John Kariuki
10 December 2007
Nairobi — SEVERAL MAJOR EUROPEAN cultural exchange organisations and FreeMuse, an association advocating free expression in music, have launched a major initiative to lobby European governments to ease visa and work permits for musicians from developing countries.
They cite the visa restrictions and cynicism at European consulates as factors that are causing promoters huge losses and undue frustration to all concerned.
Among the organisations involved in the lobby are the European Council of the Arts, European Live Music Forum and the European Forum of Worldwide Music.
The initiative follows years of frustrations suffered by promoters who engage musicians from Africa and other developing countries to perform at European festivals.
It was launched following a workshop hosted by promoter Michel Winter at this year's World Music Expo (Womex) in Seville, Spain last month.
During the workshop, several promoters voiced their frustrations when enlisting musicians due to the issue of getting visa and work permits in Europe.
FreeMuse took up the issue and got support from major music and cultural exchange organisations.
The lobby, led by Ole Reitov, programme officer at FreeMuse, is collecting case stories for presentation of a white paper to the European Union over what it cites as a contravention of the Unesco charter on cultural diversity, which among other things, urges developed countries to facilitate access for musicians from developing countries.
The lobby is reacting to the growing restrictiveness of immigration procedures in Europe and the US in the past two years, which are being blamed for stifling initiatives by music promoters to offer opportunities to mainly African and Cuban musicians and others from countries hard hit by economic and sociopolitical calamities, where overseas engagements are the only hope of career survival.
IN A REPORT ISSUED TWO YEARS ago, American author Ned Sublette accused the US government of using all manner of excuses to bar Cuban musicians from entering the US.
In a law passed in June 2004, the US government introduced a blanket restriction on Cuban musicians, saying that since all musicians in Cuba receive subsidies from the Fidel Castro government, they are state employees. Allowing them to work in the US would only enrich Castro, not the artistes. The US has longstanding trade sanctions against Cuba.
However, East Africans continue to perform in the US although, as American music promoter Doug Paterson, who specialises in music from East Africa, notes, the rules have become more stringent. Ultimately, they discourage US promoters from recruiting musicians from this region to perform at music festivals in America.
Paterson said that getting the visa interview could take up to six months, which discourages promoters, while the cost of the visa inflates the cost of hiring musicians from especially Kenya.
THE WORST AFFECTED HOWever are musicians from Zimbabwe. Last year, Thomas Mapfumo was invited to perform at Womad music festival but was denied a visa by British officials over suspicions that he did not intend to leave the country and return to America where he is in asylum since fleeing Zimbabwe.
In 2004, Zimbabwean gospel musician Fungisai Zvakavapano was also refused a British visa on the same grounds. A letter from the British immigration authorities explained the reasons citing the conditions in her country saying: "Taking into account the circumstances in the country you come from, where the official unemployment rate is at 70 per cent and the official inflation at 400 per cent and also the bad political climate, I am not satisfied that on the rule of probabilities you will return after your performances."
This was despite the fact that she had scheduled appearances in London.
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