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Edith Katiji

Auxilia Katongomara Entertainment Reporter
BULAWAYO born bassist and musician Edith Katiji WeuTonga has expressed discontent with the judges’ selection criteria for this year’s Most Outstanding Female award at the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama).The most outstanding female artiste award went to gospel musician Olivia Charamba.

Katiji was a nominee together with Selmor Mtukudzi and both lost to the veteran gospel artiste. She said the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe’s (NACZ) used a very questionable criteria which left a lot to be desired.

The arts council said to come up with the outstanding artiste they looked at the artiste’s visibility during the year under review, the number of performances and their ability to wow the fans.

Speaking to Chronicle Entertainment, the Harare- based singer said the explanation given by NACZ was not convincing.
“I am very disappointed by the explanation given by the arts council, honestly how do you measure performances, is there someone monitoring each time a female artiste in the country is performing.

“What about foreign shows, who is there to monitor us? This whole explanation leaves a lot to be desired,” fumed Katiji.
She said after the release of the nominees earlier this month she was confident that the award would either go to her or Selmor Mtukudzi.

“If we are talking of performances surely, me and Selmor worked very hard the past year. As for Selmor she was everywhere, Intwasa, Chimanimani and Harare International Festivals among other shows held countrywide.

“The year was also a busy one for me despite my son’s illness. I performed in East Africa twice, in Uganda and Kenya and Harare countless times but who is keeping tabs on all this?” she asked.

Katiji said she had nothing against gospel singer Mai Charamba, but felt such dubious awards demotivated young artistes in the country.
“There are so many female artistes who made it big last year and these include Cynthia Mare, Pah Chihera, Ammara Brown, Agatha Murudzwa and Joyce Simeti. I wondered how Mai Charamba got there,” she said.

Katiji said for the most outstanding artiste, the likes of Kapfupi and Macheso would also qualify even if they did not release any album as they also staged a number of shows in the year under review.

She challenged the NACZ to publish the criteria for each category so that when artistes submit their entries they are in the clear of what is expected of them.
She added that Mai Charamba taunted her and Selmor during the awards saying they either get the award this year or forget ever getting it.

“Mai Charamba did not make it any easier on us as she came to our table and told us to ‘get the award now’ saying when she releases her album we will not get any chance”.
Each year artistes complain about inconsistencies in the selection of Nama awards winners.