Taarifa kutoka Harare International Festival of the Arts

Zimbabweans have lived through a strange and bitter period of history since the fight for freedom achieved national independence in 1980. They have seen much trauma in their lives: from a stable, peaceful and independent country to a ‘crisis country’. The crisis has driven 3-4 million Zimbabweans to seek refuge and escape in other countries.

In 2005 ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ (Clean up the Filth) ...- a politically motivated paramilitary operation - was implemented to remove ‘opposition’ strongholds in the urban areas by destroying informal homes and businesses. It left seven hundred thousand of the poorest people homeless, without livelihood and destitute.

Operation Murambatsvina displaced almost a third of Harare's population - the hidden story of the capital city, and one that is rarely told, an unspoken scar on the psyche of the people of Zimbabwe.

The people affected, after the event, were not giving television interviews or demanding compensation from the courts. They could not fight for their story to be told, and their loss to be recognised; they were simply struggling to eat.

It is in some ways, as if the displacement of almost a million people never happened. Because those affected were not wealthy, and did not have democratic rights, the entire operation which destroyed hundreds and thousands of homes and livelihoods, has largely passed without any response from the cultural community.

‘HARARE FILES ‘ is a one-person theatre production which tells seven of the 700,000 stories of Murambatsvina. It focuses on seven selected first-hand stories of the women affected by Operation Murambatsvina, told in their own words.

It is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. The narrative drama and poignancy of these true and personal stories is overwhelming, sometimes shocking, even choking, but always transcending: how women dealt with such destruction to their lives and their sanctity.

This testimony is brought to the stage by TONDERAI MUNYEBVU, adapted from ‘In My Own Words: Zimbabwean Women’s encounter with Operation Murambatsvina’, directed by Sarah Norman, and produced by Pamberi Trust.

That these stories are brought to life and to stage by a young, male actor, solo, is another kind of testimony, not only an extraordinary artistic exploration in identity that challenges traditional ‘taboo’ around gender, but an insight of what it means, really, to step inside the life of the victim, in the words of the victim, and understand.
The play runs for 3 nights at the famous ‘Mannenberg’ in the Zimbabwean capital, and 2 performances at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) at the end of April. Harare Files was presented at HIFA by the British Council and is brought to GoetheonMain by the Goethe-Institut South Africa in association with Pamberi Trust and African Synergy Trust.