BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – Award-winning artists and lovers Mandisa Mamba and King Terry hoisted the Eswatini flag in Ghana.
AFRIMA is an African music awarding organisation. It seeks to reward music work that is of African origin, considering the enormous untapped talent that is peculiar to our continent
The two Eswatini artists not only graced the event but performed on stage at the annual awards event.
The awards event was established by the International Committee AFRIMA, in collaboration with the African Union (AU) to reward and celebrate musical works, talents and creativity around the African continent while promoting the African cultural heritage. Its pioneer Awards show was held in 2014.
These awards consist of 37 prizes of two categories: region-based awards (covering the five African regions) overseeing the achievements of African artists within their specific regions of origin and genre-based continental awards.
Taking to her social media pages to gush about their time in Ghana Mamba mentioned they had a great time.
“experienced the AFRIMA Awards, with my love,” read her caption.
Worth noting is that, it was not the first time in Ghana for Mamba as she shared the stage with Nigerian star Davido in 2019.
The Youngest AFRIMA winner is Shannah Manjeru, at 13-years-old the Kenyan singer won the award for ‘Best Female Artist in Inspirational Music’
AFRIMA is spearheaded by a group of professionals and music stakeholders known as the International Committee.
The theme of the maiden edition of the All Africa Music Awards is “For Hope, For Celebration”. It revolves around the universal power of music as a tool of unity in the African continent despite the challenges it faces
Meanwhile, Mandisa Mamba is a winner of the Best RnB Artist award, Best Collaboration and Song of the Year award at the MTN Eswatini Music Awards.
She is the first and only Eswatini artist to be nominated in the ‘Best Female Artist in Southern Africa’ category at the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) in 2018, where she also performed for a crowd of over 20 000.
Her latest single ‘Fault In The Stars’ hit number one on the Eswatini Top 20 Music Chart and remained number one for 11 weeks consecutively, making Mandisa Mamba the first artist to achieve such in her country.
Mamba’s sound is a colourful fusion of RnB, reggae, electro, hip-hop and pop. She is a multi-faceted singer/songwriter who has achieved major success in her home country, Eswatini, since the launch of her music career in 2016. Her fierce, vibrant and daring energy is reflected in her rich-textured sound and high-energy performances.
An Eswatini artist with a global appeal, Mandisa Mamba was listed by Glam Africa Magazine as one of the ‘Top 5 Artists to Watch in Africa’ In less than a year of launching her music career, she performed at the internationally acclaimed MTN Bushfire Festival, for two years in succession, which saw her career soar to greater heights. Performance highlights include MTN BushFire Festival, Sibebe Friday Night Live, AFRIMA Music Village, Yebo’gogo Yebo’mzala Festival, L’mankelenkele Music Festival and many more.
Mandisa’s passion to inspire and create opportunities for young people has seen her take up the role of the organiser for the Bushfire Schools Festival, where she and a team curate a festival for schools/students to attend art workshops and creatively express themselves.
Not one to be confined by her immediate surroundings, Mamba incorporates different rhythms and experiments with international styles of music. She challenges the notion that Eswatini is a hub of complacency by unapologetically expressing her creative freedom with no limits and no restrictions.
