Musicians React to Kora Drama

WHEN the Kora All Africa Music Awards first announced that they will be hosted in Namibia in 2015, the country was abuzz with excitement at the prospect of the prestigious ceremony being held in the Land of the Brave.

This would have meant that continental eyes, and to a certain extent the global music industry, would have been firmly focused on Namibia.

When the nominations were announced and seven of our gems received nods, fans were filled with pride and a feeling that finally we’ve ‘made it’!

The last time the Kora Awards took place was on 30 December 2012 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The awards were initially scheduled to take place in Namibia on 15 December 2015 but were postponed to this year, 20 March.

Now, less than 10 days before the event is scheduled to take place, with numerous media reports citing the discrepancies of the awards, rumours of cancellation and postponements, a definitive dark cloud of disappointment hangs in the air, leaving many questioning whether the awards will even take place any more.

Some still harbour a hopeless hope that the Koras will go ahead and shine that much needed spotlight on what Namibia has to offer musically.

spoke to some of the Namibian nominees and industry experts to get their view on the Koras saga.

I am not really 100% excited any more. To be honest, I can’t trust them. The last time I won an award, I did not get the money because I did not attend the event. I would never have gotten the physical award if the Kora Awards did not come to Namibia. They wanted me to pay to get the award here. I am really just not into them any more.

I am disappointed that it is no longer taking place as scheduled, but at the same time, being nominated on a continental platform out of the thousands of musicians out there was a great honour. It would have been nice to have the glamorous event, but being nominated, for me, is still big and that I feel is great.

I cannot really say I have any feeling towards it. The postponement happened and my world can’t come to a standstill because of this. I still have hope and still believe it will happen. Organisers guaranteed me that it will take place and their communication has always been on point with me every time I enquired about what I read in the papers. Being nominated is a great honour especially because it is a continental platform.

I received an email from the headquarters about the postponement and it is really just disappointing. Our fans are confused and they were looking forward to supporting us. We invested so much into marketing and promoting ourselves to rally for our fans to vote for us. I really just don’t know, it is just disappointing, but we wait and see.

Firstly, it is a very big blow to the music industry, not only in Namibia but continentally. I can only imagine what the artists are going through psychologically, especially those who were nominated. It is also a major blow to the Kora brand, it is not the first time it has been postponed or cancelled and this affects the credibility of the brand and also makes it very questionable.

The questions now follow: When will the awards eventually happen? Will they be Kora 2015, 2016 or 2017? Will they re-announce the nominees or will they do a call for new entries? Which artists and which year of release will qualify? What is going to happen to the votes? Are people going to continue voting or are the organisers going to postpone the votes too?

This is supposed to be the African Grammys, but instead it’s playing out like a soccer game without rules. It’s causing a lot of confusion in the entertainment industry and that is very disappointing and unfortunate for the entire continent.

I really do not know what is going on. We were already a month behind with voting and the fact that we are already a very small population in number probably minimised our chances of winning anyway, so maybe the postponement is better to give our people more time to vote.

What I can say is that Namibians should show support to their artists.

Although the Kora Awards organisers did not officially announce that the awards have been postponed, Nigerian media has already reported on the postponement, citing logistic hiccups. After numerous attempts to get comment from Kora Awards country director Tonata Shiimi, he remained unavailable.

The organisers did however communicate to some of the nominated musicians about the postponement saying that the new date will be announced soon. Meanwhile, all nominated musicians remain in the running for the awards in their respective categories.