Africa-Press – Eswatini. Music has always been mobilised in a bid to highlight politics, societal injustice, economic inequalities, and what’s wrong with the world.
Or suggest what could be right.
Long before the advent of the album, people were arranging compositions and coming up with songs that stood up to the ills of their day.
Behind the artist there is always a structure or people ready to push.
This week we caught up with one of the people that has influenced the entertainment industry; Macford Sibandze.
He says his legacy in the entertainment industry was created by self-reliance.
“I put all energies to professionalise cultural industries, especially dramatic arts. Through a concept called Pom Pom I was commissioned by UN and govt agencies to about 200 schools and communities.
There was a time when my drama group participated in all activities in the country.
“Pom Pom II was also everywhere and the good thing was that there was money involved. I was so creative that my work was loaned to friends in South Africa who did so well and was paid for it. I ended up being contracted to do five countries in Eastern Africa.
That was my highlight as I was paid good money as an individual, five star hotel and all”.
How was your experience in the entertainment industry?
It is now history that we also visited Asian countries and Europe.
Then Kipkip came and changed the landscape of children theatre. They performed everywhere in the country and in almost all top theatres in South Africa.
Personally, I have done well as a consultant, winning awards all over the world. My strength is conceptualisation and writing bankable proposals and global network.
I just returned from America a few weeks ago and made huge networks with different persons. As I speak I have a line-up of countries to visit for jobs. Last week, I was in Cape Town and parts of my activities were art.
Through arts, I have travelled extensively it’s only that now I do a lot behind the scenes. Even here at home I am behind lots of successful shows but I stay in the wings.
My highlight locally beside Poetry festival, dance competitions, drama competitions was comedy competions in 2015.
Nobody thought it would work; we produced Smallz, Mdura, Gedlembane, etc.
Silwane is also my product.
My other highlight were the first Youth Awards which produced MJ Boyz, in all my successes there has been Larry Mhlanga who easily interprets my intellectual concepts because I am too deep at times.
What causes stagnation in the music industry?
Stagnation is caused by many things, one of them is lack of deep seated industry knowledge in the arts. Many artists don’t go deep, they do short cuts with no attention to details. The proposals are bankable. After politics you will see me making huge inroads because I see lots of gaps and has also made global connections.
8 Another thing is too much poaching of ideas. I’m responsible for so many ground breaking concepts which were stolen and guys made money. They obviously crushed as they don’t have copyright in their DNAs.
8 The composition of the board of arts and culture need people who can make the industry reach greater heights? It needs a think tank and intellectuals because arts is an intellectual discourse. If the pendulum makes a full swing in culture then we will see a social dichotomy.
8 Lack of funders; look at Jumbo Dinner a concept that makes Emaswati come out to thrill, by now it should be having more than million in sponsorship because the young man has proved to be a genius. Unfortunately, we lack marketers who see opportunities to sell their products through mega events.
What advice can you share with upcoming creatives?
Be more creative and innovative and use new media platforms to sell. Take advantage of the digital space and make networks.
Given the opportunity, what would you change in the local industry?
Given an opportunity I would do brand activation of the arts right from the arts itself. It needs people with a stastical value….known bankable personel. Arts is not culture, that’s the worst thing we have done as a country. ..paying more attention to culture than arts yet culture will always be there but its arts that will make us reach the global stage.
It will be more relevant for example do comedy, we need more players. Also build rehearsal rooms for artists. We have RDF grants from govt which can easily do that. I will try to be more relevant through researches where lies the interests of young people in the arts, for example, hip-hop and amapiano.
I wil do Macford Workshops and invite artists to workshops using local and international talents.
All the above will remain a pipe dream because of the political situation in the country as it remains unstable thus it is pertinent that we have permanent solution to the impasse.
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