By IPS Correspondents
WINDHOEK, Sep 23 2003 (IPS)

Talented and ambitious musicians always set their eyes on becoming instant millionaires, but in Namibia artists still struggle for basic needs like food and accommodation.

Most Namibian musicians neither own a house nor a car. Some of them live in extreme poverty.

The reason partly lies in the fact that Namibian consumers have been exposed to South African and Western music instead of their own. As a result, the local artists have to compete with their more professional foreign counterparts in a tight market of 1.8 million people.

Jackson Kaujeua is a household name in Namibia. He has been in the music industry for 30.

Kaujeua, who has been playing music both at home and in exile before Namibia’s independence in 1990, is struggling to make ends meet, just like any other local musician.

"The market is still very small. In a year I only make about 1,000 U.S. dollars. As a prominent musician, you can imagine how hard it is for the young and upcoming artists," says Kaujeua.

He cites the lack of transparency from some production houses, both local and international, who are not giving Namibian musicians the royalties due to them. "Once you have a contract with them, they produce your music and sell it on your behalf and tell you that they produced 1,000 or 10,000 copies only. It is difficult to verify whether or not these figures are correct," Kaujeua says.

"The system is not transparent," he points out. "It is a funny and dubious kind of business."

Kaujeua notes that the time he spent in exile had exposed his talent to the outside world. Unlike his counterparts he can at least earn some extra money outside the country where he is often invited to cultural festivals.

A promoter of a Reggae band, Mushitu Mukwame, who is based in the capital Windhoek, has cited a lack of operational funds as a major setback for Namibian musicians. Some band members, he says, do not have equipment and, to survive, borrow from other musicians until a good Samaritan comes along and assists them.

Mukwame also blames the Namibian public for undermining the skills of local artists, when it comes to paying them for performing live shows. "South African musicians are sometimes paid about 20,000 U.S. dollars, while it is rare for a Namibian artist to get about 2,000 U.S. dollars for a live show despite being an international musician," he says.

Mukwame says the problem facing Namibian musicians can only be overcome if their union lobbies the government to ensure that local musicians are promoted and paid their royalties as expected. "The level of poverty that our musicians live in is disheartening," he says.

Members of an upcoming band ‘Omidi D’Afrique’ say they usually have to walk up to 15 kilometres to venues where they are expected to perform, due to lack of transport. Most of them, they say, stay in squatter settlements around the Namibian capital as they cannot afford proper accommodation.

One of the band members, Farry says they are hanging in there just for the love of music, not that they are earning enough to improve their livelihood. "Most people in Namibia judge us through our outer appearances and where we are staying. They do not know that by supporting us we can become better and prosperous people who can market the Namibian culture to the outside world," he says.

His big wish is for Namibian broadcasters to change their attitude and play more local music on the airwaves, for them to get more exposure. Farry argues that despite being independent for 13 years now, Namibians have not realised that time has come for them to stop living in South Africa’s shadow and embrace their culture.

"Namibian musicians are trying their best, but as we all know, money makes the world go round and Namibian musicians can never achieve prosperity without it. Our band has only a base and rhythm guitar as well as drums. We have to hire all the other equipment whenever we have to perform and money is very tight," says Farry.

The ‘Omidi D’Afrique’ is planning to release its first Compact Disc sometime next year. But the members say they still do not know where to get the rest of the money. Most musicians in Namibia praise a cultural centre managed by the French, known as the Franco Cultural Centre, for rendering moral and material support to them. According to them, the centre assists them with musical instruments and the printing of advertisement posters whenever they organise shows.

Most musicians feel if they were paid their royalties accordingly, they would have been better off although not prosperous. There is a lot of finger pointing and those being blamed are their union ‘Oruuano’ and the ‘Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music’ (NASCAM), an organisation tasked with the responsibility of collecting royalties on behalf of the musicians.

The head of the licencing department at NASCAM, Eino John Max concedes that Namibian artists live below the poverty line. He has attributed the poverty to the tight market and a lack of companies that can assist musicians with recordings, publishing and distribution of their music.

Namibia has 600 registered local musicians whose combined annual turnover amounts to just 11,000 U.S. dollars, which they share with composers and authors of the songs.

"Most of the Namibian music is recorded, but not published, and that prevents the music from reaching the market. The lack of proper facilities also makes it difficult for local musicians to cover the costs of about 7,000 U.S. dollars for producing cassettes or Compact Discs in South Africa or overseas," says Max.

He says the livelihood of musicians will only improve if they get organised and lobby law makers to have a policy in place that will bind all broadcasters to play a higher percentage of local music in their programmes.

Max says such an arrangement will promote local music and increase earnings. Currently most of the royalties that the musicians get come from the public broadcaster, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, for music played in their daily programmes.

But Max feels that the royalties are not enough as the Namibian public prefers more South African and Western Music to the local music. "Commercial radios in Namibia are promoting too much foreign music and cultures in their programmes and an intervention is needed quickly," he says.

As a result, well established artists are now leaving Namibia for greener pastures to foreign countries such as South Africa and Germany.

‘Oruuano’, the union representing musicians and artists, says it has plans to lobby government for an 80 percent local music content to be played by all broadcasters in the country. "There is need for change in the broadcasting policy, so that radio or television stations that fail to comply can be taken to task. Musicians cannot survive on their current income, especially those not having another income to supplement their earnings," says Vincent Mwemba, secretary general of ‘Oruuano’.

The union, says Mwemba, has set itself goals to forward requests for financial assistance to foreign embassies, non-governmental organisations and the government for training artists and building infrastructure.

Mwemba also has expressed concern at the failure of financial institutions to give loans to artists who do not have guarantees or collateral to back up their applications.

Most of the union members cannot even afford to pay membership fees due to lack of financial resources. Mwemba, along with other staff members, is a volunteer and does not receive any remuneration for his work at the union.

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