Creatives took advantage of an advocacy workshop organised by Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) on Empowering Cultural Practitioners in Malawi for Enhanced Freedom of Expression project at Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre on Friday to raise several challenges for the sector including mindset change for the country.
The creatives from different disciplines such as music, theatre, poetry and visual arts said the country needs to change its mindset on how it views the creative sector.
“The country still looks at art or the creative sector in general as ‘zamasewero’ and yet arts and culture contributes so much to the development of the country. This mindset needs to change,” Ndirande Anglican Voices lead vocalist Dennis Kalimbe said.
This was echoed by several other players including veteran promoter Jai Banda popularly known as Mr Entertainer, who added that there was lack of investment in the creative sector for it to flourish.
“There is potential in the creative sector looking at how artists are now able to generate funds but there is still that lack of investment. It takes so much to organise an event for instance but there is no support with a few coming out,” Banda, who is also a lawyer, said.
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He said the country needs to rise up and realise that the creative sector has so much in terms of helping the country grow and that the government and corporate world has to offer support.
Coordinator of the project Shadreck Kumtengo said the creative sector needs support and that the advocacy workshop, seeks to implore artists to use their craft to express themselves.
“We have issues on the ground that creatives are looking at, you talk of Nahec for instance, so this project is empowering them to speak out,” Kumtengo said.
During the workshop, one of the facilitators Ezaius Mkandawire, who spoke on ‘Advocacy for Cultural Practitioners in Malawi,’ highlighted some of the challenges facing the creative sector and they included limited access to funding and grants, weak policy enforcement for copyright and intellectual property, under-representation in decision making bodies and limited media exposure.
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Some of the other discussions were on ‘Festivals for Cultural Practitioners’ presented by James Thole from Department of Arts and Copyright Fund made by Copyright Fund Manager Blessings Botha.
The project is supported by The Royal Norwegian Embassy.
