The British Council took home some awards from the eighth Zimbabwe National Merit Awards.

The event, which was held on 13 March, honours outstanding contributions to the Zimbabwean arts sector over the past year.

Not even superstitions about Friday the 13th could stop thousands of well-turned-out Zimbabweans from enjoying the event.

The awards, which are organised by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, honour 35 individual artists and groups for their contributions to music, literature, art, dance, visual arts, media, film and television. There is also a special awards category.

British Council Zimbabwe Deputy Director Ignatius Mabasa won the Outstanding Fiction Book award for his Shona novel Ndafa Here? (So What?).

Mabasa is responsible for British Council Zimbabwe’s local cultural relations programme.

He believes he has benefited from the opportunity to interact with UK writers and artists during the six years he has worked for the British Council,

‘When we talk of what the British Council is doing for cultural relations we often forget that employees like me also get opportunities to fulfil their potential,’ says Mabasa.

‘The British Council has given me a rare opportunity to link with exceptionally talented people like the Welsh poet Menna Elfyn, who, like me, writes in her mother tongue – we have become friends.’  

According to his website, Mabasa writes all his novels in the Shona language because his inspiration always comes in his mother tongue.

‘I have tried to convert the lines that have come to me in my native language into English to try to please as well as show those around me that I am a writer across languages, but my lines in English are never the same as they come to me in Shona.

‘It is the language I think, dream, cry and laugh in. I have this language that I do not have to fight with when I need to express myself, so I feel it is folly for me to try to express myself in a language that does not come to me naturally.’

Other participants of British Council programmes also received awards. Loupe, a play directed by Tafadzwa Muzondo, scooped two awards in the theatre category.

The play is part of the British Council’s HIFA-Direct project, which trains and mentors Zimbabwean writers and theatre directors. Muzondo, who was also the star of the play, won the Outstanding Actor award and the play took the Outstanding Theatrical Production award.

To read more about Mabasa and his work, click here. For the latest news in Africa, see our News in Africa section here. See our upcoming events on our events calendar here. To locate your British council country office click here.