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By Ronnie Chisamba
Music teacher-cum-musician, Evans Mapfumo – aka Pfumela – represented Zimbabwe by performing at the prestigious Saiti za Busara Festival in Zanzibar, Tanzania, last Friday evening.
Running from the 11th to the 13th of February, the event was held at the Old Fort Main Stage. The three-day music festival saw musicians from the host country and other African states showing their musical prowesses.
Pfumela and his eight-member band (Kiat Afrika) were invited to the music festival in August last year. The artiste and his crew nearly failed to travel to Tanzania because of a lack of funds. lt was the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts, and Recreation and CivilNet Engineering Pvt Ltd (a construction company) who came to the rescue of the music ensemble.
The ministry paid US$4500 for the air tickets of the band members and the COVID 19 PCR tests. CivilNet bought the much-needed regalia for Pfumela and the rest of the Kiat band members.
Highlighting the challenges the group faced, Phumela had this to say: “We faced so many challenges in our efforts to raise funds for the Zanzibar trip. On the 18th of December, we held a fundraising dinner. lnitially we had charged US$20 for an individual ticket and a special offer for couples was pegged at US$30. Clients thought US$20 was too much for a 3-course meal, a beverage/glass or wine, auction of Mbira & marimba made by Evans Mapfumo + loads of entertainment from Evans’ band Kiat Afrika and 4 other supporting artists.
“Eventually, we reduced the individual tickets to US$10 but people were not willing to buy. I then invited people to just come and many people promised to come and on the day of the event, a few attended but it was worth a while.”
Pfumela is grateful to the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, CivilNet Engineering, former schoolmates at Wadlove High, former college mates, friends, and family members for their unwavering support during the trying times before the Zanzibar trip.
Pfumela’s Kiat music is a fusion of various African traditional music rhythms. The name kiat is Afrikaans for teak wood which is a special wood commonly found in most parts of Southern Africa.
