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Shamiso Dzingire
IT’S a Wednesday afternoon and Knowledge Nkiwane, a gospel musician, has taken his music to Entumbane high density suburb in Bulawayo.
Nkiwane is promoting his sixth album, titled Uvukile uLazaro, and is unsure of the number of copies he will sell as most people are at work.
“Business is usually low during this time of the month,” reveals Nkiwane, who has devised a unique way of marketing and selling his albums to gospel music lovers, both in the country and neighbouring South Africa.
He moves around the streets with a pushcart fitted with a public address system, loud music blaring. Assisted by Godknows Maphosa who navigates the pushcart and Innocent Nyoni, who sings and dances along, Nkiwane stops every now and then to do impromptu performances while people purchase his music.
Outside Entumbane Shopping Complex, he switches on his sound system, whistles and proclaimes, “It’s time to make money!”
As he moves into the suburb, residents peep through windows and precast walls, while others hurry to their gates to catch a glimpse of the source of the blazing sound.
School children who dismissed from a nearby school join Nkiwane in the dancing, while women sing along to a song titled Esandleni, which is seemingly known by residents.
“I started marketing my music in the streets in 2013,” Nkiwane said. “This is the second album I’m promoting using this technique and I have sold more than 7 000 copies from my latest album, both here and in South Africa.”
He borrowed the marketing concept from the neighbouring country where he says public spaces are booked by musicians to promote their music.
“We don’t have such facilities at home so I modified the concept and incorporated the pushcart and the sound system,” Nkiwane said.
As he navigates around the suburb, an old man approaches the pushcart and complains that the compact disk Nkiwane sold him was faulty. Nkiwane takes a closer look at the disc before moving over to the pushcart to reduce the volume on the sound system. He explains to the man that the disc is not his and that he could have purchased it from someone else who uses the same marketing system. The old man apologises for the error and is soon on his way.
“Some artistes have emulated the pushcart marketing technique and, unfortunately, some of them sell poor quality material,” Nkiwane says, adding, “so when duped, people see me moving around with my pushcart and assume I sold them faulty discs. I’ve experienced this quite often.”
Nkiwane’s marketing technique was inspired by his desire to minister the word of God directly to people through his music.
“The idea behind this concept is to take my music to people. When I perform like this, people are encouraged to purchase albums from me and not from music pirates who openly sell our work in the street.”
Ironically, Nkiwane passes by a vendor selling pirated music discs and movies wrapped in cellophane sleeves. Artistes in the country have challenged the government to enact stiffer penalties to curb music piracy, which is crippling the entertainment industry. The government is also failing to generate revenue from the industry through taxing musicians and recording companies.
According to Trade Union for Music and Arts Industry general secretary George Emmanuel, rampant music piracy has fuelled massive job losses in the entertainment industry after several recording companies downsized their workforce.
Rampant music piracy has also seen most artistes, including Nkiwane, selling albums for $1 per copy to compete with music pirates.
Nkiwane, who went solo in 2012 after divorcing from the group Gospel Impact, has shared the stage with South African gospel greats such as Rebecca Malope, Andile Majola and Lusanda at the annual Gwanda Gospel Music Festival.
Determined to market his music to hundreds of gospel music lovers who attended the 2015 Gwanda Gospel Music Festival, Nkiwane says he gate crashed the expo. “I was not on the programme and had not been invited to perform,” he revealed.
“Regardless, I asked to perform, but was I turned down. However, after some negotiations, I was allowed to perform and when I took to the stage, I thrilled the crowds.”
Adds Nkiwane: “On the second day of the expo, I was allowed to perform for an hour. I ended up being paid for performing, though my intention was to promote myself. I now command a huge support base because of my Gwanda performance.”
His determination, he says, earned him an invite to perform at the 2016 gospel festival. He hopes to feature at this year’s annual expo in the mining town after thrilling at last year’s edition.
Though he has never won any recognition at home, Nkiwane bagged Best Male Artiste at the Gauteng Gospel Music Awards in South Africa, after being nominated in three categories.
Now, the artiste is in the process of shooting a DVD in South Africa which will be released some time this month.
He said his fans started demanding a DVD of Uvukile uLazaro soon after the album was released.
“The idea is to first generate profits from album sales,” he explained.
“After I realised a profit, I decided to give my fans a treat by shooting the videos early. I’ll be going back to South Africa to finish off recording the videos.”
Asked about his future plans, Nkiwane said he intends to hold a concert in Bulawayo sometime in August. But he said the concert needed to be marketed for him to maximise on ticket sales.
“This is why I’m planning for a later date so that I establish a fan base here first.”
Shamiso Dzingire is a journalism student at the National University of Science and Technology
Online Reporter