Chronicle Editor
Chronicle Reporter
The stage is set for the 21st National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) powered by Old Mutual Zimbabwe tomorrow at the Harare International Conference Centre, with the organisers aiming to provide a unique experience for the industry and the fans.
This year’s event will run under the theme ‘Unlocking Dreams.’
Arts mother body, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NAC), said this year the ceremony will recognize outstanding achievements within the arts sector by locally-based artists.
Among the nominees are Umkhathi Theatre Works, Khaya Arts, Nqobizwe Malinga, Earground, Sandra Ndebele, Mark Ngwazi and South Africa based amapiono songstress Shasha among others.
The line-up of performers includes the who is who in the local music industry,
poet Obert Dube, songbird Gemma Griffiths, mbira queen Hope Masike, Tocky Vibes, Poptain and Feli Nandi.
Also billed to perform are gospel singer Mathias Mhere, hip-hop stars Saintfloew and Holy 10, dancehall singer Freeman, Andrea the Vocalist, songstress Ammara Brown, urban groover ExQ and DJ Tamuka.
NAMAs are designed to recognize outstanding achievements within the arts sector and Old Mutual augments with financial literacy programmes. Empowerment of this nature will allow our artists to exploit financial products to their advantage and sharpen their saving, budgeting and investment skills.
As Zimbabwe’s largest integrated financial services group, Old Mutual recognizes the awards as the best platform to build a strong arts sector in the country and as a result, offers opportunities to educate and encourage artists to plan for their future, and unlock their dreams.
This year, a series of Financial Literacy workshops have been scheduled aiming to continue furnishing artists with knowledge on how best they can handle their finances investing into both now and the future so that they are financially prepared for life during and after fame
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter