Music
okoomba
M
Zim’s Own Risin
g Tide
Emmanuel Marambe
I
magine a plateful of cooked bananas
in beef stew for supper, or a whole
boiled chicken with the head in a
bowl of water instead.
Unfathomable to some, but for the
much travelled local music outfit,
Mokoomba, such meals have become
a regular fixture on their menu during
their varied foreign excursions.
The funniest guy in the group, or at
least the one they all love to make fun of,
Miti Mugande, has got lost on tour a few
times, the most recent being when he got
his directions mixed up in London.
“That (Miti getting lost) was especially
funny because he’s an adventurer and is
always the first to find out where the fun
is in any place we visit – but that time the
big place got the best of him,” keyboards
specialist Donald Moyo told The Parade
in an interview.
“Then there was the bananas-in-beef
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meal in Tanzania and the chicken in
Macau. Marcus couldn’t eat it. As for the
chicken, all they had done was boil the
whole thing and served it without any
salt. So we just took it home and cooked
it properly.”
These are just some of the hilarious
and somewhat bizarre incidents that the
group has experienced on what has been
an exceptional musical journey so far.
A troupe of six youthful musicians
from the tourist town of Victoria Falls
that defied their humble beginnings
to become one of Zimbabwe’s most
celebrated groups - culminating in them
landing the Arts Personality of the Year
Award at the National Arts Merit Awards
(NAMA) last March - Mokoomba’s story
is unique.
Singing mostly in the minority Tonga
language, they have mastered the art
of blending traditional and modern
instruments with rhythms from Southern
Africa and beyond. It is a combination
that has set them apart from everyone
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else and proved popular too, despite most
of their tunes being done in a language
that could even be considered foreign to
most Zimbabweans.
“We are unique that way,” said bass
guitarist Abundance Mutori.
“Our music is a type of Afro-fusion
which is Pan-African as it also borrows
from various music styles such as
Soukous, Palm wine, Afro-Cuban –
that are all rolled into one. We also use
traditional instruments from Binga
such as the percussion ‘inyele’ and the
‘ngomampita’ which is a type of Tonga
traditional drum that produces so many
rhythms and combine these with modern
instruments that are easier to amplify.
“In this way, we are a young modern
outfit singing a blend of traditional and
contemporary styles as we believe music
can transcend boundaries and our Afrofusion is designed to give everybody as
many entry points as possible.”
Starting out in Victoria Falls in the
early ‘90s, the six-some of Trustworth
April 2013