Not made in Zimbabwe

AS I drove up to the 7 Arts Theatre in Harare last Thursday night, I was hoping hard I would at least get the last 15 minutes of the show. It was futile, I was too late. As I stepped out of the car, there was a sudden stream of people coming out of the arcade. I knew it was over. AngggggghhhhHHH!!!!

The show was the Hip Hop Explosion featuring one of France’s hottest dance groups, Pockemon Crew, who are in Zimbabwe for two shows- one in Harare and another in Bulawayo. I needed to take photos for the show for an article I was doing for a website that the company I work for runs.

“I’m going to get so fired,” I was thinking as I stood there, mouth agape, watching people cheerily walk out.

^ Members of Pockemon Crew sign autographs

However, if there’s one thing that experience has taught me, it is that many times- even if you miss the show- there is a little show with its own life AFTER the show. If you can get backstage, that is!

So, resolutely, I strode forward and against the human tide made my way into the theatre. It didn’t help though that as I went in, I met one of my friends who had an uproarious good laugh when I told her I was just arriving.

The challenge once I was in the theatre was NOT to get back stage as I had expected – there were scores of excited fans there already – but to get to the members of Pockemon.

All I needed was to get some pics of them together, perhaps ask them to do a few moves and take photos of that – but they were surrounded mostly by energy-filled young women asking for autographs, phone numbers and email addresses. It was unbelievable, this excited chaos I was witnessing. How could I compete for attention?

I saw one girl squeeze through the crowd up to one member of the dance crew and ask him to sign an autograph “right here”. For the sake of both yours and my sanity, I will not expound on where “right here” was! But when I saw that, I knew that I was going to have to think fast to get the attention of eight young men ALL at the same time in a room full of adoring female fans.

Then I saw dance instructor and friend Soukaina. I knew she could get me an “official” introduction to the guys and get something going here. I made my way to her and when I explained my predicament, she smiled in a motherly sort of way and led me to one of the group members. I got bits and pieces of what she was saying to him. Including the “Oui, pas de problem,” at the end of his statement. Yay!

He did the rest of the work, rounded up his mates and I got some pictures.

But that’s not the story. As I stood back afterwards, chatting to Soukaina, I was hit by what was happening here. These young people had only just watched these guys perform for the very FIRST time. Why the boundless excitement about them?

I’ve been to numerous Roki, M’afriq, Labash concerts and I have never seen fans go off the handle for Zimbabwean artists like this.

One teenage girl I asked about all the excitement for the Pockemoners said: “They’re so hot!!”

So it was heat that did it? I didn’t get to ask if she meant hot as in good looking, or hot as in their performance. She was off screaming excitedly with her friends about a photo opportunity that had just arisen with one of the Pockemon dudes.

Could it be that these guys were so much better than any local artist?

Flashback. Remember when there was a discussion in the media about the use of backtracks by urban grooves artists? Fans complained that live shows with Urban Groovers were not much fun because they didn’t use live bands.

I was convinced that this was a bona fide reason until Malaika came to Zimbabwe, I think that was in 2005. I attended that concert and there they were, Tshedi, Jabu and Bongani on stage with two dancers – but no band. Just backtracks. Were the fans perturbed? NOT at all. That was one of the most fun-filled concerts I have ever attended.

^ Zimbos going crazy for Joe Thomas

After that night, with Malaika, I started thinking that it wasn’t an issue of back-tracks. There was something deeper that was the problem here.

Could it be that Malaika are so much better than any of our local artists?

Then I remembered something else. In December 2004, Australian-based Audius Mtawarira performed at the Sports Diner during a short visit to Zimbabwe. The audience there was mostly women who, screaming deliriously, threw themselves at him as he belted out his famous ballads.

Thinking back at that experience, I wonder if Audius was that good a singer or that he was good AND based in Australia that made him a specimen for fanatical adoration.

Remember Joe Thomas in Zimbabwe early this year? I didn’t attend the show but a friend of mine commented: “It was like people lost their heads.”

What I’d give to see that happening for a Zimbabwean artist! In the meantime, I’m still puzzled, wondering why local is still not scream-fanatical-lekker…