The Sunday Mail
Tafadzwa Kadani recently in Berlin, Germany
COLLEGE band Those Guys Vacho maybe virtually unknown locally but their recent exploits in Germany definitely raised their profile, as well as Zimbabwe’s flag high.
The 2015 Chibuku Road to Fame participants, Those Guys Vacho, is a young and versatile band made up of students from Midlands State University.
The group went to Germany last month to participate in various cultural activities and performed at the Berlin Carnival of Cultures and the Ke Na Ko Africa Festival in the same city.
Milcent Chigariro, Yevukaishe S Chimhandamba and Denwed K Kaseke study different programmes at varsity but have one thing in common – the love for music.
They travelled with Nicholas Manomano of Kutinya Arts, who has taken many students to Germany over the years.
But Those Guys Vacho is the first university group to represent Zimbabwe in Germany, as previously primary school pupils participated.
Their first performance was at the Berlin Carnival of Cultures on May 15 where more than 700 people turned up to see them do their thing.
The Carnival of Cultures is a four-day urban festival and one of the biggest in Berlin.
This year the carnival ran from May 13 to the 16. On the on-street fest stages as well as off-stage, world-renowned and upcoming bands and artistes performed a variety of music styles – reggae, jazz and African traditional. The Zimbabwean delegation performed at the Farafina stage in Mheringdam.
To picture the Berlin Carnival, think of Zimbabwe’s Hifa – but many times bigger.
Though Those Guys Vacho were at a disadvantage as less than half of the ensemble made the journey, they did not disappoint as the few that performed managed to pull a huge crowd.
As the people saw the young musicians set up their marimba and mbira instruments they could not help but stop to see what was happening.
People started trickling in and within a short space of time the place was filled to capacity with some having to stand at a distance.
Those Guys Vacho started their act with some mbira tunes that left the crowd clamouring for encores of “Nhemamusasa”, “Mhuka Inemavara” and “Wanga Wakarara”.
What intrigued the audience the most was how such a small, ancient instrument could produce such powerful and melodious tunes.
And the marimba performance was nothing short of excellent.
Singing in Shona, one could swear that many people in the crowd had some Zimbabwean background as they sang along to songs like “Ndivavo Vakomana Vekwedu” and “Gomo Ramasare” among others.
The group also played some of their own compositions which received much appreciation. After their performance the group visited the Zimbabwean Embassy where they thrilled the officials present on that day with some mbira music. Zimbabwe’s Ambassador Ruth Masodzi Chikwira could not be present on that day and Minister Counsellor Isaac Mapingure stood in for her. Mapingure said it was important for the embassy and other Zimbabweans in Germany to assist in creating and exploiting more platforms of this nature.
“We will push that more opportunities of this nature are availed for young and upcoming artistes as yourselves because we have seen how culture can be used to create relations between the two countries,” said Mapingure.
The second and last performance for Those Guys Vacho in Berlin was at the Ke Na Ko Africa Festival at Alexanderplatz, a very popular and busy area.
Habib Koite (Mali), Nomfusi (South Africa) and Abdou Day (Madagascar) are some of the seasoned musicians who played there. Dressed in all-white, Those Guys Vacho lit up the place with traditional music and in no time the crowd was dancing. If anything, this performance was even more polished than the one at the Berlin Carnival.
They performed with German-based Zimbabwean artistes Chamu Ifreeka and Manomano of Kutinya Arts. The highlight was when they played “Chemutengure”, which left the crowd screaming “zugabe” (encore). Afterwards, people scrambled to take pictures with the group clearly showing that they had been delighted by their performance.
Band leader Milcent Chigariro said she was awed by the response.
“I didn’t know that people out here really appreciated Zimbabwean music this much, I was actually surprised to see such a crowd coming to watch us play,” said Chigariro.
We really thank God for giving us this opportunity and we are really proud to represent our nation in a foreign land.”
