AFRICA-ARTS: Southern African Musicians Jazz Up Sleepy Harare

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Charles Mtetwa

HARARE, Oct 2 1995 (IPS) - Visitors to the Zimbabwean capital often complain that, compared to other African cities, it has all the makings of a cultural backwater.

This summer, though, Harare seems to be going all out to change the perception that it is one of Africa’s sleepier metropoli.

A wave of entertainers, from Senegal’s Ismael Lo to Cote d’Ivoire’s Les Go hit the Zimbabwean capital in time for the Sep. 13-23 All Africa Games.

Barely a week after they left, planeloads of performers started arriving here for the first ever music festival of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an economic integration grouping formed in 1980.

The 10-day musical smorgasbord began on Sep. 29. Its theme, ‘building SADC through music’, may sound like a cliche, but it is no empty motto since “music unites and offers diverse cultural interaction,” says South African jazz man Chakapa Phiri.

The festival is a voyage of discovery through the 11 SADC countries — Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

South Africa’s Zulu Maskanda guitars and the Pan-African melodies of Bayete, an internationally acclaimed group, have been offering an alternative to the soul music that up-market bars here feel duty bound to feed their customers night after night.

Township residents tired of jigging to Zairean kwasa kwasa in have a choice between the gourd-bows, accordions and powerful vocal ensembles from the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, Angola’s Brazilian-inspired ‘Os Limbos’ dance band and Malawi’s Afro-jazz band dishing out its brand of music from tin cans, bottles and animal skins.

Then there is Daddy Zemus and his urban guitar music from Zambia’s northwestern provinces.

“We want to build a platform in this region (Southern Africa) through which musicians and fans can interact,” says Joseph Steblecki of the SADC music festival directorate. Not that the economic angle is absent: “There is need to attract investment in the music industry,” he says.

While South Africa has a successful recording industry, local music remains in the doldrums in the rest of the region.

“Coming together here gives us an opportunity to learn from their (the South Africans’) experiences,” notes Musa Matsebula, head of Swaziland’s contingent.

Joseph Tsatsanyane, President of the Lesotho Music and Recording Rights Association, agrees. “Musicians should work together to assist each other and thwart the growing popularity of the western vibes,” he says.

Shortage of resources to acquire better equipment has helped stifle the development of artistes in countries like Swaziland and Lesotho.

“At the moment we are depending on South Africa for our recording,” says Matsebula, while Tsatsanyane admits that his country “has not developed this potentially viable industry.”

The festival “is a good start to the resuscitation of interest in Afro-beat,” says Tsatsanyane, although he refuses to entertain too many illusions.

“It is a bumpy road,” he told IPS, pointing out that the growing penchant among youths for Western rhythms, coupled with piracy, may be impeding the growth of local music.

“There is no enforcement of copyright laws,” says Tsatsanyane,”this is costing musicians a lot and to some extent governments lose out on tax-revenue base.”

In Zimbabwe, for example, the best selling record in 1994 sold about 70,000 copies, but at least 20,000 were peddled by pirates.

“In Zimbabwe we have no protection from government, no wonder we are not progressing,” charges Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo, whose mbira music has earned him international renown.

Recalling that “music is an artist’s means of earning money,” he adds: “Perhaps we should starve people of entertainment so we can get attention to achieve a dynamic music industry in this region.”

Despite poor publicity by the organising authorities, the artistes have played to near-full houses since Friday. About 30 musicians were invited from each country, but some performers from the host nation, angered at being left out, have cried foul.

“There was bias in the selection,” says Sekuru Gweshe, bypassed even though he is a well-known player of the mbira, a thumb piano common to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. “I have the leading dance group in the country,” he adds.

Stephen Chifunyise, a member of the festival Directorate counters: “We could not take everyone, but just some of the best.”

This year’s festival is a follow-up to a declaration on cultural integration as a means of boosting economic unity, signed in 1993 in Namibia by SADC culture and information ministers.

It is sponsored by the European Union and European non- governmental organisations, which have provided one million U.S. dollars for the event.