MUTARE– A renowned musician and poet, Albert Nyathi has challenged artists as communicators to embrace climate change as part of their responsibility to educate the society.
By Donald Nyarota
Nyathi, of the Senzenina hitmarker told 263Chat that artists have an obligation to spread the message of climate change to enhance awareness and promote adaptation.
Nyathi, a member of the consultative team mandated to come up with the National Adaptation Plan, in the Ministry of Lands, Water and Climate Change, said there is a need for artists to upscale efforts on climate change.
He said different forms of art including music, dance and poetry can be packaged in a way that can be used to raise awareness on topical issues in the society.
“Art is basically communication and art can be expressed in different forms, you have visual arts, performing arts which is music, theatre, dance and artists should realize that basically, they are communicators.
“For that reason, therefore we can use art not just for artists’ sake but art to communicate important messages like climate change, messages of health for instance,” said Nyathi.
Quizzed on whether artists were mainstreaming climate change in their work, Nyathi admitted that there has not been much work done by local artists to concentise society.
Nyathi also said there was a need for provision of incentives for artists to incorporate specific climate change issues in their work.
He said there should be a purse which ensures promotion of climate change message in music by provision of a financial package to facilitate production of streamlined art.
“Basically for such issues to be mainstreamed you need funding because artists are focused on a variety of themes and subjects as it were globally.
“So climate change is one of them and for that reason, responsible authorities should therefore provide funding because it is competing with other sectors, hence, they should provide funding to facilitate artists work in that regard,” he said.
