Tendai Gukutikwa
Moffat Mungazi
Entertainment Reporter
A MUTARE-BASED creative — Shadreck Jeche — is spearheading an ambitious project aimed at promoting the distribution of Zimbabwe’s cultural and creative sector products to showcase the country’s rich musical heritage on a global stage.
Through the African Musical Instruments Builders Exchange (AMIBE) programme, Jeche is promoting the production of high quality apparatus for regional and international markets.
This has seen him go on a whirlwind tour across the country to foster collaboration and innovation among local African musical instruments builders following the official launch of the project in Mutare in November last year.
AMIBE is being funded by Culture Fund in partnership with the European Union under the Creative Actions 2 Programme.
“This project evokes the spirit of African music. In Zimbabwe, the cultural and creative sector has immense potential for growth and cultural preservation. However, the musical instrument building industry faces challenges in terms of innovation, quality, and market access. The lack of standardisation, limited research, collaboration and knowledge sharing among instrument builders restricts the development of new and improved products, leading to a stagnant industry.
“Our project seeks to effectively address the challenges and bridge the gap by bringing together experts and stakeholders to stimulate the sharing of best practices and techniques.
“We also seek to foster innovation and experimentation with new materials and designs to promote high quality instruments that meet international standards and increase their global competitiveness. Overall, this will enhance the sound quality of African musical instruments and increase access to regional and global markets,” said Jeche.
He said that AMIBE is geared to contribute to the growth and development of Zimbabwe’s cultural and creative sector as well as promote cultural preservation and economic empowerment.
Jeche added that the project has potential to revitalise the African musical instruments building industry to enrich the domestic arts heritage while showcasing local talent to the world, and also contributing to the country’s economic and social transformation.
Some of the African musical instruments on AMIBE’s lap include thump piano (mbira), xylophone (marimba), ngoma (drum), rattles (hosho) and leg rattles (magagada), among others.
To that end, AMIBE followed up its launch in Mutare late last year that attracted several instrument builders, music producers, artistes and other stakeholders countrywide with a capacity building and networking workshop in Masvingo to heighten the project’s tempo.
The initiative also took them to neighbouring South Africa early this year on cultural exchange programmes with the University of Johannesburg, arts centres and theatres.
Last weekend, the project — in partnership with Ngoma iNgungu Cultural Arts Centre — hosted a three-day expo in Domboshava open to everyone interested. Two South African groups attended the event.
“Education, training and skills development is critical to achieve our goals. This will help everyone involved to improve their craft and also enhances ethnic safeguarding and elevation through the perfection of production of high-end musical instruments,” said Jeche.
He added that more programmes and synergies are on the way as they seek to break barriers and push frontiers by creating efficient platforms African musical instruments builders to express their art.
“We have developed a website through which our targeted beneficiaries can market and sell their products internationally. We are also in the process of creating a software — African Apex Sounds — to produce sound packs that even movie makers can purchase online and use in their productions. The idea is to protect the unique sounds we produce so that originators can benefit while also creating their own legacy.
Jeche revealed that they have plans to hold a Southern Africa-themed festival in the near future.
Online Reporter