Times Of Swaziland: Siyinqaba hits Africa

Siyinqaba hits Africa
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 SLINDELO NKOSI on 19/06/2011 00:00:00


They have grown to be
Swaziland’s stalwarts in the
making, through the commitment and passion they’ve shown in their musical
work. This is the Tihlabani-Award winning duo, Siyinqaba which has given the
Swazi nation one electrifying performance after another since they introduced
themselves to Swaziland back in the year 2008, with their mix-tape,
‘Gwayimane’ which according to Claiming Ground’s co-director, Steven
Mthethwa was "A definition of Siyinqaba".
It is therefore undoubtedly clear that the hip hop group deservedly received the
formidable international recognition through the much watched and talked about
real-life Television series, Big Brother Africa Amplified which millions of
Africans glue themselves to with anticipation, watching what the house-mate are
up to.
It was consequently a great pleasure for Swazi viewers to see the house-mates
from various African countries dancing to a proudly produced Swazi jam when
Siyinqaba’s tracks were played in the famous ‘House-of-controversy’ about
two weeks ago.
With excitement and pride, Swazi viewers close to the artists and management
behind the music were privileged enough to be the first ones to contact them
informing them about the shockingly exciting news!
Talking to STYLE about the exciting and life-changing call was Muzi ‘Mozaik’
Ngwenya who said, "When I received that call from a friend of mine telling me
that our songs were being played on Big Brother, a part of me had to remain
composed just to say, ‘Yeah, we got this under control’, he says with a
grin. However though, he continues, "The actual feeling was ‘Oh! God you did
it AGAIN!’ and this is simply because we see Him opening doors for us each and
every day and of course having an understanding of what Claiming Grounds is, one
gets to understand that a lot of things will happen through the anointing the
Lord has bestowed in us."
Obviously STYLE could not understand why and how one can possibly try to remain
calm after receiving such awesome news, this is how Ngwenya explained, "It is
very vital for an artist, actually for every human being to keep aspiring for
bigger things in life. One of the reasons why some people don’t reach their
ultimate goals is because they easily get comfortable with that single step
they’ve taken then get caught up in doing the ‘Victory Dance’ instead of
moving on to the next level of their goals. We need to understand that each
successful moment is only a step closer towards the next level of greatness!"
One remarkable element about the hip-hop group is the fact that they all believe
in the power of Christ and the possibilities He was capable of making for them.
This was proven by the co-director of Claiming Grounds, the group’s production
company, Steven Mthethwa who said, "All the greatness taking place right now is
something Mozaik and I had discussed back in 2004 while we were in Scotland.
Through the individual talents the Lord has blessed us with, we decided that
once we returned home, we would combine our talents and bring out the tremendous
success that is being enjoyed by Swaziland at the moment. God has truly played a
vital role in our journey through the ups and downs He made us walk through," he
ended.
Before turning the STYLE page into a sermon, which is good! We asked the
group’s manager Melusi ‘Zox’ Dlamini on how they managed to get the album
to Big Brother’s administrative offices, he said, "We met up with the
programme’s production crew and actually proposed on having some of
Siyinqaba’ s tracks played there. Luckily, they were willing to listen to what
we were offering them and that is basically how the album got the BB house
playlist." Further explaining what had pushed them towards taking such a step,
Dlamini said, "By the fact that the album received a stamp of approval from the
Swazi nation, in essence it was an unsung instruction to us to take this sound
to the rest of the world and there was no other way to do this than going live
into millions of African lounges," he said.
Ending the interview was Thamsanqa Sibandze whom in one short line said, "For
me, what has stood out in all this is the power of positive thinking. The track,
Gwayimane has a line which says, ‘Ngawe singahamba umhlaba wonkhe singakaphumi
endlini!’ which is means, ‘Through you we can travel throughout the world
without stepping out of the house’. This is clearly evident."