THE 20th edition of the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA), will be held on February 27 2021 under the theme ‘Our Legacy, Our Pride’.
NAMA shall celebrate Zimbabwe’s 40th anniversary as well as the 35 years of National Arts Council (NAC) existence.
Officials says the awards will be a unique event in the sense that on the night we shall honour forty (40) legends as we celebrate 40 years of Independence, dubbed NAMA Legends Awards #NAMAlegends.
The Legends Awards provide for a strategic postponement of the competitive 20th NAMA whose hosting hung in the balance due to COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
The prestigious competitive annual awards have been postponed for a year owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 8 months.
In reaching the decision to postpone the competitive NAMA, NACZ is cognisant of the fact that a lack of activity in the sector has greatly affected the ability of artists to create in their usual spaces, said Nicholas Moyo, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe Director.
“While we recognize that some arts disciplines have been able to operate under the stringent lockdown conditions, the whole integrity of NAMA stands to be compromised in a situation where there were significant inhibitions to creativity created by the stringent lockdown regulations,” Moyo said.
“In this regard the postponed NAMA will be held in February 2022 and will reward art works created in the period 1st December 2019 to 30th November 2021. This extended period is to allow artists to resume their operations in light of the relaxed COVID19 regulations. By hosting the Legends Awards we desire to reflect on the developments in the Cultural and Creative Industries over the past 40 years and celebrate our achievements by providing honorary awards to the people who were influential during the period in shaping the various subsectors of the CCIs. The awards are a special honour and recognition to legendary creatives who have raised high the flag of the country over the stated period, “ he said
Event Managers, Jacaranda Culture and Media Corporation (JCMC) are up to upbeat.
Napoleon ‘Napster’ Nyanhi who is the NAMA Executive Director and JCMC representative said they were already preparing and planning for the #NAMAlegends.
“The first thing on our calendar is the Inaugural Annual Golf Day to be held in two weeks time on the 4th of December 2020 and we are saying annual in the hope that it will happen every year. Our hope is to see creatives and corporates coming together and create more synergies in such a setting,” Nyanhi said.
“We are thus calling artists and journalists to come on board, register and be a part of the golf day.”
Present at the press conference was Elton Kurima from Kayse Connect who expressed their joy to be working with the NAMA brand and urged more corporates to support the awards.
“We are honoured to be working with NAMA and the corporate world to uplift the brand Zimbabwe through Cultural and Creative initiatives as these,” he said.
Other corporates represented were Old Mutual, Delta Beverages, Seed.Co, and Zimnat.
Details of modalities of these Awards will be availed to stakeholders in due course.
