The duo of Taku Mafika the mbira prince and Shoes Lambada one of the finest poets in the country yesterday sent an audience of more than 150 people into a frenzy at the Annual Intercultural Summer Party held in Munster, Germany held on Sarturday 30 July 2011. The event is an international gathering that happens once every year and this year there were participants from 17 countries mostly from Europe and Asia. African participants were our own pair of Taku Makika and Robson Isaac Shoes Lambada plus three others from Namibia and Morrocco.
The Zimbabwea duo took to the stage soon after a theatre piece from a Polish company had torn the audience into stitchesThey started their performances with Shoes Lambada doing the solo act. He opened the floor with the shona rhythmic “Tariro": a love poem that centres on the traditional way of arranged marriages called kuzvarirwa in shona. In this poem Shoes Lambada depicted a picture where a man is forced to marry a woman who does not have the looks he likes but is reminded of some good elements of those bad looks.
“Vanondiunzira madhuve zigadzi zidema-dema,
zigobvu-gobvu rakanyangara zvinodzinga
vapwere padare hunzi gudo kuipa-kuipa
haro asi haridyi chakafa choga" he recited
He went on to recite “Bound to the Street’ on his own before he called Taku to the stage. The poem of the day was the Osama poem where Taku's mbira was perfectly woven with Shoes Lambada’s verses. The poem was a vivid analyisis of the global atmosphere soon after the death of Osama bi Laden. The situation in the Middle East compared to the situation in New York’s Ground Zero. The poem also explored the other world events that were significant and making the news at that time like the Strauss Kahn scandal, the Libya uprisings and also the economic specualtion that followed as indicated by the rising of the dollar and stocks while oil and gold fell. The jubilant crowd fell in love with the chorus “Longer than expected he lived, but longer he remains dead“.The Al Qaeda leader was responsible for the september 11 attacks on USA where approximately 3000 people were killed.
The other acts they did as duo included "Dzimwe Nguva, Yomubatanidzwa and Dollar for Two" . After the duet performance Taku then took the audience to his personal level with a solo performance. He did some shona folk songs and also some new material from his upcoming album which he is currently working on and also collaboarting with some international artists in Germany. The track "chingungunde" got the audience on the dance floor and it ended while the audience still wanted more. Nevertheless Taku's song of the night was "chikuru rudo". The song became popular last year when he shot a video for the song in Munster. The video featured Aga a polish girl and was directed by Janusz Hamerski, a Polish filmaker who has been resident in Germany for more than 25 years.
The pair does urban mbira and poetry fusion. They have been doing these kind of acts since 2008 . It is not the first time that they have wowed audiences like this. This yera in February they starred during the Black History month celebrations and the are often collaborating at Taku's shows at the Book Cafe and at Shoes Lambada's private functions. On the day they left for Munster they performed in the morning at the Harare International Conference Centre where the UNFPA was commemoration World Population Day.
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