BY SHARON SIBINDI
Media and Arts Zimbabwe (MAZ) says as part of the Amplifying Women’s Voices Project, a weekly series of podcasts produced by five Bulawayo females in the creative and cultural industries will be launched this week.
The podcasts are the culmination of a training project targeted at female creatives in podcasting and photography supported by Prohelvetia. The podcasts will be available on YouTube on the sisnxtgen channel and the usual podcast platforms.
One of the lead trainers, Christensen Mapuranga told Standard Style that the five series of podcasts, will run for 13 weeks.
“The podcast include A Weird Brown Girl produced by Nonkosi Tazibona. It is a podcast that focuses on addressing social and art-related issues affecting Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole,” Mapuranga said.
“This podcast is also centered on empowering the black female in every way possible and the pilot explores the issues surrounding what the generation defines as coconut behavior where one is perceived to be a white person in a black person’s skin due to their mannerism or accent.”
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Eighteen-year-old Nonkosi, who is waiting for her A Level results said: “I undertook the podcast training and production as a way of gaining new skills and also participating in the discourse around what being an African means to the younger generation.”
Mapuranga said podcast lovers will also be excited on Nkosilesisa Ncube’s new project titled Misadventures Of a Local Spinsters .
“This a five-minute podcast in which she shares the trials, tribulations, adventures and misadventures of being a spinster in her mid-twenties,” Mapuranga said.
“This fun and quirky podcast is a breath of fresh air and brings not just comic relief but also gives perspectives around societal expectations in this modern-day age.
“Nkosilesisa is no novice to content creation as she is a published writer, movie and series writer with multiple productions on DStv and Showmax platforms.
“Misadventures Of a Local Spinster will run every Tuesday.”
Mapuranga said another podcast titled Single Mamas Haven by Samantha Dube and co-hosted by herself and Nozipo Zypo Moyo will air on Wednesdays and takes out through the lives of young singles mothers.
“The podcast [A guide for single mothers] is about empowering women who find themselves pregnant and alone and seeks to be a source of hope and power to other women who find themselves having to raise a child alone,” he said.
Mapuranga said the multi-talented Charmaine Mudau makes her podcast debut in the no-holds barred gender battle podcast titled He Says – She Says where she hosts Keith Moyo in an exciting series of debates on topical issues such as quota systems, relationships, feminism, empowerment and politics.
“Described as the ultimate battle of the sexes, He Says She Says was conceived to spark debate particularly on how 21st century discourse on gender relations is shaping up in Zimbabwe in relationship to global trends,” she said.
“Sithandazile Dube, popularly known as UmAfricakazi, engages with middle to late age women in an exciting self-titled podcast that talks about experiences of this demographic age group. Followers can look forward to topics such as menopause, sex, culture and empowerment.
“Dube brings her experience as an actor, host and MC to produce an exciting show that will most likely be a hit with all women as there much to learn from.”
He said MAZ, which has been empowering female creatives for the past two years, is set to open a hub that will allow for female creatives to access recording equipment, broadcast equipment and photography equipment in its endeavor to address gender disparities in the creative and cultural industries in Zimbabwe.
Mapuranga said that the organisation has made quite a number of strides in this regard as to date they have managed to hold several cohorts of training in music production, sound engineering, cultural management, photography, scriptwriting for television and lately, podcasting.
“We are also excited about the impact of our work as some of our trainees have gone on to do amazing work in the industry,” she said.
“Last year we also managed to facilitate collaborations between Zimbabwe and Kenya, which saw Wambui Katee perform at Intwasa Arts Festival and also record a song with Msiz Kay and the video is doing quite well on YouTube.”