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Artistes hold music, dance festival to promote peace in DRC

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In a bid to promote peace in the turbulent Democratic Republic of Congo, several artistes from the country and the Great Lakes sub-region, got together to hold a three-day music and dance festival with songs calling for peace and reconciliation in a region plagued by armed conflict for more than two decades.

According to Abonimana Gérard,
the President of Dangakaranga Cultural Association, group from Burundi whose group got a special investigation to participate in the Amani Festival, it is the belief of the participants that their efforts will continue to preach the message of peace.

“I know that through our dance, we have launched a message of peace which must return to the country. The songs sung are also about peace and it is a great message,” says Gérard.

Reports in local media on Wednesday say for three days, beginning from February 9th through to the 12th, artists such as the Belgian Burundian Joy Goia, Innoss’B from the DRC, Senegalese Didier Awadi and several local dance groups entertained the crowds at the
Amani Festival which is a Swahili word for peace.

“The 9th edition of the Amani Festival which is the biggest cultural event in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, had to be relocated for the first time to Bukavu, in the east of the country, for security reasons,” the reports say.

“Usually held in Goma, the event couldn’t go ahead in its stronghold because of the M23 rebels gaining ground in neighbouring North Kivu.”

Guillaume Bisimwa, the organiser of the Amani Festival, while speaking on its success, said:

“This cultural moment also makes it possible to give expression to young people at the national and regional level, to say that it is too much, for a moment, we must stop everything and it is very important to be able to continue to live so as not to give strength and power to this situation that we deplore.”

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Culture

Collabo with Burna Boy enabled me buy house for my mum— Mozambican DJ Tarico

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Mozambican disc jockey and sound-producer, DJ Tarico, has credited Nigeria’s Afrobeats sensation, Burna Boy, with his sudden wealth which enabled him buy a house for his mother.

DJ Tarico attributed a collaboration with the Grammy Awards winning “African Giant” as the turning point in his story and said he would forever be grateful to the Nigerian star.

Speaking with the BBC African Voice on Saturday, DH Tarico said when he came up
with a particularly energetic beat one day, he couldn’t have predicted how it would change his life and that of his two friends.

He said one of his friends, Nelson Tivane, a songwriter and vocalist, came up with the lyric “Yaba Buluku” which was “inspired by the sound of coins jangling in a pocket”, while the other friend, Preck, “belted out that lyric with his gravelly, powerful voice,” with the song becoming an instant hit in their country.

“After we concluded the song, we went to a rural zone and we put a car with a big sound there, and we connected the song on the car and we saw many people dancing and ask ‘who is the owner of this song?’ Then we knew this song was going to be big!” Tarico recalls.

He said he was surprised that
none other than Burna Boy, realised the strength of “Yaba Buluku” and jumped on the remix, a move which had a massive impact on Tarico, Tivane and Preck.

“We were travelling all over Africa. Too many big artists were asking us for features. People started to know our face outside of Mozambique. We became internationals.

“And money! I bought a car, land and a house for my mother.”

The trio who now call themselves “Yaba Buluku Boyz”, have dropped their debut album, “Donsa”, on Friday, and are hoping to ride on the success of the collaboration to reach greatet heights in Africa and globally.

“Donsa”, according to DJ Tarico, “is high-energy, danceable amapiano, and features big African names including Ghana’s dancehall King Shatta Wale, Timaya from Nigeria and Harmonize from Tanzania,” he said.

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Culture

African men run away from single mothers— Joselyn Dumas

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Veteran Ghanaian actress and media personality, Joselyn Dumas, has lamented the fact that most African men shy away from getting married to single mothers due to the added responsibilities they will be saddled with.

The actress who made the assertion in her recent podcast, “Keeping it Real with Joselyn Dumas, The Perfect Picture”, opened up on the challenges of many single mothers who are struggling to find a partner because of societal biases.

In the podcast, Dumas who shared a personal story of a male friend whom she said refused to settle down with a lady because she had a child.

According to her, the friend named Anthony, firmly stated that it wasn’t his thing to be with a ‘born one’ or ‘born two’.

“He said B1, B2, I’m not in and I said to myself, ‘this is the reason why a lot of single mothers are single with their children.

“Now his reason was, why am I going to raise somebody’s child? That’s not my bloodline. He doesn’t have my DNA in him. Why am I now going to help someone’s bloodline grow? What about mine?” she said.

Dumas who is a single mother, noted that Anthony’s mindset is a “reflection of the views of a larger majority of people who don’t want to have meaningful relationship with single mothers.”

She also criticised what she termed as the double standard in society’s views on raising non-biological children, arguing that it should not be seen differently from adoption.

“I have a child but these men won’t even ask you, they don’t even care why you have a child. You’ve had seven miscarriages when you got married. You meet a guy, you were dating and you got pregnant, are you going to abort the baby because you aren’t married?

“He doesn’t want the child, are you going to throw the child away? No! You can raise the child. It takes a village to raise the child, so even if you don’t have a job, you will get support. This is part of the sacrifice you have to make regardless of what has happened,” she said.

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