Gospel group out to promote Vic Falls music

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
Voice of Worship (Vow), a 30-member gospel group from Victoria Falls wants to show the world that there is more to the resort town than tourists attractions.

Founded in Hwange in 2015 by Tinashe Kudakwashe Murapa, Voice of Worship is now a fully-fledged group in the mould of Celebration Choir, Zimpraise and Bulawayo’s Vocal Ex.

Murapa relocated to Vic Falls in 2018 when he started assembling the group which has so far released one DVD with four songs – Amadolo, UnguJehova, Msindisi Wami and Hukuru.

Vow is on a quest to show the world that Vic Falls which has the largest waterfall in the world, has untapped gospel talent.

Since its inception, the interdenominational group has staged a number of live concerts and hymn nights in Vic Falls. Last year, they shared the stage with Mathias Mhere and Vocal Ex and played alongside local groups including Eternal Worship and Called to Worship.

They had plans to stage several live concerts including a “Let’s Worship Vic Falls Day” at the Old People’s Home which were disturbed by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the group’s administrators, Margaret Muzanenhamo said they are on a mission to promote gospel music in the resort town where the genre had little support.

“Gospel music is not really supported here as there’s lack of appreciation by the local community. The people are of the view that everyone here should concentrate on tourism. We want to show people that there’s a lot of untapped talent here. We’re grateful for social media networking platforms such as Facebook as we’ve been able to interact with people during this lockdown, something we’ve been using to our advantage to market ourselves,” said Muzanenhamo.

She said the group plans to release an album before the end of the year but bemoaned financial challenges.

Another administrator, Heather Hoko said the group intends to establish a music training school in Victoria Falls to nurture talent.

“We’re particular about minority local languages as most gospel singers do not sing in those languages. We want to expose them hence our new album will include songs in local languages,” said Hoko.-@ncubeleon