IBUMBA Festival caps the arts calendar year in Makokoba.
Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi whose music is celebrated the world over will be the big headline act. Tuku is a solid music brand and crowd-puller.
Stanley Square, Makokoba, will rock to the sound of an artiste whose music has simanjemanje and mbaqanga roots courtesy of his ’70s association with the late South African premier producer West Nkosi who produced Tuku’s early albums and Ray Phiri who played the guitar on Tuku’s early albums.
The line-up includes some of the established performers from the City of Kings — Black Umfolosi, Otis Ngwabi, Iyasa, Ndolwane Super Sounds, Bambelela Arts Ensemble, Family Voices, all-female a cappella group Nobuntu, Clement Magwaza and Vocal X, among others.
The official opening show will feature dub poet Albert Nyathi. Nyathi has recently been making waves in the media during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
The Nkululeko Dube-led Iyasa will unleash fresh production Afrika Alive that blends traditional, contemporary, pantsula and gumboot dances from Southern Africa. The comedy element will be brought in by the usual “suspects” Clive Chigubu, Babongile Sikhonjwa and other new comedy acts.
A new twist Beginning on December 16, the seven-day festival will end on the 22nd with a soccer match featuring, Team Siyaya, Team Journalists and Entertainment, Makokoba, Mzilikazi, Njube, Nguboyenja, Barbourfields and Nkulumane Nketa United.
Ibumba Festival is a “township-leaning” festival. It takes place where the masses are. Ibumba in this sense is a welcome addition to our growing festival menu.
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I hope organisers of these events have taken care to target some of their advertising towards the many foreign guests currently in the city for the Youth Games as sport and art interact.
When sport becomes art While on sport, let me share some thoughts. The Angolan team took the Mozambican side through a basketball master class on Tuesday night.
The game was a revelation of why basketball of the American variety attracts global attention. Angola gave the fans dollops of that razzmatazz, showboating style of play and won a match in which our Mozambican comrades were left looking hapless. The basketball crown at the ongoing Youth Games, in my view, is Angola’s to lose.
I witnessed sport morph into art as the sublime passing, three-point shots and dummying of opposition by Angola sent the audience into frenzy.
It was like watching the late king of pop, Michael Jackson, moon-walking. Yeah, it was that good, but maybe we should have had one of our dance groups to open proceedings.
They do it at the Super Bowl in the United States. It helps push the cause of our artistes in terms of visibility. It helps deliver entertainment in its fullest sense.
Globe watch: Lil Wayne wants out of Cash Money Records To see them strutting like peacocks in the music videos is to experience an illusion. You see limos, bugattis, big houses pool sides and video women with stunning beauty. You have to think; wow they have it made!
But that is the edifice — the fantasy they milk and feed the gullible with hook, line and seduce impressionable youngsters and wannabes the world over to buy into the whole thing.
Most of the youngsters dream of living it up like Rick Ross and P Diddy! It’s not even remotely feasible for many of them, but there are many young and even older folk who have been duped by this gimmick that is a clever contraption of US showbiz marketing men.
Soon after the product life cycle (a musician’s popularity) has run its full course, some of the famous artistes begin to appear in the broadsheets and tabloids for tax and bankruptcy nightmares.
Ask Mike Tyson (former boxing champion), musicians Mary J Blige, Toni Braxton, Lauryn Hill and actor Wesley Snipes. They “lost” their “fortunes” and were incarcerated for owing Uncle Sam.
I have read comments about trusting “crooked” managers, accountants and confidantés, who end up misspending or miss-investing their largesse.
I ask myself who should take care of their money and whose fault it is when you run expenses on your credit cards trying to live up to the image projected in the media?
Artistes need to get off the high horse and understand that they are no different from every day Joe. No one wakes up wanting to make more money for you and wanting to feed your ego!
Toni Braxton, for example, was once chided by Oprah Winfrey for buying expensive kitchen ware that even she as a billionaire could not indulge in buying!
Showbiz bad contracts Weezy, though small in stature, looks like something out of gangster chronicles. He looks like some of the scary hoodlums from elokishini we grew up with. But today he wants out of his contract with his label Cash Money Records.
Yes, it’s about money and dubious clauses. Artistes need to avoid signing contracts that leave them at the end of all the hoopla with zilch in their pockets. Famous and broke is the reality for most artistes when the chickens come home to roost.
How much power and leverage do musicians have against the monolith global corporations with all their financial muscle and teams of razor sharp lawyers though? Yah, my recommendation is that if you are an artiste, study something else as well.
For instance, Robbie Williams of famous British band Take That now wants to try for a career as a mechanic in Germany according to recent press reports! Either it’s the drugs talking or he has had an epiphany.
Jazz guru Hudson Simba to star in Feet in City festival Mthabisi Phili, a respected curator and arts exponent is launching a new festival Feet in City themed “Bringing Bulawayo Together Through Arts, Spaces and Communities”.
The festival will be punctuated by central business district performances and a parade from Lobengula Street to Centenary Park.
Groups such as marimba ensemble Rainbow Blaze, Drums of Peace and Hudson Simba are some of the slated performers.
Simba has shared the stage with some of Zimbabwe’s musical greats such as Thomas Mapfumo and the late Chiwoniso Maraire. He is a serious Afro-jazz artiste who belongs to the big stages of this world.
He has travelled the region and featured in festivals in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Somehow, he has yet to get his due respect till this festival, which will be held tomorrow, becomes a hit.
Simba comes in the tradition of legendary blues guitarist BB King and the late Jonah Sithole. I would pay to see him perform. The festival, however, is a free show. The poster indicates a number of organisers such as Voices in Colour, Bounce Back and National Gallery in Bulawayo.
The funding partners include Hivos, Africalia and the Norwegian Embassy. It is shameful that not a local company is listed as one of the sponsors.
Shameful in the sense that these companies are not interested in the cultural life of our city. Culture civilises people much like religion.
I hope that in future we will be able to boycott businesses that do not really care about the communities they operate from. To be fair though, how business savvy are our artistes?
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