"I want to make this a special tribute..." announced the raspy voice from Hilux speakers. We sat quietly in the vehicle and listened as Scott-Heron continued, "...to a family that contradicts the concepts, heard the rules but wouldn't accept and women-folk raised me and I was full grown before I knew, I came from a broken home.." In the middle of the poem as Scott-Heron narrated how he was sent to live with his grandmother when "uncles were leaving and grandfather had just left for heaven", I felt high, already in heaven. I wanted to smoke, even though I do not smoke.
It was Saturday afternoon, Day Five of Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA). HIFA is an annual six-day spectacle that showcases Zimbabwe and international arts and culture in a comprehensive festival programme of theatre, dance, music, circus, street performance, spoken word and visual arts. After a march with the Zimbabwe Brass Band and the group Slavic Soul Party that started at Africa Unity Square to Harare Gardens, I ran into one of South Africa's premier visual artists, Kay Hassan.
