Players in the creative industry say they feel art and culture sectors are not getting the required attention due to their bundling with other bigger sectors, notably Local Government.
The recent reservations follow a Cabinet reshuffle announcement on Wednesday night by President Lazarus Chakwera, which sees Local Government, Unity and Culture maintained under the same portfolio with the art department falling under it.
In an interview yesterday, University of Malawi lecturer in theatre film studies Thoko Kapiri said the amalgamation of the Local Government and Unity sectors with Culture is somehow disenfranchising the arts and cultural sectors.
He said: “This is not only because Local Government is a bigger department, but it is also because in the Malawi 2063 framework and African Union Agenda 2063, aspects of arts and culture are more inclined to be placed under what we call the creative industry.
“The creative industry itself is more in affinity with the tourism industry that is why you notice that in the previous Cabinet setups they used to combine culture, arts and tourism. There is a bit of balance there as tourism is not as big as Local Government.”
Kapiri, who is also a renowned actor, said it would be better if we reverted to the previous setup as the Local Government Department is more dominant and challenging which will automatically render the arts and culture sectors being sidelined.
“We should consider what the two sectors are contributing to the GDP, which unofficially stands at 13 percent. That shows that the two deserve their own ministry. We do arts because it is industrial and the cultural. Moving forward I think we need to see arts and culture standing on its own,” he said.
In a sperate interview, Solomonic Peacock director MacArthur Matukuta said the embedding of culture, arts under local government and unity has made the issue of implementation of programmes not to be very clear as the Local Government requires more attention owing to its size.
He said: “The development of the nation starts with the Local Government. Now if we embed the department of culture to the ministry of Local Government, we will overlook it.
“On the other hand, the development of arts and culture is also a big unit that requires its own ministry. Maybe if it were married to tourism, there could have been a certain correlation because tourism cannot thrive on its own without arts and culture.”
Matukuta thanked the government for the effort it is making in improving the sectors, but he said there is more that can be done and making arts and culture an independent ministry will facilitate such expected growth.
“After the establishment of the Arts Council the next step will be to develop arts and culture and if we are to achieve that we need more focus. If we maintain the status quo we will continue looking at arts and culture just as another branch,” he said.
Echoing the sentiments is National Theatre of Malawi president Maxwell ‘DC’ Chiphinga who said having the Hahec Bill assented to, the only ideal thing is to make arts and culture an independent ministry.
“But since government is trying to work in line with our economy, putting us together with tourism would be much better than local government and unity which is already overloaded,” he said.
But in a separate interview yesterday, Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda played down the fears and assured the sectors that they are giving the two sectors the required attention.
The minister said: “Once the Arts Council has been fully operationalised it will enhance the works of artists across the country by providing support, looking at the welfare and at the same time facilitating in exporting our culture and art products.”
Chimwendo Banda said they believe the council, because of its mandate, will be the head of all the operations and will help to improve all the challenges that the sectors have been facing in the past.
