dyton mupawaenda
Arts Reporter
Bulawayo-based award-winning acapella traditional dance group, Black Umfolosi is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary today at Bulawayo Theatre.
The eight-member cast performing at the celebrations will be comprised of Sotsha Moyo, Austin Chisare, Luzibo T Moyo, Judy Chisare, Witness T Dube, Zenzo Hlaseka, Thandeka Moyo, Lulamila Q Moyo, and introducing at the finale, young members who are still learning and growing in the Black Umfolosi training programme: Bukhosi Mlotshwa, Lumbie Moyo, Lebani Moyo, and Spu Chisare.
Group leader Sotsha Moyo said are happy to celebrate the time they had.
“It’s a time for families to come out and expose their children to this vibrant art, of which all of us can be so proud. Thank you for standing with us, for celebrating our shared heritage, and for embracing the soul-stirring magic of Imbube,” he said.
The Black Umfolosi act is tight, and seamless, with perfect harmonies and well-synchronised dance steps performed with high energy, and pure joy and pride in their shared heritage shining through. Their repertoire, which veers from lively leaps and whistles to smooth melodies, has engaged and enthralled audiences around the world.
Starting in the early days of Zimbabwe’s independence with seven strong male voices, they have since travelled the world on a regular annual touring schedule, evolving along the way, and now in the format of eight singers including the addition of younger members and the beautiful voices of young women now enhancing the Imbube music with sweet harmonies in the higher vocal register.
Black Umfolosi has always led the way in revolutionising Imbube and taking it to another level and new direction — from its early development through warriors, miners, and beer drinkers, to professional staged art, honed and perfected for both local and international platforms, where they have been well received since the 80s, and a proud part of their vivid Intangible heritage — and legacy for the future.
Sotsha explains that Imbube was previously dominated by men only because of the environment from which it grew — the battleground, the mines, the beerhalls, but it was never strictly confined to men only.
Interestingly, Black Umfolosi all have daughters, and it is so fitting and in perfect sync with changing times that women are now stepping up to Imbube, with the bar set at a high level by their fathers.
Joining the remaining elders of the group Sotsha Moyo and Austin Chisare, are their daughters Luzibo and Lulamile Moyo, and Judy Chisare. Another daughter of an original member, the late Benia Phuti, is Boitumelo who works on the admin side, being groomed to handle bookings and contracts, travel arrangements, and perhaps management someday.
Luzibo, the eldest, says it is inevitable for the young women to be drawn to Imbube, which surrounded them all their lives, as well as other genres their parents enjoyed in the home: diverse African music traditions, as well as reggae, R&B, soul. She values the protective guidance into the music world by their fathers, and especially the support of the mothers who recognised the creative spark in their daughters and encourage them to access the opportunity to reach the potential they see within them.
Luzibo declares that women too had songs sung in their environment — harvesting in fields, washing clothes by rivers —with their own stories to be told. And she is pleased to be carrying women’s voices and stories to the world through Imbube.
She went on her first Black Umfolosi overseas tour in 2022, a 5-month stretch that included the UK, USA, and Canada. While she had expected a good response knowing the group’s history and reputation, she was surprised to realise how their music was able to transcend across oceans in this purest form, and how much people welcome and appreciate an authentic African experience.
At home, Black Umfolosi are widely acknowledged by both fans and fellow artistes as cultural ambassadors of Zimbabwe since the 80s, well before many other Zimbabwean artistes and groups started branching out into the world.
Protection and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage Black Umfolosi recorded 14 albums between 1990 and 2023, and Sotsha himself has recorded eight solo offerings all in his Mother tongue, Kalanga, in an offshoot project of the company dedicated to preserving and promoting the language, for which he feels a responsibility.
Online Reporter