Fungayi Kanyuchi
5 March 2001
column
Harare — Claude Maredza can easily be dismissed as just another ordinary middle aged man, until you sit down with him and listen to his tale of humble beginnings as Babamunini Francis in the early 80s drama of the same title, and how he has since climbed the ladder of artistry. Today, he is famed for his most controversial hard hitting novel, Blackness Of Black, a book some people would love to tear apart.
Claude says: "Art has been a part of me since my days as Babamunini Francis in the early 80s television drama, though the big break came in 1981 when I was a bachelor of accountancy student at university. The people from BBC's Channel Four came there to do auditions for a film they wanted to put on called House Of Hunger, which was an adaptation of a book of the same title by the late Dambudzo Marechera.
"I remember auditioning for a very small part in the film, but surprisingly I ended up being chosen for the main part," he recalls.
After House Of Hunger, Claude did several documentaries until 1986, when Richard Attenbo-rough, who had seen Claude in House of Hunger, began auditions for a film he was shooting in the country called Cry Freedom.
He auditioned and was given a small part. But for him, it was a big honour and privilege to act alongside such international stars as America's Denzil Washington, who played the part of Steve Biko.
"Although I only had two sentences to say in the film, it was such an honour because this film had a budget of US$44 million. And back in 1987, this was a lot of money."
After Cry Freedom, an opportunity to be both an actor and production manager on Consequences came up and he gladly took it.
"I did more documentaries both in front and behind the camera up until 1990 when I acted in Neria as a lawyer."
Although Claude has never been within the walls of a law school, he executed his part so well that he had divorced women calling asking him to represent them in court. But of course he had to explain to them that he was not a real-life lawyer.
Besides acting, Claude is a writer and his first published work is entitled Harurwa, a true story about the sacred winter locusts in the Norumedzo area of Bikita West. He also worked for the Central Film Laboratory, which he later headed but had to leave in 1997.
He explains why: "There was no way that I could have successfully run an organisation without adequate resources to make it profitable. I broached the idea of the need to upgrade our equipment to go along with the ever-changing face of the film industry, but no one took heed and slowly, we lost business because we were lagging behind."
Last year, Claude published the country's most controversial book, Blackness Of Black, which all publishers refused to touch because of its raw language. He is, however, not apologetic about this.
"I have no apologies about my novel. The language in it is deliberate. If you are angry do you say 'Excuse me?' It's funny how European sex and porn is sold through books by writers like Joan Collins, but when it is black people doing it, there's a problem. In my novel I was just trying to correct some of the cultural disorientation that we have suffered as black people."
Claude argues that the first man on earth was African, hence the first religion had to be African too.
He believes that Christianity and Islam are infant religions which were introduced long after the African religion.
Given the sensitivity of the content of his novel and the fact that he is a father of four, does he not feel uncomfortable about his children reading such raw language?
"It is good for them at their tender age to stop being brainwashed through Sunday school and through the Western-oriented education system they are exposed to. I mean, why should black children be taught about Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, when we have a history that they should be taught about? I feel this is the time for them to be allowed to rationalise and see both sides of the matter."
Claude added that it is surprising that only black people, the world over, do not have a religion they can call their own.
He does not spare the government for promoting Christianity at the expense of African culture and tradition.
"Everything from the parliamentary and presidential swearing-in is done with a priest and Bible, children in schools are taught Christian hymns."
So what ignited this Afro-consciousness in Claude?
"It started when I enrolled at the university in 1981.
"This was not really the best time to be there because whites were still finding it hard to be on an equal footing with black people. I also got to thinking why all the negative things, including poverty, dogged only the black man.
"From then I realised that something was very wrong."
Explaining this concept further, he said: "After independence, the white community wanted to be seen as incorporating black people into the system and the few that were incorporated were made to feel very important to a point were they now feel they are better and more superior than another black man.
It is these 'superior' black intellectuals who are at the forefront of suppressing black economic progression because they feel they are now 'white' as well. They have even gone on to create a class of their own which they believe makes them different from the ordinary black man."
The way forward, according to this no-holds- barred Pan Africanist, is for a complete removal of the "Euro-mental software" in black executives and for government to put in place economic policies that break the restrictive laws barring blacks from accessing financial resources which would enable them to be active participants in the country's endeavours.
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