As an African people, collaboration is part of how we live as a community. Although there are differences of manner, it is this diversity of various customs that makes celebration of vibrant and unique. However these indigenous stories are often of similar tongue and theme, foods and garments of similar texture, rhythms of a familiar drum and colours of a similar fabric, underlying that we are ultimately one people of the sun. Art too in its various facets be it a melody or a photograph, or indeed a written or recited composition, a work of art in a museum or a graphic on the mural of a city, each medium transmits a story connived by the performer. The chronicle often derives its character from the experiences that have overtime as time itself molded the storyteller and their respective craft. This is the conversation that took place at Modzi Arts between individuals that share a border and practice different aesthetics.
Slowly the melody sipped out of the creak in the doorway into the dark hallway, the echo of the shutter faintly clicking away. The crisp sound of plucking and strumming could be heard as the skillful thumbs and fingers wielded their various instruments, a familiar song bringing with it nostalgia of times gone by. Like a song bird, the voice that sang carried the song as she too had heard it sang by those who had sang before her with her own perspective embedded in the message. I gently sat on two piles of hardbacks and paperbacks, not as to disturb the impromptu session between the mbira maven Hope Masike and Mumba Yachi as well as not to appear in the frame of the ongoing photographer. The gentleness in the movement with which her thumbs generated the various notes from the mbira as her smile illuminated the room filled the space with energy only authenticity possesses. Reminiscent of a young Miriam Makeba in tone or a Valarie June on ukulele, the uniqueness of Hope’s compositions sung in her indigenous tongue and played on native instrument is the salient differentiator that will ensure her longevity and excellence at her craft. Evocative of the late Peter Kalumba Chishala or Michael Kiwanuka, Mumba is also well in his stride as a musician, accomplished as a composer with an indigenous Midas touch that is valid and germane, the hallmark of longevity. Soulful aptly describes what transpired in the annex of the Swedish School Lusaka library, stories told in song as those of old told around the fire to teach and carry on tradition.
I cannot tell you the title of any of the songs that once had individual names, the collaborations became new compositions with new identities yet their depths could still be felt. It is the common themes of love and heartache, triumph and defeat, euphoria and despair, hope and agony told in ones mother tongue that resonate strongly with the human condition and in turn gave the melodies their poignancy. Though each sang and played in their own parlance, I understood the message by virtue of the emotion each utterance and note communicated. With each snap, the lens too captured every strum and expression in the various moments of the jam session, immortalizing the moment to which only the four individuals can each narrate what the feeling was in those instances. Thus although my version of events is told from my wit, the visuals by Edwin also give an account of what he saw. The music both individuals make is preserving the heritage of a people for those still to come as the musicians of old left us with blueprints and legacies, and through imagery and texts such as these, milestones such as the Zam-Zim (Zambia-Zimbabwe) Afro-Luso project alliance shall endure and not be erased with the passage of time. The moment was as honest and pure as the gifts being shared, without the artificial façade and trappings that often render the instant inauthentic commonplace lacking.
As much as we are all creatives in our own right, we need each other to help amplify our stories. A musician cannot play their instrument, sing and capture images simultaneously, just as the photography cannot play the soundtrack of the images they wish to capture, as the scribe too must commit the moments as they unfold to be told in form of a verbatim. As such collaborations play a cardinal role in the story of art, brining different thoughts together. Forums such as Afro-Luso act as a platform and canvass for creatives of various mediums to share in conversations about their craft as in this case it happened to be between the mbira, the guitar, the lens and the scribe in a room full of books. If a picture paints a thousand words, then a song paints a thousand pictures. We have a duty as story tellers to share our gift and enlighten with creativity, and it is when we join forces that the art is truly sharpen our craft and excel as a people. When your neighbor is cooking in African culture and you happen to stumble upon the meal, you wash your hands and join them. Such was the occasion which was not in any way conspired that the mbira exuded its melodies conspiring with the guitar, as the lens captured the anecdotes of Hope and Mumba was etched into memory.
Kampamba Mabuluki
