Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo is a poet, non-fiction writer and protest musician from the city of Kwekwe in the Republic of Zimbabwe. He is co-founder and Director of the Zimbabwe Organization for Youth In Politics (Z.O.Y.P), a grassroots non-profit youth organisation advocating for youth participation and representation in political processes and policy formulation.He is also the Senior Trainer at the Community Human Rights Defenders Academy, a human rights institution which educates human rights defenders from grassroots and remote communities in Zimbabwe.
Moyo rose to prominence through his activist art, using resistance poetry, music and non-fiction to challenge the dictatorship, government oppression and political corruption in Zimbabwe. His political anthologies and books have long been fiercely critical of the regime in Harare, placing him on a repeated collision course with the Zimbabwean authorities. He has been arrested several times, and faced repeated surveillance, raids and death threats from suspected agents of the state.
Moyo has written three books of political non-fiction entitled Robert Mugabe: From Freedom Fighter to the People’s Enemy, Zimbabwe: A Revolution Waiting to Happen and Dismantling the System of Mugabeism, which was published in 2018 with the help of Artists at Risk (AR) during his residency at AR-Safe Haven Berlin, in cooperation with SAVVY Contemporary. He has also released an album entitled Pisarema raNkosilathi (Psalms of Nkosilathi) composed of fourteen protest songs calling upon the government of Zimbabwe to respect human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Dismantling the System of Mugabeism was heavily critical of Zimbabwe’s post-coup government and the timing of its publication in 2018 placed him squarely in the political spotlight during the brutal military crackdown that followed nationwide protests in January 2019. He was forced into hiding, and with the help of AR, relocated to Finland for a three month fellowship at AR-Safe Haven Helsinki.
Currently once more in the spotlight, Moyo has become the first resident at the newly-established AR-Residency in Accra, Ghana, which he is assisting AR in developing during his residency period. He is also working on two political anthologies: Psalms of Resistance and Fixing the Country_ Zimbabwe. His poems call for the respect of democracy, fundamental rights and constitutionalism in Zimbabwe.
Related on AR:
Welcoming Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo to Eläintarha Villa
VIDEO INTERVIEW: Artist at Risk (AR) Resident Nkosilathi Moyo/AR-Residency Berlin 2018
PRESS: NKOSILATHI EMMANUEL MOYO talks to Deutsche Welle about Zimbabwe
Book: Dismantling The System of Mugabeism by Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo (Pdf)
Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo rejoins Artists at Risk (AR) in Ghana
Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo is an Artists at Risk (AR)-Resident in Accra, Ghana. The programme is funded by the Artists at Risk (AR) Bridging Fund with support from Kone Foundation and organised by Perpetuum Mobile (PM) as part of the Artists at Risk (AR)-Network. Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo was previously a resident of AR-Safe Haven Berlin from January to April 2018, which was hosted in partnership with SAVVY Contemporary. From February to May 2019, Moyo was an AR-Safe Haven Helsinki resident. From June-August 2021, Moyo as an AR-Resident in Accra, Ghana.
