Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
WHEN the recently-held Bulawayo Arts Festival was being filmed and streamed live on Facebook, the highly energetic Saimon “Mambazo” Phiri was barking instructions.
His facial and bodily demeanour had changed. For those who knew him, he had changed and seemed like somebody else as he was quite serious with every artiste present, young and old listening attentively to his instructions.
The Mayor of Bulawayo Clr Solomon Mguni was not spared as his movements on the Large City Hall stage were also directed by Mambazo. It was like clockwork.
This was just a glimpse of what was happening behind the scenes and the roles that Mambazo played in bringing about a near-flawless production of the Bulawayo Arts Festival.
Saimon “Mambazo” Phiri is the name behind many productions that have wowed Zimbabweans for nearly 20 years. His most recent productions including the Bulawayo Arts Festival, Bulawayo Arts Awards, Zimbabwe Music Awards 2020 and the 2019 National Art Merit Awards have stood out.
The opening and closing ceremony of the Zone 5 Youth Games held in Bulawayo were also Mambazo’s productions.
Besides events, Mambazo is involved in music through the record label Sabela Music Projects where he works with Family Voices, Hwabaraty, Umdumo Wesizwe and Msiz’Kay.
There has to be a mixture of genres in all the productions, which is Mambazo’s hallmark.
“For what I call mega productions on big stages, I believe in mixing and matching. Even at home when I cook, I’m a mix masala type of cook. Even when I was growing up, I never knew if I was a theatre person, dance or music.
“When you look at my work, it’s a fusion of everything. I fuse everything so that I come up with something that people can’t categorise as a genre,” said Mambazo.
With this mix masala approach, Mambazo said he wants people, after watching a production, to come out having a favourite unknown artiste. He feels if people do not experience this, he has not done his job.
“Every time I do a production, I want the person who watches it to go away with at least two new names that they’ve never heard of. If I don’t achieve this then I haven’t done anything.”
Looking at the Bulawayo Arts Festival, unknown names and upcoming artistes such as Vuyo Brown, Western Khazinz, Zhezhingtons and Fish F McSwagg left the audience in awe. Last year at the Bulawayo Arts Awards, Tebza was the break out star while Ngoma Ingoma was also introduced to the world.
“It’s always been my dream that when I do something major, you see people you haven’t heard of or you hear a voice and you fall in love with it. When you look closely at the Bulawayo Arts Festival, the idea was to introduce Vuyo Brown and Western Khazinz, acts that people don’t see on stage every day.
“That made me feel good as people got to see people they don’t watch every day.”
Another production that Mambazo was credited for producing was Zambezi Express by Siyaya Arts. The musical was exciting to watch. “Even when I did Zambezi Express, we pulled people from the streets and the person who was acting as the lion was a hit in London. Journalists wanted to talk to him. But he was the costume manager backstage and his role was just to roar like a lion and his part was less than a minute on stage, but he ended up being the highlight of the show for some,” said Mambazo.
The idea of mixing genres and doing the unusual, Mambazo said came about after a Damascus moment in 1999 when he attended the Pana Fest in Ghana. This is where he saw that it was possible to come up with a production that had everything.
“I attended Pana Fest in Ghana in 1999 which is the biggest festival in Africa. That’s when I saw a combination of all these African elements, Djembe drums, the dancers and the big artistes all on one stage. That’s when you realise that Africa has got all this talent,” said Mambazo.
Upon returning home, he decided to take theatre, dance and music and put it together into one production.
“In Zimbabwe, we had Cont Mhlanga on top of the game in theatre and Black Umfolosi in Imbube. But we didn’t have those things being fused on one stage. It was after realising this shortcoming that we started Ibumba festival in the high-density area of Makokoba.
“We said let’s have one big party for everyone from all walks of life. At the end of the day when we converge, we do so to consume art. It doesn’t matter where you’re from in life. At that time, we wanted to be different and add in elements of music into our productions.
“This is because Amakhosi was the biggest thing and everyone wanted to emulate them. So, we took all those elements and mixed them into one thing and we became the darling of the townships.”
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