Stephen Joel Chifunyise

Stephen Joel Chifunyise[i] was born on 21 September 1948 in Nhema, Shurugwi, in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia). He started school at St Linus Matoranjera in Chitomborwizi, Chinhoyi, where he completed sub A to standard I. In 1960 he moved to Mumbwa, Zambia where he attended Shamweti Primary School until standard II before transferring to Chisengalumbwe. Between 1965 and 1969 he moved from Libala to St Mark’s Secondary School to complete high school.

The following year he enrolled for a BA degree in education at the University of Zambia (UNZA), and then went abroad to study for a Masters in Theatre Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  He completed the degree in 1977 and returned to Zambia, in the same year taking up a post as a drama lecturer at UNZA.

In 1979 he was appointed the Director of Zambian Cultural Services. In 1980 when Zimbabwe gained independence, Chifunyise returned to his country of birth, where he began working as Program Producer at the Audio Visual Services in the Ministry of Education and Culture. In 1983 he returned to academia and took up a lectureship in the drama department at the University of Zimbabwe. The position lasted only two months, whereupon he rejoined government as Chief Cultural Officer, rising to the positions of Director of Arts and Crafts, Under-Secretary for Arts and Crafts in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, and finally to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

From the 1980s Chifunyise started consulting for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in the area of arts and culture. In so doing he enabled huge advancements in cultural policies not only in Zimbabwe but also in other African countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini (then Swaziland) and Zimbabwe. As a certified UNESCO facilitator in the area of intangible cultural heritage, he played a central role in ratifying and implementing the 2003 UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage. He was also a member of the UNESCO team of experts on cultural governance, which implemented the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity.[ii]

Chifunyise’s commitment to amending cultural policies in Zimbabwe arose from the lack of institutional recognition of the arts in post independence Zimbabwe. In his paper ‘Trends in Zimbabwean Theatre Since 1980’, Chifunyise examines the decline of Zimbabwe’s rich culture of story telling music and dance after independence.

Theatre in Zimbabwe since 1980 has, in the main, been a response to these policies of reconciliation, non-racial development and socialism. Thus an analysis of Zimbabwean theatre is in many ways an assessment of the successes and obstacles in the development of a non-racial and socialist culture in Zimbabwe. [iii]

The devaluation of the arts by government and mainstream media occurred in spite of the fact that performance arts played an essential role in the liberation movement - the novel theatre form ‘Pungwe’ having been created to dramatise the people’s struggle (Chimurenga), and concretise their aims of socialism and the transference of political and economic power. After independence however, most of those involved in liberation theatre were assigned senior positions in government or absorbed into the national army, thus leaving a void in new Zimbabwe’s theatre landscape. The well established and well funded ‘White theatre’ responded with extreme caution to the new policies of reconciliation and non-racial cultural development, and although the National Theatre Organisation implemented non-racial policies, it was ineffectual in shifting the association’s objectives, choice of plays, target audience, ownership and use of theatre facilities. As a result, when it came to developing new theatre forms that drew on the country’s cultural history, the onus fell on independent initiatives.

Some rural schools continued to stage struggle plays (drama about the country’s history and political problems) and independent arts organisations emerged. Chifunyise co-founded the Children Performance Arts Workshop (CHIPAWO) with Robert McLaren, in 1989, which nurtured many emerging artists. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre (ZACT) alongside the late Ngugi wa Miiri, which played a central role in developing theatre in Zimbabwe. He was also central to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Arts and Culture Festivals from 1994 to 2000, chaired the Southern African Film Festival from 1990 to 1996, and facilitated the review and classification of the culture sector and the formulation of the National Action Plan for the Culture Sector in Botswana from 2004 to 2008. He joined the board of trustees of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in 2011 and remained a member all his life.

Chifunyise’s playwriting career was prolific, his oeuvre estimated at over 70 written and 63 performed, though his official UNESCO resume verifies 55. The plays were performed on stage, radio and television in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sweden, South Africa, Malawi, India and the United Kingdom (UK). Several of his scripts in the 1970s were broadcast on Zambian television and were produced by Rooftop Promotions Theatre Company in Zimbabwe. The plays were overtly political and often times intended to initiate specific debates. Heal the Wounds, written in the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s political violence in 2008, hoped to ignite discussion “about the processes and the ideas and the ideology that is being propounded on achieving national healing and reconciliation."[iv]

Stephen Chifunyise died of cancer on 5 August, 2019. Tributes poured in from all sectors. The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe stated publically that they were

Enveloped with intense anguish, sadness and complete helplessness. Zimbabwe and the arts fraternity learnt of the heart-breaking passing on of the iconic and revered figure in the creative and cultural industry, the affable and irreplaceable Stephen Chifunyise.[v]

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa wrote that they joined

the entire arts and culture fraternity in mourning the iconic expert whose articulation of arts and culture issues with clarity and deep understanding will remain etched in our minds for a long time.[vi]

Executive director of Hifa wrote that

To express what a loss Chifunyise is to the Hifa board of trustees and to arts and culture in Zimbabwe is difficult and emotionally draining. He will be so sorely missed because of just the man he was — warm, gentle, bold, intelligent and encouraging. Within the context of Zimbabwean arts and culture, we have lost a warrior, a man not afraid to express his views and to share his concerns”. [vii]

In recognition of his eminence and contributions to Zimbabwe, the government provided the artist and activist with a state assisted funeral. He is survived by his wife Philipa Chifunyise.