbuya Nehanda in central Harare.  And that the work has already started on the same.  I was pleasantly surprised at this move by the current government. Not only because it is important that we recognize more publicly the significance of the role that the spirit medium of Nehanda played in leading the First Chimurenga against colonialism but also how we should never seek to willfully forget our own national history.  Even in the most troubling of Covid 19 pandemic times and with the array of economic challenges that the country faces. 

The public reaction to the announcement has however been muted.  Most likely because statues are probably not top of many Zimbabweans’ priority lists.  In opposition circles this was even more apparent with opposition leaders and activists referring to the memorial statue as being the equivalent of ‘worshipping the dead’.  Obviously they are entitled to their opinion on the matter even if it said in the moment and probably only to oppose Zanu Pf’s policies.

A few activists have also brought in the religious angle around the statue.  In doing so they appear to be taunting the fervently religious to not understand the importance of Nehanda in history and acknowledge the role of, in this particular case, Christian religious institutions in not only Nehanda’s execution but also colonialism.  All juxtaposed with their knowledge that the Christian faith generally denounces traditional African religious practices such as the recognition of spirit mediums and ancestors as intercessors of life with Mwari/Umlimu.  As it relates to everyday lives of Zimbabweans.

Some friends and cdes I interact with have indicated their fear that such a statue may probably be an ‘easier’ option for the ruing establishment.  Mainly because there are so many other female leaders and heroes of Zimbabwean liberation struggles that continue to go unrecognized.  Others still are fearful of what the late historian Terrence Ranger called ‘patriotic history’ in which only the ruling Zanu Pf party's version and interpretation of history dominates official state narratives across the media, universities and the basic education curriculum. 

What has not happened however is any outright protest at the idea of a Nehanda statue in central Harare.  A development that is indicative of the general legitimacy of this act of recognition.  To the extent that the only emerging issue would be the artistic creativity of the statue and where it is placed.

It is however also important to fully grasp the symbolism of this Nehanda statue.  As it relates to not only our struggles against settler colonialism via the first and second Chimurenga/Umvukela but more importantly as to how the leadership example set by Nehanda applies in contemporary Zimbabwean society. 

And these leadership examples are, in my view, threefold.  The first being the fact that in leadership, as exemplified by Nehanda, we should strive to be organic and visionary.  Or to put it much more simply, to anticipate what is probably coming.  While preparing to mitigate or counter detrimental potential events with a firm belief in the values of your people.  And this is not about prophecy or supernatural powers.  It is about being able to understand events as they occur in your society and try as far as is organically possible to always struggle for social and economic justice of the many, not the few. 

Secondly, is the fact of how female leaders, who are hardly given due recognition for their role in our national liberation struggles, have historically been important in defining Zimbabwe.  Nehanda’s statue would essentially re-affirm that in a much more public way beyond either the name of a street or a hospital. While many adult Zimbabweans may not need the reminder based on what they were taught in high school history lessons, it would be imperative that subsequent young generations get reminded of this history outside of the exam class.  And that they also understand the equal roles that men and women can play in revolutionary, progressive leadership to better Zimbabwean society. All in order to emphasise not only a gender equality national consciousness but also to  keep progressive history in vogue even when contemplating the contemporary as it influences preferred futures. 

Finally, the symbolism of Nehanda’s statue in central Harare, is one that would recognize history not only for what it means to the national consciousness but more importantly the necessity of never having to repeat it.  To know the struggles Nehanda led and also helped foster in the Second Chimurenga/Umvukela, is not to desire that Zimbabwe relives these same said struggles.  It is in order to recognize the values, the pain and sacrifices made in order to get Zimbabwe to its freedom. But not in order that we go back to those struggles. Instead Nehanda’s legacy tells us to hold fast to the values of liberation and move the people forward in fulfillment of the aspirations that led her and others to fight colonial and all other repressions in Zimbabwe.

So while I will not be among the first to be photographed at the Nehanda statue when completed, I understand its national importance and symbolism. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)