Project breaks barriers for women musicians with disabilities

The Musicable pilot project being conducted as part of POVOAfrika Trust’s increased support to communities that are often excluded from significant opportunities across Zimbabwe is now midway through its mentorship stage. The project selected six artists, forming three mentorship pairs, for its first edition.

Songbird and Mafriq co-founder Pauline Gundidza, award-winning singer and songwriter Vuyo Brown, and Afro folklore singer and songwriter Raven Duchess are mentoring Chipo Muchegwa, Jacqueline Mpofu and afro-jazz-ethno- alternative artist Sithandazile Gumbo. The trio being mentored consists of women musicians with disabilities who are either establishing or asserting themselves in the music industry. 

The ongoing mentorship activities involve skill-building and skill-sharing sessions covering various aspects of the music industry such as branding, songwriting, music production, vocal training, concert performance, music publishing, copyright and distribution.

According to a statement issued by POVOAFRIKA for the first edition, only six artistes were selected to participate as three mentorship pairs.

These artistes were pre-selected from the network of musicians and artistes that POVOAfrika Trust has collaborated with in the past. For future iterations of the project, the organisers intend on rolling it out nationwide, sending out a national call for participants to join the project, both as mentors and mentees. 

The mentees have received their recording package as part of the mentorship empowerment programme, to reduce the studio infrastructural barriers and enable easy access to music recording during and beyond this project. The home recording kit consists of a microphone, headphones, a pop filter, a mic stand, and an audio interface.

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Each mentorship pair is also collaborating on composing and recording a song that reflects their combined talent and musical identity.

The songs produced were presented at the panel discussions scheduled for Harare  yesterday at Afrotopia Café situated within the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) premises. Further events will be held in Bulawayo on July 29 at the National Gallery and in Mutare on August 5 at Holiday Inn. 

Under the theme “Amplifying Our Voices & Our Stories to Express Ourselves as People with Disabilities”, the artistes will present their mentorship journeys. Discussions will be facilitated and moderated by Soneni Gwizi, a disability advocate and project advisor.

“We are inviting all relevant stakeholders to attend, participate and hear about these experiences and challenges and be part of a conversation that will hopefully lead to more inclusion of artists with disabilities, particularly in the music industry,” read a statement released by POVOAFRIKA this week. 

Chipo Muchegwa, mentored by Pauline Gundidza, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity and the learning experiences she gained through the project. “I'm enjoying the journey that I am on with my mentor Pauline. She's actually doing a great job mentoring me. I'm happy to be part of Musicable, I'm so glad I got considered. So far, we are working on many activities, like vocal training. I'm just happy to be working with her. I appreciate her so much and value everything I've learned from her. This is a great opportunity, it's a dream coming true,” she said.

“I had only been speaking to Chipo over the phone, so last week we met and had our first outing. She is a really popular person. After that first performance together at Mashwede, we have been offered a lot of shows. We will be doing vocal training sessions and mbira lessons and then we are starting to record,” Pauline Gundidza said.

“So far so good. Vuyo is training me so well, and I can feel that there is something that I now know about music,” said Sithandazile Gumbo a mentee, under Vuyo Brown.  “This week we went to the studio and they taught me how to connect the equipment. I managed to connect and learn everything. It's been kind of difficult without a laptop, but with the right software, I can also use the equipment through the phone, so that I can do my recordings without any problem. I’ve done the physical tutorial so now I’m waiting for the software tutorials to learn how to connect the equipment”.  

Jacqueline Mpofu, who has been a session musician, backing vocalist for different artistes and was part of Ammara Brown's band before an accident where she had a spinal cord injury is now coming back into the music industry and on a personal journey to find and define her own unique sound. “So it's been super fun with my mentor, Raven. From performing with her to shadowing her at her gig, it was really uplifting and empowering for me as a person with a disability. I’ve been loving the experience. Just being part of something, being recognized, being considered for such things has been so illuminating and beautiful. It's been really, really great,” she remarked.

“I think one word for me that I would use for the Musicable project is it has been eye-opening. It's a new experience for me to mentor someone who has a disability. There's so much I'm learning about the things I have to be sensitive to. I'm learning so much about Sithandazile as a person and about her disability. There is so much I didn’t know and it's in the conversations we have outside the lesson or after the lesson. Definitely, it is just a mind shift for the future.” Vuyo Brown said of her relationship with Sithandazile.

“The Musicable project has been an exciting and very awesome journey for me because I've also learned to understand what kind of challenges people with disabilities face regarding venues that are not wheelchair friendly and studios for rehearsal and recording, which also do not have working elevators and they don't have any wheelchair friendly environment. I am honoured to have been chosen to mentor Jacqueline Mpofu. I have been mentoring her on such topics as branding, building stamina, vocal exercises, stage presence, how to make a set list for a performance, how to compose a song and how to write lyrics,” added Raven Duchess.

The Musicable project is propelled by the Sound Connects Fund, an initiative by the Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) and the Goethe-Institut. The Sound Connects Fund is made possible through the financial contribution of the European Union and the support of the Organisation of ACP States.