By Bonaventure Mutapi Musonda Chiti Mutale
In
continuation from part I of the article, the crux of this discourse is to
understand the extent to which the entertainment industry can be a durable
means of survival for our hard working artists. For arguments sake, of current
crop of musicians, apart from Macky II, Slap D, Mampi, Amayenge and JK, how
many artists are earning a decent livelihood from their intellectual property? To
be honest, they are very few in comparison to Nigeria’s or even South African famed
musicians whose net worth average earnings are in excess of millions of
dollars. Our artists are leap years behind. How much money does our acclaimed actor Owas
Mwape earn from the films he works hard to produce? How much money do cultural
dance troupes earn from their performances to sustain them? Or better still,
how much is earned by those visual artists whose spend their day being sun
kissed curving all types of art work? The truth is they earn peanuts and this
is so because the system disfavors the brains behind the works. In Zambia,
entertainment artists are conferred fame and not the fortune.
As a
nation, we should be guilty of stealing from these dead and living intellectuals.
In fact, the guilt should stem from the fact that we pirate their music through
free downloads from the internet. We should be guilty because we allow
unscrupulous filches to download music, package it in those white paper
labelled CDs sold on the streets with impunity for cut-rate prices while the
owners of the work famish in hunger and some in destitution. We should be guilty that we have not created
an environment where these artists in film or music can access funds to start
up their artistry. We should guilty because we have allowed our musicians to
perform for peanuts and yet we are so comfortable to pay foreign artists
thousands of dollars. Where does that money suddenly come from? We should guilty because we have not readily
availed them financial literacy to manage their fame and fortune. We should be
guilty because we have not provided the correct infrastructure to enhance the
quality of the recording and productions.
Apparently,
word on the ground is that some Djs in some radio stations are now asking for
money for an artist’s music to receive airplay? How corrupt can the system be?
While the work of the Djs is totally appreciated, it is discriminatory and
highly bigoted to expect a young budding musician to pay them money for airplay
when they even struggled to just get studio time to record a song. From the
net-worth of the South African music and the Nigerian movie and music industry,
one can conclude that the entertainment industry is a business that can thrive
in a virtuous environment. The questions that policy makers should be asking
themselves should range from what is South African or even Nigeria doing right
to attain such high levels of net worth? Pundits will hide in population
numbers which this author does not subscribe to. What about Botswana? What
about Equatorial Guinea and Benin that do not have the population numbers but
have gone ahead to produce big earning artists? The panacea to curing this
malaise of the entertainment industry needs well thought coordination at policy
all the way to the recording studio, production and the market place. When
artists in music or film industry are well remunerated, producers will be well
paid just like Djs and eventually more revenue will be poured in the treasury.
Institutions
like the National Arts Council (NAC) and Zambia Association of Musicians (ZAM)
need to be operating a macro level in pushing for reformation of the
entertainment industry and not just issuing numb reactive press statements.
They should engage experts who understand how this industry works in developed
countries and then make progressive propositions to the Government for
consideration. On the other hand, the powers that be should create a forum for
cross pollination of ideas on how to restructure the entertainment industry for
various forms of artistic work to benefit those from rural areas.
There is
need to put in place policy measures that cascade to the ward level. For
instance, the Government can dedicate three or four percent of the Constituency
Development Fund (CDF) to arts at constituency level. This should be executed
with a proper tracking system. This is a form of employment creation at ward
level which when aggregated at national level would have an impact on citizen
empowerment. High-tech music and film recording equipment should be bought and
installed in all ZANIS offices throughout the country to enable the tapping of
rural talent. There is no justification to continue keeping our artists whether
in film, music, comedy, painting or cultural dance as second-rate performers
when it is a common fact that authentic Zambian music and films can break
boundaries and earn the country recognition and much needed revenue. Once
fundamentals are put in place, everything else will work out because the
industry will be paying itself. Perhaps we will see a policy were all artists
in whatever form will be required to register with Patents and Companies
Registration Authority and Zambia Revenue Authority to enable the Government
determine the quantum of the industry. For musicians, music is an investment
that they should be earning interest through royalties once their ‘five
minutes’ of fame are over. Let us not deprive them of the fruits of their hard
work.
The author is a Lusaka-based Observer of
local and African Affairs.
For comments, feel free to email: bonaventuremutale@gmail.com
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