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| Innovative HIV/Aids and Gender Awareness campaign keeps on rolling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The proposal submitted by BEES and its implementation partners, Maltre Productions and Bandwagon Afrika centered on using indigenous music and musicians to promote gender and HIV/Aids awareness in KwaZulu-Natal. The first component of the project involved visiting certain target areas around KwaZulu Natal and, working with locally based partners such as community radio stations, offering a performance platform for local musicians to get up on stage and showcase their talent. The only proviso being that their program had to include a HIV/Aids and/or Gender awareness song. Those groups that showed sufficient promise were then invited to submit their HIV/Aids and/or Gender Awareness track to a compilation album that is being recorded for the project. Through January and February the road show visited Jozini, Port Shepstone, Eshowe and Ladysmith. The final event that falls under this section of the project will be held in Underberg on Saturday the 1st of April. At this stage four locally based groups are confirmed to perform, namely Indawana Real Happy Singers, Indawana New Homeboys, Amagugu Namasiko and Females and Males Gospel Group. The workshop Over the weekend of the 17th to the 19th of March, representatives of the groups chosen from the Jozini, Port Shepstone, Eshowe and Ladysmith events, as well as representatives from two of the Underberg based groups, were invited to Durban for a three-day workshop. The workshop was held at St. Philomena’s and nearly started on a very tragic note when one of the bakkies that was transporting the participants from Jozini was involved in a head on collision with another vehicle. Whilst most of the occupants walked away from the accident, a couple had to be hospitalized overnight and there was great relief all around when the last of them joined the workshop on Saturday afternoon. Even more gratifying was how quickly Ethekwini Music Centre agreed to give the musicians a 50% discount on the price of replacement guitars that had been irreparably damaged in the accident. Johnny Dimba, a locally based musician and authority on SAMRO and copyright, opened the participants eyes to the business realities and paper work that these musicians must start getting used to if they ever hope to one day achieve success in the industry. The McCords Hospital based Sinethemba Choir (formerly Sinikithemba Choir), whose members are all HIV positive are contributing a track to the compilation album and representatives from the Choir attended the workshop and also gave a presentation on living with HIV/Aids so as to sensitize the participants a bit more to the issues at hand. Malcolm Nhleko from Maltre Productions and United Rhythms Recording Studio presented on the business side of the music industry, performance skills and studio techniques to prepare the groups for their recording session. Nhleko also gave a presentation on song composition and arrangement so that the groups could tighten up the song they were submitting for the album. Neil Comfort from Bandwagon Afrika and Rainbow Restaurant spoke to the participants about artist management with emphasis on the marketing aspect of developing a group as a strong and successful brand. He also looked at the relationship between groups and venues and encouraged the participants to get more active in their local areas, to come together with other performers so as to be able to speak to local authorities with a united voice. Izan Greyling a lecturer from the Durban Institute of Technologies Department of Entertainment Technology did a basic sound course. Finally Simon Ntsele from Radio Maputoland gave a presentation on the dynamics of the relationship between artists and their record companies with radio stations and how choosing a song for airplay works. A lot to cover in less than three days but judging by the feedback from the participants, potentially invaluable, particularly if one or other of the groups’ songs achieves massive airplay! Going forward Since the workshop most of the groups have recorded their track for the album. As mentioned above, there will be another awareness event in Underberg this coming Saturday 1 April. On Sunday the 2nd of April the following acts will be appearing at the historic Rainbow Restaurant in Pinetown. From Port Shepstone will be Kwaito artist Mazweni Cele and poet Mxolisi ‘Khansas’ Khawula. From Jozini will be the maskanda groups Usikhindi Semali Nomatshitshi Emphika and Imawinela as well as poet Thulisiwe Ntshangase. The gospel group Open Space will be joining us from Dundee and Ladysmith is represented by the Israel Home Brothers isicathamiya line-up. On Saturday the 15th we will be presenting a line-up from 2pm that features recorded maskanda artist osoMaqhinga whose massive Ukhozi FM hit ‘Amateksini’ ensured that he rocked Splashy in 2005. The legendary Pat Matshikiza, who will be performing solo on piano, will follow. Expect to hear his classic South African jazz standard Tshona cut down to its bare essence as well as music from his 2005 release Seasons, Masks and Keys and an HIV/Aids song that he has especially composed for the project. Finally wrapping things up for our showcase on Saturday will be the divine vocal skills of Malkia performing with Pietermaritzburg based Fate4Africa. On Sunday morning, from around 10am, the two most promising groups to be identified at the Underberg event will be given a chance by the festival to showcase themselves. To wrap it all up Once the album has been mastered free copies will be distributed to all radio stations around KZN with the hope that tracks from it get decent airplay and one or more goes on to be a hit. Then we will have gone past even our goals for the project. Music is such a powerful medium for getting across socially relevant messages and through this project we are dealing with two of the most pressing issues in South African society today – HIV/Aids and Gender awareness. To summarize the remaining events that falls under the CWCI HIV/Aids and Gender Awareness banner: DATE: Saturday 1 April DATE: Sunday 2 April DATE: Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 April Groups, artists, poets contributing material to the compilation album:
Malcolm Nhleko – Maltre Productions Bev Ainslie – BEES Durban office |
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In September 2005 the BEES development organization answered a call from a joint European Union/South African development initiative that goes under the name of Conferences, Workshops and Cultural Initiatives (CWCI).