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Tichaona Zindoga
Government must support the arts and fund festivals to help the sector grow. This is according to songbird Diana Samkange who recently toured the eastern African island of Zanzibar to perform at the Sauti za Busara festival.

The festival is held every February and it is described as “East Africa’s best-loved” music festival.
The festival, now East Africa’s largest, includes artists from across Africa and the name is Kiswahili for “Voices of Wisdom”. Samkange hoped the new dispensation would change the way Government engaged arts.

“It is my hope that one day the Ministry of Sports, Arts and culture will also engage Zimbabwean entertainers and also be able to support the arts programmes which will be happening around the country, just like they do to sport,” she said in an interview.

“For a musician or entertainer or sports person to go and represent their country on such programmes funding is essential and it’s sad if up to now we still have to fork out money from our homes for our personal use to go and represent the country on a larger scale.

“I believe through our new breed of ministers in the new dispensation things will change for the better.”
The Afro contemporary songstress is geared for a successful year ahead and has lined up projects that will see her consolidate her place as one of the few artistes to stand in the post urban grooves era.

“You should expect some brand new single accompanied with videos amongst many other projects such as music collaborations within the region of Africa,” she said.