Five Years on the Red Carpet, Zimbabwean Poetry Finds Its Voice

By Ngonidzashe Chikandiwa

For much of Zimbabwe’s literary history, poetry has lived in the shadows, performed in borrowed spaces, circulated by word of mouth, and sustained largely by faith rather than funding. Yet as the sun sets on 27 February 2026, poetry will once again claim an unlikely spotlight. Poets will ascend to the seventh floor of the Nicoz Diamond Building in Harare, dressed not only for recognition, but for history.

The Poetry Red Carpet Awards, now marking their fifth anniversary, return with the quiet confidence of a cultural institution that has outgrown its beginnings. What started as a modest dream has evolved into one of Zimbabwe’s most visible platforms for poetic expression part awards ceremony, part cultural reckoning.

At the center of this evolution is Cynthia Mapando, the awards’ founder. A television presenter, spoken-word poet, and author of the anthology, “I Need Saving”, Mapando has built the platform with the instincts of an artist and the discipline of a curator. In a country where poetry has long lived on the margins, she imagined a space where poets would be celebrated with the same grandeur afforded to musicians, filmmakers, or fashion designers.

For decades, Zimbabwe’s poetry scene struggled against invisibility. Platforms were scarce, support limited, and audiences insular. The Poetry Red Carpet Awards emerged as both a response to, and a challenge against, that reality. Mapando’s early efforts were intimate small gatherings driven by love rather than funding, rooted in the belief that spoken words could still move rooms. Over time, those rooms grew, and so did the hunger for recognition and permanence.

“I wanted to create a platform that celebrates Zimbabwean poetry and gives local poets access to a wider world,” Mapando said.

She often describes the project as a calling rather than a career move, speaking openly of faith and purpose. That conviction, she says, has sustained the awards through uncertainty, limited resources, and the broader challenges facing Zimbabwe’s arts sector.

Five years on, the Poetry Red Carpet Awards stand at a crossroads , no longer new, but not yet complacent. The 2026 edition reflects a shift in focus, less about proving poetry’s worth and more about safeguarding its future.

For her , the ambition now is global, connecting Zimbabwean poets to international literary networks while ensuring local voices are not only heard, but preserved. After five years, that insistence has become the awards’ most enduring legacy.