Zimbabweans tired of Reggae

AFTER a recent slew of concerts featuring Jamaican reggae and dancehall acts, promoters in Zimbabwe are now moving to book and promote African acts for concerts in that country.
Zimbabwean newspaper The Standard quotes the organiser of a concert set for that country's capital city, Harare, next Friday, as saying they have gone for Nigerian musician Flavour Nabania along with locals Oliver Mtukudzi and Alexio Kawara in a show for that country's Africa Day celebrations.
The show organisers are further reported as saying they had invited Flavour to perform in Zimbabwe because they wanted to break the monotony of having Jamaican reggae musicians flooding international shows in the country.
The Standard quotes an unnamed organiser who adds: "Our research revealed that people are now tired of dancehall and South African artistes, so we have decided to divert from what they had been used to. We have not seen a Nigerian musician performing in the country and this is an opportunity for local fans to see how musicians from that side perform."
Reggae icon Bob Marley started the trend of Jamaican artistes performing in Zimbabwe back in 1980, with a historic concert in honour of that country's independence.
In 2011, a number of reggae and dancehall acts made their way to Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular for performances.
In November, Coco Tea and Fantan Mojah performed in the cities of Harare and Bulawayo, while there were mixed reviews of the performance from deejay Mr Vegas during his stop in Zimbabwe that same month.
High-riding deejay Mavado was also scheduled to perform there back in December; However, that performance failed to materialise.
The other Jamaican acts who performed in Zimbabwe recently include, Elephant Man, Wasp, Beres Hammond, and Giovanni.
Last year, African promoter Clint Robinson, the organiser of the Mr Vegas show, noted that he believed Zimbabweans could identify better with Jamaicans as compared to other stars from other countries hence his decision to bring in Jamaican artistes.