As part of one of the regional activation programmes linked to Arts Alive, the City of Johannesburg presented the hybrid annual Joburg Indigenous Gospel Music Festival on 20-21 November 2021 at the M1 Studios SABC in Auckland Park.
With the arts industry among the most impacted by Covid-19, the City of Johannesburg believes music, dancing, and cultural expressions are what the nation needs to instill optimism and keep it unified. The show must go on.
The annual Joburg Indigenous Gospel Music Festival honors choirs who have kept the praise and worship going through good and hard times. After doing the Clap n Tap Festival for a couple of years, the festival’s 2021 programme was expanded to include AmaZion due to market demand and interest from the indigenous gospel community.
The Indigenous Gospel Music Festival inclusion on the Arts Alive calendar honors our living heritage as a source of continuation and identity.
In 2018, the City of Johannesburg launched the Indigenous Gospel Music Festival in only one area, Orange Farm, Region G. In 2019, Region D, Soweto was invited to participate
whereby choirs were gifted a token of appreciation for their involvement in both years, and all events had different headliners. The Mighty O Lord were the initial headliner, followed by the Mighty Singers the following year. Since then, regions’ participation has been increasing year after year.
“Personally, this programme provided me with a myriad of experiences. As a choir, we have never been exposed to such a competition, in fact, this is our first competition ever,” said Siphesihle Nkosi, a member of Imbewu Yethemba Mass Choir, which won second position in the AmaZion programme.
“We had a wonderful experience despite the fact that we had never performed on a stage before, we were not frightened or intimidated because we have prayed prior to performing,” she said.
The Indigenous Gospel Music Festival had twenty choirs selected from Johannesburg (Region A-G) competing head-to-head for the grand prize. AmaZion had ten choirs with the Trust in Christ as the headliner, while Clap n Tap also had ten choirs with the headliner Barorisi Ba Morena.
Throughout the event, choirs were rated on the following criteria: interpretation of songs, diction/articulation, choreography, uniformity, originality, creativity and overall stage appearance. The Mighty Vocal Mass Choir won first position in the Amazion programme, while Karabo Ya Morena took first position in the Tap n Clap programme.
“This is the first festival of its kind in which the AmaZion music fraternity has been recognized as an official art form, as there hasn’t been much recognition from institutions in the past,” said Vuyisile Mshudulu, Director of Arts, Culture, and Heritage in the City of Johannesburg.
Written by Ntombifuthi Junerose Nkosi
21/11/2021