Following last year’s intercultural exchange from the Amandla 2021, where they featured Poeticsoul and Nomabotwe from the Nelson Mandela Bay. This year the team hosted Edgar Muzah, joined by Mthokozisi Mabuza and Tavern Solomon. Through these exchanges the team seeks to have long term intercultural exchange programs between Eastern Cape artists and Lower Saxony artists, facilitated by aBantu Development Agency in the Eastern Cape and the sister Organisation aBantu Development e.V. the sister organization in Osnabrück Lower Saxony in Germany.
Under this year’s theme "Stand up for tolerance, respect and peace", the exile association invited the Osnabruck community to a meeting evening on Friday, September 16, at 8:00 p.m. in the Lutherhaus as part of its 35th anniversary and the "Festival of Cultures". On the one hand, information can be obtained and exchanged about the work of the association and especially about the counseling and support for victims who have experienced right-wing, racist, anti-semitic or any other form of inhuman violence. On the other hand, the association invited the community to a special musical concert program, because music is an excellent medium to draw attention to social issues.
One of the guests from South Africa who performed this year was Edgar Muzah & Friends. Edgar is a Zimbabwean born and now resides in South Africa. He is a musician, bassist, music producer, composer and arranger – who has played and worked with some of the best musicians in South Africa and around the world. Edgar's unique and distinctive sound is deeply rooted in Africa, but also contains global musical elements. With his wonderful recent debut solo album "Son Of A Tribe", Edgar addresses themes of the continent and paints a clear picture of the true Africa as he sees it through his eyes. Besides Edgar Muzah on bass, the band consists of pianist Mthokozisi Mabuza and drummer Tavern Solomon.
We spoke to Edgar about his experience on the festival and this is what he said, “First, the call to go to Germany was such a great honour for me, as I sometimes go play in Europe but this time I was invited. Also, the fact that it was an opportunity for me to play for a new crowd, I was so excited because I knew new crowd means new organic following to my music. The overall experience surpassed everything I thought it would be, great reception and warm crowd. Prior our performance some local artists did mention how difficult the crowd can be at times but I was so happy when the same crowd shouted that “we want more” just after our last set”.
The other musicians who were there were supported by the band named Makatumbe from Hannover: on the line-up Edgar Wendt (vocals, clarinet), Markus Korda (accordion, keyboard, guitar) and Claas-Henning Dörries (bass). There, the motto was "World Groove meets Future Pop" - Makatumbe had international folks, dance and pop music into the mixer and press the dance button.
At the end of that evening, "Harambee Live", an Afro fusion band from Osnabrück, Germany, went on stage. The band is made up of musicians from Africa, Europe and Brazil. It was founded by singer and composer Joy Wendo Shambula. Their band name Harambee, it’s a Swahili word meaning "to work together," "to put together" or "to help each other”. In Kenya, it is the national motto with the translation, "Together we stand." Harambee play various styles of music from Afro-jazz, reggae to pop and blues. In addition to vocals by Joy Wendo (Kenya) and Bantu Mtshiselwa (South Africa), the band features Jessy Hermance on bass (Gabon) and Jean Cristian dos Santos (Brazil) on guitar and Cornelius Laube (Germany) on drums. Their lullaby project will come out on the 6th of October.
Images by: Angela von Brill