INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED Bulawayo-based lyasa illuminated the Nhosvo Culture Fair with a top notch performance in Africa Unity Square last week.
Iyasa, which was the main attraction from a star-studded line up which included mbira player Munashe Kwela, Tinashe Muchuri the poet, BOYYAKH the Dance Group, DJ Sunny and Samukoko and the band Caritate, performed its wedding act at the 2nd edition of the Nhosvo Culture Fair which ran from December 5 to 7. The fair had been billed to be held alongside the Christmas lighting ceremony which traditionally takes place every first Friday of December.
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume watched part of the afternoon entertainment and received a gift from the festival organisers. He congratulated Nhosvo Culture Fair for championing culture and heritage through creative work. The Christmas lights will be switched on at a later date.
Mercy Kayumba, Iyasa spokesperson, said the wedding act was inspired by traditional weddings at which every community member would want to be part of and feast, dance, mix and mingle and feel important as a member of the society.
“Considering that we are in the period of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we, as lyasa, are teaching people that they must plan their marriages. Love is beautiful and a planned marriage reduces incidents of gender-based violence in our societies,” Kayumba said.
Poet and author Tinashe Muchuri, who directed the proceedings, said Nhosvo was a Kalanga term for the tap root which is responsible for feeding the tree from germination and grows to anchor or buttress the tree on the ground. Our culture is our heritage and our heritage is our tap root, he said.
“Nhosvo means that if we hold on and perfect our cultural heritage, it means that we have our strength founded on our identities and therefore we will never go wrong. Nhosvo or our cultural heritage helps us to be accepted as better people who build peace within their own means to live well and productively as a nation,” Muchuri said.
“Rains will never fall adequately if we do not preserve our environment and trees. Our cultural heritage helps us to accept that the tap roots take water from the ground through the trees to quench us.”
- Iyasa illuminates cultural fair
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Eresina Hwede, director lnternational lmages for Women Film Festival, who was among the cultural activists behind Nhosvo Culture Fair since inception last year, said the fair taught that a good cultural heritage was founded on its beginning, that is, the tap root. She said people should find strength in their own identities as was dramatised by lyasa.
Iyasa has bagged close to five National Arts Merit Awards and has toured the globe extensively. In 2013, three members of the group, Noma Mkwananzi, Silethemba Magonya and Pespise Magonya appeared on New York Billboards. In the same year, Iyasa was nominated for the Belgian Young Audiences Musical Awards for its play Sleep well, Sweet Moon.
A surprise act came from a scruffily dressed man from the streets. Nhosvo Culture Fair was branded by telecoms firm Africom and Coca Cola, among others.
