Shaheera Asante

July 2004 - Dub Poetry and Music from Zimbabwe's Albert Nyathi

Hello, and this time it's welcome to Zimbabwe on your Street. I've been talking to Albert Nyathi, one of Zimbabwe's most influential dub poets, who is spreading the history and culture of his country.

Albert Nyathi

Albert Nyathi grew up in the southern regions of Zimbabwe where he played in the mountains herding cattle, listening to folk tales and reciting poetry. As a young man he was inspired by South African playwright Mbongeni Ngema. Today, Albert Nyathi's fusion of poetry and song fills the stadiums and concert halls, from Zimbabwe to Japan - and he has had several best-selling hits in Southern Africa.

Spoken word and poetry have always been of interest to me, outside of music, I believe the power of the word is underestimated within our popular culture. And spoken word has always been used in African cultures to convey history, culture and a sense of continuity from ancestor to child. In Zimbabwe, song and warrior dances are firmly rooted in the traditions of Matabeleland (Southern Zimbabwe) locally known as the land of Kings.

An extract from the poetry of Albert Nyathi:

Once colonised in 1890, Uncolonised in 1980

This is the land of contradictions my friends Where you will meet,

The laughing hyaenas and the crying children - The chattering monkeys and the roaring lions,

Where you will meet the doubting eagles in the sky

And the hissing snakes in the grass

Visitor, welcome to Zimbabwe.

This is where you meet

The bleating sheep and the hooting owls

The croaking frogs and the barking, yelling, yelping,

Shouting baboons!

Visitor, welcome to Zimbabwe.

Growing up in Zimbabwe, Albert Nyathi witnessesd the daily political strife, and human struggle for freedom, this has played an influential part in his initial choice of using poetry, rather than music to express his desire for social change. In his twenties, Nyathi gave up his rapidly advancing career in government service within Zimbabwe's National Arts Council to concentrate on performance and the development of youth training programmes in the arts in Harare's townships.

After experiments in community theatre and performing arts, including teaching song and dance to township youths, in 1990 Albert started fusing poetry and song. He formed his group Imbongi in 1995 and his debut album Kuze Kube Nini (For How Long?) was recorded in 1994. Many of the songs on the album are still big hits in Zimbabwe today.

In 1997, he performed for Nelson Mandela celebrating his visit to Zimbabwe and again in 1999, he performed at the funeral of freedom fighter, Joshua Nkomo who is considered by many Zimbabweans, as the father of politics in their country.

After several attempts I finally, caught up with Albert by telephone on his busy summer tour of schools in the UK where he is teaching children the importance of poetry as a means of self-expression and helping them understand African culture.



'The children in the UK do not initially understand where I come from at first,' he says. 'Most of the children when I ask what they know about Zimbabwe, many say the same thing - cricket, one child said killing white farmers'. Understandably these school children are only relaying in graphic terms, the images they see repeatedly on British television of Zimbabwe, although Albert does go on to say that primary school age children are different.

'They are amazing,' he continues, 'at that age they are very poetic much more than the secondary school age and (they) have great imagination - I try to teach them about the culture of Zimbabwe through poetry, I encourage them to write their own on ideas on a subject first' he says.

In his school programme, and workshops, Albert teaches African poetry, music and dance. Children are a very important part of Albert's mission to educated the world about African culture. He is currently working on a poetry book that will publish next year (as yet untitled); recording children's poetry from the UK and Zimbabwe. The project recognises the difference yet similarity of a child's mind, although geographically and culturally thousands of miles apart.

Nyathi's album 'Welcome to Zimbabwe (Land of Contradictions)' contains poetry and songs in which he travels with the listener through Zimbabwe's social, economic and political history so far. Describing the album Albert says 'My music is fusion, it's dance, poetry, Afro dance, blues and pop, my band is basically a dance band'.

Meanwhile don't miss our Africa on your Street day at the WOMAD festival on 23 July 204. And if you catch any good music this summer do tell me about it by posting your comments below.