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Djembe monks in action

Nhlalwenhle Ngwenya
Tribal house music group – Djembe Monks will today join the rest of the continent in celebrating Africa Day through a new offering – Proud of Africa which will be showcased at various nightspots and festivals.

Proud of Africa – a musical set in which the group fuses its old tracks with new ones is meant to highlight how Africans celebrate and embrace culture through music.

“Proud of Africa is a sound that has an African identity. It’s a way of giving people a feel of Djembe Monks tribal house sound while also educating them on the richness of the African culture,” said one of Djembe Monks members, Rootz.

He said working on the set was exciting for them.

“Our group has its focus on producing African sounds. Working on this set was intriguing as we had Africa Day celebrations in mind which made it easy for us to come up with this set as it goes hand in hand with our music,” he said.

Proud of Africa will be showcased this weekend at the Miombo Music festival in Mazowe (30km from Harare) where Djembe Monks are billed to perform.

“Other than Proud of Africa, we’ve new music that we’ll sample at the festival. People can expect to hear a whole new Djembe Monks as we’ve added more African instruments into our traditional sound to come up with a new raw organic sound.”

The tribal house genre is famed for its deep Africa Drum base beat which is fused with an assortment of African music instruments that deliver unique soulful dance music.