The Sunday News
Mbongeni Msimanga Sunday Leisure Correspondent
NEWLY formed Afro-Jazz group I-TRIBE has brought their own flair to the entertainment scene as they seek to diversify their music by singing in different languages ranging from Shona, Ndebele, Swahili to Kalanga in an attempt to have different African cultures represented.The group that is little known on the local entertainment scene was formed last year in May and comprises Bulawayo artistes Xolani “Ex Mile” Ndlovu, Admire Zenzele “Zet” Moyo, Thandy Dhlana and Butshilo Nleya.
All the artistes have done well in the entertainment scene individually and the fusion of their talents and musical strengths is expected to bring a new flavour to the local music scene.
Although other local groups have attempted to go the multilingual route without much success, I-Tribe believes their task was harder as their ultimate goal lies in drawing and uniting youths from different cultural sections of the African continent through music.
“We seek to promote and celebrate African language and culture diversity and offer broad and varied urban mix songs. Our goal is to attract young people from across the African cultural and lingual divide. So far we have songs in Shona, Ndebele, Swahili and Kalanga and we are trying to expand and incorporate even more languages in our songs,” said one of the group members Nleya.
He said he was convinced that they would win the hearts of people as their sound was unique and mainly addressed issues that had a uniting goal.
“Our music addresses issues that are topical to youths and that explore their experiences. It is uniting and mainly seeks to drive youths to look up to each other,” he said.
In the short time they have been in the music industry as a group, they have managed to share the stage with Zimbabwean music superstar, Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi when he recently performed at the Ibumba Festival. They have also earned themselves a ticket to the famed Book Café in Harare.
Other artistes they have shared the stage with include Haja Madagascar, Josh Meck, Blessing Muparutsa, Mangoma, Victor Kunonga, Jam Signal, LukeDelukes, Mj sings and Iyasa at the Bulawayo World Musical Show and Book Café respectively.
Nleya said they were looking forward to expanding their local fan base this year with more shows in and around the country where they wished to preach the message of unity among youths as well as urging them to focus on better goals.
“So far, we have managed to share the stage with Oliver Mtukudzi at the recently held Ibumba Festival in the city and we had a splendid show with him. We have also managed to perform at the Book Café in Harare and we are hoping to collaborate and share the stage with other artistes so that we share our vision with them,” he said.
Nleya said they were looking forward to performing at different festivals across the African continent saying they had already sent out applications across the continent including the Bayimba International Arts Festival in Uganda.
“We have managed to send out a batch of applications across the African continent and we are waiting for responses. We wish to use such platforms as festivals to push our agenda of collaborating with other artistes from across the continent,” he said.
The four are accomplished artistes in their own right. The Bangaxabani hit maker, Ex Mile, has worked with Jeys Marabini, Dudu Manhenga, Family Voices and Willis Wataffi, among other artistes in the city.
Dhlana was a member of Izintombi Zomqangala, a group led by Sandra Ndebele from 2011 until this year. Her talents have seen her touring India, Dubai, China, United Kingdom, Russia, Canada and Japan.
Moyo clinched first prize in the Ghetto Fabulaz 2014 music competition early last year while Nleya is a festival director at Bulawayo Culture Festival, team leader at Born to Life Arts and media and workshop performance artiste at Butshilo’s Drums.
