It is in
order to begin this piece with a moment of
silence............................................... Thank you. As you drive
along Haile Selassie Avenue which is lined with trees on either side creating a
serene shaded environment, it is easy to notice some significant buildings. The
towering Intercontinental Hotel or the heavily shielded Japan Embassy on the sides.
Then somewhere along this same road is the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ),
hidden but it is there. People build beautiful structures, magnificent buildings
to get noticed, ECZ went ahead and did the extraordinary. They went ahead and
put two of the ugliest, horrendous, pitiful excuse of art sculptures to grace
this land. This is the moment we all wail
in unison.
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| Mubita Nawa's Twit |
The attention was initially drawn to
these things when motivational speaker Mubita Nawa twitted that at 50 years
Zambia cannot be having such shameful pieces of structures. Before I saw the
picture, I thought that he was just exaggerating and it could definitely not be
that bad. I was right to some extent, it wasn't bad it was preposterous. These
disproportionate structures had trunk legs, blotted fingers, bend heads, and
crooked broad noses. The male and female
are seen to be wearing graduation gowns and holding certificates. These statues
resemble miniature versions of what I would make out of clay as a five year
old. Are we a country of citizens who accept mediocrity, because now this is
getting out of hand. Putting something that is clearly repulsive and expecting people
to understand and get on with their lives is unacceptable.
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| The Statues of Shame |
The most perplexing thing is how ECZ
allowed those two statues to be erected outside their walls in the first place.
ECZ paid money from their budget for them, they should have envisioned what the
completed work would look like. If that
was it, then I am afraid. Whoever inspected those statues and nodded their
heads that what they saw was worthy and acceptable should be questioned. The
artist who also created these statues should be embarrassed and needs to
introspect on the torture they have done to our eyes. They are amateurish and
it would not be a crime if these were a grade 7 school project. Between the
artist and the people who inspected the artist work, just how did they convince
themselves that such appalling pieces should grace our roads? How? Another wail in unison shall we.
The general public agrees that the
statues should be removed and replaced with something better or nothing at all.
Apparently ECZ have come up with a defense which in my opinion is illogical.
The ECZ spokesperson Ronald Tembo
said, "We wish to inform the public that the purpose for putting the
statues at the entrance of the ECZ was to enable the general public to easily
locate the ECZ as they came through to access various Council services. The
statues therefore arose from various complaints we received from those who
could not easily locate us in the past. We did not necessarily intend to have
beautiful and expensive pieces of art work as we could and still cannot afford
the cost of such art works."
Speechless.
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