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Sophia Chese Arts Correspondent
VETERAN poet and musician Albert Nyathi rocked the Book Café over the weekend when he celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first album “For How Long”.The show which was dubbed “Senzeni Na? 20th Anniversary” saw the musician performing some of his popular songs like “Solakuhle” and “Isavungezane” among others.

Nyathi took the opportunity to take his fans who thronged the Book Café down memory lane telling them how he did the song “Senzeni Na?” that brought him to lime light and how it brought a lot of artistes together.

“We recorded ‘Senzeni Na?’ in 1994 with Prudence Katomeni who was 13 years old by that time and doing her Form 1. When we wanted to shoot the video for the song, Prudence was writing her examinations so I had to look for someone to do her part on the video,” Nyathi recalled.

“I then approached Mr Makwenda who brought us her daughter Naomi Makwenda to feature on the video. She who was only 11 years old and doing grade six and she featured on the video.

“Today I am celebrating 20 years anniversary of that song and Naomi was supposed to be here tonight, unfortunately she is writing exams in Coventry but her father is here and today. Prudence is here.”

Nyathi invited Prudence on stage to do their hit “Senzeni Na?” and besides having last done the song in 1994, Katomeni proved to be the real voice behind the song and that attracted wild cheers from the crowd.

Poet Chirikure Chirikure did his poem “Kanyanisa” after requests from the audience to add fun to the event.

Comedians Carl Joshua Ncube and Q The Boss also performed and excited fans with their jokes.

In an interview on the sidelines of the celebrations, Nyathi said it was because of the uniqueness of the song that he saw it worth to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

“The song had a lot of people in it including Prudence Katomeni, Naomi Makwenda, Jeyz Marabini, Marian Kunonga and many more. In short it brought a number of artists together. On my first album it was the one which got popular so I just treasure it,” he said.