Savannah Afros Ready For 2022

The ever so eccentric live music ensemble Savannah Afros, which now mainly consists of band leaders Nayasha Kuchekuna-Chirau and Tapz Munyanya, is back and ready to rock venues all over the country.

Since its arrival in Namibia in 2015, the group has made a name for itself after performing and collaborating with many notable Namibian musicians, including the likes of Elemotho, Lize Ehlers, Livinge Dennis, Erna Chimu, Big Ben and Ras Sheehama.

“The greatest achievement is our recording deal with Open Arms Trust. We were given N$250 000 for production and a distribution deal. It was a huge success in our music career and to other musicians that followed after us. It also helped us realise how you can sign a recording deal and still own 100 percent rights of your music as independent artists,” says Munyanya

He adds that the live music scene drastically took a turn for the better when they arrived, which he says was evident as the group was always fully booked for concerts and events.

“There is no live music show business in which Savannah Afros’ name is not mentioned. We brought back the culture of playing live music to this young generation because of the movement of ‘Afro Urbanism’ that we introduced. So many young artists have come from our camp.

“Live music has a future because we motivated young musicians to study music and practise it in commercial spaces. There has been an increase in artists playing traditional instruments because of our notable work with arts institutions like College of Arts, NTN and Goethe Institute just to mention a few,” Munyanya says.

He, however, adds that their biggest failure is not understanding creative entrepreneurship and not taking advantage of the creative economy.

“Being an artist and your own manager is not easy but that is the best position you can be in control of what is going on. Read those fine words on a contract and use art to add value to what is there. Chirau always said that art does not pay, art is just an instrument used to understand value,” he says.

Moreover, Munyanya says the past two years have not been easy, especially for live performing artists. “Namibia’s cultural consumers have not yet acquainted themselves to a level of pay-per-view, so we solely depend on making income from face-to-face audiences. Most venue owners are killing artists with high venue rentals, so that it’s impossible to have an audience pay at shows,” he says.

The group has been collaborating with Chris Wayne and Master Mind Productions for their latest studio album, which is set to be released by the end of March this year.

“We are looking forward to work with more local artists in production. We have international tours lined up for 2022 and 2023, mostly in Europe, but we will be doing more regional tours in southern Africa, collaborating with African artists,” Munyanya says.

– unWrap.Online

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