In November this year, Zimbo Jam turns 10 and its archives, turn 14. In order to celebrate these milestones, I will be sharing regular articles on the weird and wonderful places this website has taken me and on the lessons I have learnt as an entrepreneur, as a journalist and as an artist during that journey.
The site has had many struggles, and continues, as with many organisations in Zimbabwe to seek viability in a tumultuous environment and as with many media businesses worldwide, to seek a balance between profitability and mission.
We have risen and fallen many times, but we have kept going. We have made mistakes. I have made mistakes. We have won awards and built an amazing team – only to lose it, build another one, only to lose it again – and again.
Each time, we have learnt different lessons about business, people and persistence. I have learnt that there are people who will stick with you through tough times and there are those who will not stick with you even if you superglue them to your body. That doesn’t make either group good or bad – it’s simply a life lesson that we often learn the hard way. I did. Everyone has their place at a particular point in their life and if it’s not with you, even if they stay, the partnership won’t be beneficial.
I have also learnt that all advice has a caveat. Nothing is absolute. Everything is tempered by time and place. I will give you a number of personal examples of this as the column develops in the weeks ahead.
Mostly though, I will focus on story; on the over 1 million photographs that I have snapped away over the last 20 years and the stories we have never shared with you. I want to take you behind the scenes and share with you some of the magic that has lit up my life as we try and continue trying to get this thing to work.
It is thanks to Zimbo Jam that I met my wife. It is thanks to Zimbo Jam that I was offered a place as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2015. It is thanks to Zimbo Jam that I have my current circle of friends and acquaintances. It is thanks to Zimbo Jam that I am here, writing this, rediscovering the levels of excitement about photography, writing, documentation and entrepreneurship that I had 10 years ago when I clicked the link that brought the site to life.
I will also talk about some of the people I have met and worked with and the lessons I have learnt from them. As I start this series though, there are two people I would like to thank from the get-go who have been solid in their support of the site through thick and thin and even at a personal cost to them in so many instances. One is Stuart Moyo, without whom there would be no structure on the ground behind the site. The other is Takudzwa Chihambakwe, current editor of the site and the most energetic young journalist I know.
You can follow the articles through Zimbo Jam and our various social media platforms and by following the hashtags #zimbojam10 and #zimbojamdiaries.
