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CULTURE IS OUR PRIDE ” AMAWUMBO” dansers and musicians company  ” cliquer ici et cherchez le titre

Africa and its colours, Africa and its landscapes, Africa and its music, Africa and its dance.

Ever since the dawn of times, this continent gave hope and envy to people and explorers from the XXIIIrd and XXth centuries to discover all about it.

How to get to know a country better than travelling through its culture, music and dances?

< Amawumbo > as they're called are dancers from Zimbabwe, a country from central Africa close to Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa. For a few weeks now, this country has been in the front line of the international scene with an epidemy of cholera and a worrisome political situation but there it has so many other things to teach us than just that.

Alexander, leader of this group; who's name has an English consonance, he owes it to his country history which was a British colony taking part in the apartheid at the time it was called Rhodesia, and they acquired their political independence in 1980.

This summer, while coming back from the Amawumbo's dancer group show they had just performed, heart filled with Africa's history which took place throughout dances and heads full of drums rhythms, I couldn't help myself but to share a few lines with you of that pleasure invading me by looking and listening to them on stage. I couldn't imagine that a handful of months later, I'd have the pleasure of sharing moments of Alexander Mhlanga's life of this band (whom is currently in Sweden to give a new dimension to it).

Alexander, you were born in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe's second biggest city) in the spring of 1978 in one of these little townships of the South African border where the apartheid was in full effect. Let's hear about your childhood.

“I grew up in a little town called njube where I went to Helemu primary school and then on to mpopoma high school. Nothing predisposed me to become a dancer and to be the initiator of such a big and important project as the creation of the professional dancers and musicians company (became today one of the best in the country)…Amawumbo.

Revelation or child dreams? What brought you to perform on stage?

At the time, I was a soccer player like many young African people; my future seemed to be planned. But something was going to change my life, not a meeting but… music. I had an invitation from dancer friends that I gladly accepted. As soon as I heard drum sounds, I was touched both in my heart and soul. The following day, I took the decision to belong to “the young warrior” group (in 1995), which was headed by the late Norman Takawira (1964-2003). I learnt a lot by studying African dances from different regions of the Zimbabwe and by doing local tours. In 1997, l was a founder member of Umkhathi theatre Works which was a household name in this country. I felt we became more powerful.

I came back to Njube to teach drama, music and dance in the local high school. My group and I started projects giving chances to children to learn more about art feats. I worked on some choreography for school competition which got first place. After that, I also arranged some weddings and private parties.

At the end, I discovered my talents and the power of our culture that made me continue this way. And when I was more in touched with my community, I've found out there were school drop outs, unwilling pregnant women, drugs and illness. Then I had the idea to create a dance company to bring a change for people to give them hope and a chance to rediscover themselves.

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So, in 2000, I took them away from crimes and poverty by creating the professional Amawumbo Dance Company. It was a real success; we had more than 50 full time members.

When we programmed a tour, we had to cast. When we organised the tour, we had to cast during that period and we collected clothes and other stuff for our home community. It gave hope and life to our brothers. As you may not know, Amawumbo means "power to make it in life". In 2003, we made a website that helped us raise awareness of our group. Thanks to that, we had a lot of invitations to perform in various awesome places like England, Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

So far, we've worked with people from the USA, Gambia, France, England, Australia, Canada and a lot more!

Without any sponsors of funding, we strived to make it all worthwhile. I've tried my best to create employment in this artistic world. Culture is our pride because it's our art, I really mean it.

For now, my challenge is to find enough money to fund a new project called "Amandla Esikolakwethu" (which means the spirit of our alive traditions). There is a compile DVD. We will shot the film in our wonderful places such as Great Zimbabwe, Nyanga, Matapos, and Victoria falls. I think this project will be really interesting.

I came to Sweden with a goal in mind and that is to find enough money and to attract different sponsors to my project (which takes place during the upcoming summer in the same time as our next tour). I'm organizing workshops and working with foreign dancers to accomplish that goal and to make an impact for the discriminated of my country and ultimately on the world.

Our next meeting with the European public will be in a few months on the beautiful scenes of Spain and Portugal...”