The Sunday News
Kudzai Mpangi, Sunday Life Reporter
TALENTED gospel musician Sabastian Magacha of the Ridza Bhosvo fame has collaborated with several secular musicians on tracks for his upcoming album to be released next month.
Magacha worked with Alick Macheso, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Jah Prayzah and award winning Zim Dancehall producer Oskid on his sixth album Wonererwai Jeso with the album launch set for Theatre in the Park at Harare Gardens on 10 November.
Speaking to Sunday Life, Magacha said he chose the particular artistes as a way of reaching out to people from different walks of life.
“I believe the Bible says I’m the salt of the world, not the salt of the church, so what I have simply done is I have collaborated with these artistes because they are also making noise in their territories and that territory they operate from is the territory we need to reach out to and bring people to Christ,” Magacha said.
“The impact that these particular artistes are bringing is huge and in the songs in which they feature, one can tell that they are preaching the word of God,” he said.
However, conservative sections of the gospel society have questioned his strategy saying they were finding it difficult to understand his rationale. And as a gospel artiste, Magacha acknowledges that his chosen path has not been trodden by many. He said it was essentially uncharted exhaustively in a new era where people needed to hear a different sound.
“A lot of people have a problem with the method I’ve chosen to use, but they are not concerned about the results that it will bring to the church. As Christians and gospel artistes, our core mandate is to bring people to Christ through music. But it’s a new world that calls for new ways of reaching out to people from the different walks of life,” he said.
He added that the songs on which the secular artistes feature were loaded in terms of the spiritual message that they carry and how it was delivered.
“The song that I did with Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana called Mama My Hero is a song that I dedicated to my mother and all the mothers out there for all that they have gone through to make us who we are today. I did Mweya Mutsvene with Jah Prayzah and Maria naMarita with Alick Macheso. These two songs have a higher tempo than my usual work and will appeal to a cross section of music lovers,” Magacha said.
“It was God’s grace that brought these star musicians on board to do a collaboration with them on my project. They have made it easy and they gave their total effort in the work. I really appreciate their input,” he said.
