Hifa grows from strength to strength

Festival of the Arts has come and gone but it has been another week of exciting musical activity.
Nobody can claim to have watched all the events on offer at Hifa as that is almost impossible. I focused mainly on the musical concerts and my report will only be based on the concerts that I watched.
I must start off by saying that they were quiet a pleasure to watch.
The opening show, on the Telecel Main Stage, which always gives Hifa audiences pause for thought once again gave the 5 000 plus people who attended the event the anticipated thrill of the night. I followed the show entitled “Treasure” from the beginning to the end and was moved by the tantalising fusion of talent it gave, but most of all, the UB40 tune entitled ‘Where Are Your People Now?’ and the soulful voice of Chiwoniso Maraire towards the end when she sang “I Will Survive”.
That inspired me to go and watch her next show at the 7 Arts Theatre the next day where she did a collaboration with the versatile Victor Kunonga.
After the fireworks, my next appointment was with a famous African singer-guitarist from the Congo, Lokua Kanza. He played a mixture of Afro-fusion and Western rhythms. Again this was crowd pleasing and a thriller to many who were present.
Then from Nigeria, I saw Nneka, a provocative singer who kept referring me to her German manager each time I wanted to interview her. However, when she went on stage, she proved her mettle with her Nigerian influenced hip-hop and soul fusion.
I then moved on and had the opportunity to watch Mokoomba, those boys from Victoria Falls doing their thing at the Coca-Cola Green stage and they really moved the audiences. You could see the one and half-hours on stage was not enough for them as they wanted to carry on after their time was up, but such is Hifa, everything works according to time.
On Thursday, it was Josh Meck that sensational bass guitarist and Asali an Afro jazz musician from Kenya who were supposed to do a collaboration on the Global Stage but for some reason did not perform. I asked Josh what had happened and he told me that it was due to the rains. The Zimbabwean and Swahili cultural fusion would have been a pleasure to watch.
There were other acts such as Kila and Tony Cox with Steve Newman billed for that same day to play acoustic guitars, but I did not spend a lot of time watching them.
My next stop was on Saturday at 12.30pm, again at the Telecel Main Stage where Zimbabwe’s rising star and three time NAMA award winner, “Da Big Man”, Winky D was performing. Winky D (real name, Wallace Chirumiko) who has previously shared the stage with Jamaican ragga artists such as Sizzler and Beenie Man, proved that he is Zimbabwe’s new icon of Dancehall through his inimitable delivery style, lyrical skill and professional showmanship when he performed for one and half hours with a backing band (not CDs) while his fans sang along to the songs of the man donned in a ninjaman belt.
Dancehall music is fast becoming a trend in music in Zimbabwe. Energetic youths in Zimbabwe are beginning to relate to it especially when it is sung in Shona. They prefer this to the old roots Reggae music. This could be the reason why some Zimbabwean youths such as Winky D, Yagga and Guspy Warrior are into Dancehall.
Dancehall music is a new genre of Jamaican popular music – a more sparse version of Reggae. It is characterised by faster rhythms, which are mainly due to digital instrumentation from computers, but I was pleased to see that Winky D used a live band this time and I hope he continues with this trend. CDs do not listen to instructions such as “freeze” or “one drop” as they only follow what has been pre-recorded. Live bands can be given instructions on stage any time. They can even be asked to change the key to a song on stage and continue to perform.
Winky D ended the show with “Takaipa Takaipa” to the delight of all those present.
Next were the BLK JKS from South Africa who played an array of rock music. I had previously heard that this Black outfit is the most successful band in South Africa and that they had recently signed on to a major American independent music label, but I must say that I was mildly impressed by this act.
Sunday became the focal point for me. After the press conference at Crowne Plaza, I went to get involved in the preparations for UMOJA where Ray Phiri, the Umoja patron from South Africa and Eric Wainana, the Kenyan Umoja patron were busy rehearsing with the youngsters who form the Umoja participants for the concert at the 7 Arts Theatre that afternoon. UMOJA is a Swahili word which means “Togetherness”.
The concept behind this project is to make all nations in this world work together in harmony whether one is Black or White. Just like the black and white keys on the piano keyboard, one cannot produce harmonious music without playing both black white keys. (Some amateur musicians will argue that one can do it if they play the white keys only in Key C) But that is a digression, the UMOJA show which comprised youngsters from Mozambique, Norway, South Africa and Zimbabwe aged between 14 and 25 years was phenomenal. I attended the sold out show and audiences will agree with me that this was a thriller.
Ray Phiri and Eric Wainana, the two patrons also gave a brilliant performance at the Umoja show.
The closing concert was by Moke, an Irish rock band based in the Netherlands and also featured two songs from Chiwoniso Maraire. The Hifa curtain finally closed down on a sound note with Busi Ncube, who flew all the way from Oslo, Norway, performing at the Coca-Cola Green.
There were some obvious hiccups at Hifa, but this is to be expected at any project of such huge magnitude. Some enthusiastic security staff and bouncers manning the gates became over zealous and started to own the shows. For instance at 7 Arts Theatre some ticket holders were locked out because they had arrived 10 minutes late. I overheard one security personnel shouting at a man, “It’s not my fault that you got held up in traffic. Come back for a refund on your ticket next week.”
I think next time Hifa must train their staff in public relations.
Saturday afternoon was disturbed by rainfall. Maria Wilson, the executive director of Hifa joked about it and said that this was just confetti for those who wanted to get married at Hifa.
On the whole, Hifa as usual was well organised and a success. Thanks to Manuel Bagorro and his team for a job well done.
l Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]