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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
IT took over a month for 21 artistes from Bulawayo to come up with top-notch artistic performance, Songs of Lozikeyi, that stole the show at the opening of the Bulawayo Arts Festival (Baf).

Delegates who attended the launch on Thursday afternoon were sold by the performance with President Mnangagwa also endorsing the production.

Just as the making of Vusa Mkhaya’s Masiyephambili track where 18 artistes collaborated on a song that changed the game, the production of Songs of Lozikeyi, an act filled with music, poetry and dance, showed how the city’s artistes can be appreciated beyond their city if they work together.

So good was their performance that they got the President to do his popular “ED dance” at Nkwali’s request.

A brainchild of Josh Nyapimbi under Nhimbe Trust and Mambazo under Sabela Music, Songs of Lozikeyi production was done to fully celebrate Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo. Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo was one of Ndebele King, Lobengula’s wives and is best described as beautiful, powerful in stature and a shrewd mistress of intrigue. She was the inspiration and sponsor of the 1896 Anglo-Ndebele war often called the first uprising against the British colonialists where she distributed guns, blessed the troops and was consulted by the commanders of the uprising including Nyamande, son of King Lobengula and Hawana Mayisa.

Knowing and appreciative of the musical prowess of Ngoma Ingoma auxiliary keyboardist, Prince Joel Nyoni, Nyapimbi and Mambazo roped him in as the musical director of the production. He was to work with Makula Moyo and Gomez Dube as choreographers.

Saturday Leisure caught up with Nyoni who has in the past, worked with the likes of Berita and Black Coffee and he detailed how unity as a team, made the production a success.

He said other than him, Moyo and Dube, the Songs of Lozikeyi team comprised Thandy Dhlana (lead vocalist), Nomankwali “Nkwali” Mkhwananzi (vocalist), Thandeka Moyo (Nobuntu – backing vocals), Zanele Manhenga (Nobuntu – backing vocals), Duduzile Sibanda (Nobuntu – backing vocals), Paul Maseko (bassist), Raymond Takawira (guitarist), Caleb Mujere (drummer), Thandokuhle Sibanda (poet), Sithandazile Dube (poet), Lethisiwe Mafu (Iluba lemvelo), Muchaneta Dube (Iluba lemvelo), Rejoice Chauke (Ilubalemvelo), Senzeni Dube (Ilubalemvelo), Samkeliso Bhebhe (Iluba lemvelo), Alice Gurure (Iyasa), Dorcas Ngwenya (Iyasa) and Cheryl Mabaya (Iyasa).

Nyoni said the production aimed at celebrating Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo while also lifting the bar high in terms of the city’s music production.

“Songs of Queen Lozikeyi was an idea that Saimon Mambazo and Josh Nyapimbi came up with. Growing up, we watched theatre shows like Julia Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and productions like Sarafina and Shaka the Zulu king. So we thought, why not have our own and tell the story of Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo through music.

“This was a woman who was very active in the war against white people. That’s why Bulawayo is known as ‘Komfazi otshaya indoda’, it’s because of Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo. It’s said she’d cause havoc at a place which is now known as Bulawayo Club as she’d brutally attack whites who’d take advantage of blacks. This is why we came up with the production to celebrate her strength,” Nyoni said.

He said their production was also meant to cement writer, Pathisa Nyathi’s efforts in telling the story of Queen Lozikeyi through his book — Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele.

“There is a book by Pathisa Nyathi about Queen Lozikeyi. We decided to complement his efforts by having this production as not everyone reads. So we thought that if we came up with a musical version, at least people would enjoy watching it.

“What we did on Thursday is the start of a great artistic production,” said the production’s music director.

Detailing the making of the production, Nyoni said: “We got Nkwali and Thandi Dhlana to write songs about Queen Lozikeyi and they came up with the Halala Lozikeyi song that the President danced to on Thursday.

“Since we were celebrating a powerful woman, we decided to get more women into the production, hence the inclusion of women from Iluba lemvelo, Iyasa and Nobuntu.”

After working on the production for over a month, Nyoni said they feel there is need to promote it through a tour.

“We’ve been working on this for a month, if not a month-and-a-half. Due to its success, we now want to take this production on tour with help from Nhimbe Trust, Baf and Government.

“We need this story to be told and shown everywhere because we’re tired of people giving us their own versions of stories. People must understand where the Ndebeles come from, for example, a number of young people don’t really know that where the City Hall is located is what used to be Queen Lozikeyi’s field and that she used to stay around North End.

“There’s a lot of interesting stuff about our history that we never even got to read about in the books. That’s what we want to do, we want to tell our story and get the people to know the history behind the Ndebeles and Bulawayo in particular.”

Nyoni said they are also planning to come up with a theatre production.

“We’re still to do a theatre production that’ll have actors, more music and different poetry.” – @mthabisi_mthire