Groove Magazine Zimbabwe Issue 2 | Page 9

URBAN DICTIONARY SCENE placed in laws and constitutions. Art Speaks louder than words! AFRICA IS A GREAT COUNTRY By Bryanna Chifunyise By Elspeth Chimedza As young as some of us are, at times it can be hard to interpret a conversation when everybody is speaking gibberish, right? Well lucky for you, I go to lengths to research what people are saying when they are texting, (forgetting that some of us do not speak short hand).In this issue it’s all relative. So what’s the word for mum by the way? ARTIVISM Word: Quan (formerly queen) Meaning: Mother Example: “My quan is ferusing for me to jump out!” Word: Lala Meaning: Father Example: “Dude if your lala finds out, you’re toast!” Word: Relies Meaning: Relatives Example: “Sorry Tee can’t make it for the movie. Got some relies coming by our cabin.” TEXT Lol- laugh out loud Smh- shaking my head Omg-oh my gosh Only weird people believe that art speaks to people right? No! Out and about on the arts scene, I attended the FLAME Pamberi’s “ Artivism Workshop” which aimed to discuss the use of art as a c hannel for activism. Different women within the journalism, music, theatre and activism spheres joined together at the Book Café, giving definitions to terms and how they feel about different “rights”, causes, mainly about gender-based violence and female empowerment. The round table included singers Cindy Munyavi, Clare Njakure, Kessia Mangosha, theatre actress Rutendo Chigudu, poet Batsirai Chigama, representatives from the One Billion Rising organization and other women from the different artistic disciplines. The most important thing to come out of this discussion was how best can all these women use their talents to help structure a movement that will influence change in society pertaining to issues of gender based violence and the plight of the girl child and woman, since this is still a great challenge despite all the feministic agendas that have been structured and have been Groove Magazine Zimbabwe For anyone who has a flare for visual art, this was one exhibition that you would have wanted to attend. Imagine a European viewing your continent from a different eye? Well, renowned Swedish photographer, Jens Assur, (who unfortunately did not manage to make it to Zimbabwe as he fell ill), however was represented by a colleague, Alex, took journalists through an exhibition of how this great continent of Africa might as well be one country as one could see several similarities from different cities on the continent. The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight the spreading growth of Africa in terms of urbanization. The title in itself is very provocative and somewhat eye opening to the African who might have always separated themselves due to geographical borders, ethnicity and religion only to find that we all practically live in cities that are so similar, although others more developed than the next. Gaborone, Kigali, Johanessburg, Lusaka, Cairo, Monrovia, Maputo and our majestic Victoria Falls, each city felt like home and that is why “Africa is A Great Country”. 5