The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
There was a moment at the tail end of her set at the National Arts Gallery recently when Berita Khumalo called the city’s young vocal talents to join her on stage.
Khumalo, with just an acoustic guitar to accompany her angelic voice, had already whipped the crowd into a frenzy as she bade them farewell with a performance of her smash hit, Ndicel’ikiss.
The three young stars, Mimie Tarukwana, Vuyo Brown and MJ Sings seemed hesitant for a moment. They had earlier on given good accounts of themselves in their own sets but this was an altogether different task ahead of them.
On that sunny afternoon, the event had by all accounts been a mellow affair. But when Berita’s voice started to soar in the evening air during the performance of her last song, feet shuffled and hands clapped.
What had been a mellow chill out session suddenly transformed into a party, as people abandoned the chairs they had seemed glued to for most of that afternoon.
It was in this moment that Berita called out the trio of young stars, asking them to come and bask in the glow of her chart topping song.
For a moment the trio, who possess some of the finest voices in the city, seemed to hesitate. Berita, for her part, seemed eager to pass the button to her young partners who at that moment looked like they might disrupt the relay, shying away from the spotlight that their talents deserve.
With encouragement from Berita who asked them to sing anything that came to their minds, the trio eventually plucked up the courage to give it a go.
What followed perhaps was the most memorable part of the show as the trio sang their lungs out, stealing the hearts of a crowd that perhaps did not know the full extent of the gems hidden in the City of Kings.
That moment perhaps was an apt illustration of the mood of the whole show, a free gig by Berita that was marked by spontaneous ingenuity and experimentation.
“What I love about a live and unplugged session is that you can just be yourself,” she said.
The gesture to bring the three young musicians on stage perhaps illustrated Berita’s own attitude towards her hometown, its art and artistes. She was not content to see all the screams and whistles thrown only in her direction but wanted instead to share it with artistes who usually feel less than appreciated in their own city.
“Are Bulawayo artistes good enough?” she asked earlier on in her set.
“It seems like that’s the question that’s asked a lot. This is a question that I was asked a lot over the last few days. I was asked whether artistes from Bulawayo are good enough to come up with a unique sound of their own. Are they good enough to be considered national or Pan-African artistes?”
Only with support could those deemed to be less talented than their counterparts from around the country and outside hope to make it, she said.
“We’re the ones to make Bulawayo artistes. It will be us and what you have done by attending this gig is big because you’ve given us the opportunity to show you what we have. My plan with this is to grow it. Every year it must get bigger . . . on our side as artistes we will continue making music because that’s what we do. But what we need is your support all the time,” she said.
The unplugged gig showed Berita in her element, stripping her of all the artificial comforts that convinces even the most ardent music fans that mediocre musicians are better than they actually are.
Berita’s mastery of the acoustic guitar puts her in a class above the average Afro-Soul musician. Rocking high heels on stage, she barely missed a step, running through her discography with ease like an efficient one woman band.
Perhaps the most heartfelt moment of the show was when she departed from her own music and decided to give a rendition of Oliver Mtukudzi’s Neria.
“I was lucky to work with him in my life. After he heard my music he asked me to come to Harare and record with him. I felt honoured that I was talented enough to work with,” she said.
Mtukudzi’s influence on Berita is tremendous and she gave a rendition that did justice to the memory of the late great musician.
At first the crowd, which Berita had insisted join her as she could not sing the song alone, sang alongside her. But in the middle of the song they seemed to abandon the effort. Perhaps it was the realisation that they could not go voice for voice with a songbird that seemed to be singing straight from the gut. It was an exhilarating part of an afternoon that proved not only Berita’s star power, but her desire to make a lasting impact in a city that is not always eager to see its own sons and daughters flourish on its stages.
