The Sunday News
Lance Chigodo Sunday Leisure Reporter
BULAWAYO-BASED female a capella group Nobuntu has returned from a 25-day Euro Summer annual tour. Music groups from all over the world are invited and they tour a number of European countries showcasing their music talents to the world.
Nobuntu has been part of the Euro Summer tour for the third time now since 2013 and this year they toured Germany and Australia, last year it was Germany and Belgium.
The group performed impressively at the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany where they got coverage from a German newspaper, The Ostthuringer Zeitung which covered the festival and commended the Zimbabwean group for an outstanding performance.
The festival was termed “the biggest stage ever” by the group spokesperson, Joyline Sibanda, after they performed to an audience of over a thousand people.
The group of six women in their early 30s specialises on a fusion of traditional Zimbabwean rooted music, traditional gospel, Afro-Jazz and crossover in pure voices with minimalistic percussion, acoustic instruments and dance movements.
They got the name Nobuntu from an African word ubuntu which stands for a concept that values humbleness, love, purpose, unity and family and the group — Nobuntu – places it from a woman perspective.
The group was formed in 2011 by five members who are Joyline Sibanda, Duduzile Sibanda, Thandeka Moyo, Heather Dube and Zanele Manhenga, Claire Ratidzo Dangarembwa joined later.
The year 2013 marked the release of their first album called Thina and their first European tour. They have also performed at a number of local events and festivals.
The group is a new generation of young women singers who celebrate and preserve their culture, beauty and heritage through art. In an interview with Sunday Leisure, Sibanda said the group filled the deficit of female dominant a capella groups not only locally but worldwide.
“Nobuntu was formed on realising the absence of an all-female professional a capella group in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe as a whole. The ensemble’s mission is rooted in the belief that music is the most important and original wheel of change. It is a way of expression for a new generation of young women singers with the uniqueness to transcend racial, tribal, religious, gender and economic boundaries” she said.
