“There’s a Message in the Music”- Hope Masike

Penny Yon

Pamberi Trust’s gender project FLAME is still burning strongly, this week for a gifted young woman who has recently emerged onto the music scene, Hope Masike.

Hope Masike- a rising star

^ Hope Masike- a rising star

Born into an artistic musical family where ‘there was always singing’, Hope has been singing all her life, in the last few years performing as backing vocalist for Colour Blu and others. In 2007 she joined the Zimbabwe College of Music Ethnomusicology programme, in her search for a better understanding and deeper relationship with music. Her studies in the programme involve focus on ethnic African instruments, and she soon started playing nyunga-nyunga (mbira).

With friends and fellow students from the programme, Hope formed the band ‘Kakuwe’ – with a message for a better life, imitating the ‘Go-Away Bird’ which alerts forest animals to lurking danger, and at whose call the forest falls quiet and still, listening. Unlike the famous bird though, this singer-songwriter’s voice is sweet and pure and true.

Hope says “We believe we have a message for people that can actually change the quality of their life, improve it… there’s a message in the music.” The music itself is about ‘cherishing truth and identity, love and spirituality’, a traditional Zimbabwean vibe, mixed with a bit of jazz and other influences. Artists who have inspired and influenced Hope’s music are Zimbabwe’s own Chiwoniso Maraire, South African singer Simpiwe Dana, and American divas Erica Badu and Whitney Houston - but Kakuwe are strongly Zimbabwean.

The band Kakuwe comprises Theresa Muteta (recorder), Elisha Herema (bass), Blessed Rukweza (djembe/drum) and Owen Phiri (western drums) with Hope on mbira. Theresa and Elisha are fellow Ethnomusicology students, Blessed is also with the Dance Foundation, and Owen teaches drums at the Zimbabwe College of Music.

Hope is also involved with the cultural exchange programme ‘Umoja’ encompassing Norway, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. She performed vocals, mbira and dance with Umoja in Zimbabwe, Norway and Mozambique, where she saw that “…there is a future for art, maybe not in Zim at the moment, but we are just beginning. Out there it’s vibrant, and it can change in Zim. We broadened our parameters, discovered there’s a big world out there. I realised that culture is very important; when you learn about the cultures of others, you realise your own is very, very special” she said.

Before following the music within her, Hope Masike studied fine art, then fashion design. Under her own label ‘Idi’ (truth) she has designed stagewear for some of Zimbabwe’s best loved female artists, but is now designing for her own group.

Pamberi Trust are happy to have been a part of the development of this young group. Hope attributes the formation of Kakuwe to their participation in Pamberi’s Bocapa Xposure youth programme, which ‘gave you some kind of focus, helped you decide who you are’. She also participated in ‘Workshops for Women Artists by Women Artists’ which she found very useful, as an artist, and as a woman. Since mid-2007 she has been a popular regular performer at the Sistaz Open Mic programme, a special platform for emerging women artists which gave her direction, experience in live performance, and empowered her to meet the challenge of performing in a regular evening slot at the Book Café in July and August.

The FLAME event for Hope and Kakuwe on Tuesday 19 August throws the spotlight on this emerging group of gifted young artists, who are embracing the future with energy, style and confidence. They are much more than just another new group, they are a symbol of hope for the arts in Zimbabwe, growing, surviving and achieving in the face of tough times.

For Pamberi Trust

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