African beats in Germany
"As Namibians, we are privileged to be welcomed in this country."This according to Joel Nambuli, the conductor of the African Vocals a cappella group, that kicked off their tour of Germany in Cologne last Wednesday.
African Vocals was originally going to undertake their fourth tour to Germany in 2020, but the Covid pandemic hampered those plans.
"We are now performing at more tour destinations than ever before and we now have more young singers in the choir," he said.
During Covid, several members of African Vocals had to leave Swakopmund - where this group is based - for work or to live with their families. This led to four new singers joining.
"Currently we have four new singers and three of the older singers who are still part of African Vocals," says Nambuli.
"The energy just got better. The criteria to become a member of African Vocals is still that you must sing well and dance well, so the standard is the same," he says.
He says the four new singers add value to the group in different ways.
"When it comes to choristers, you can't compare singers or groups to each other. The music you perform changes according to your group.
"We started performing traditional pieces of music that they are already comfortable with, to accommodate the new members," he said.
"The members of the group always have fresh ideas," says Nambuli adding that the group's local absence is due to the fact that they gave up every possible moment to prepare for the tour.
Nambuli says one of the new singers has a Setswana background, and this helps the group with their pronunciation of Setswana lyrics and the performance of traditional Setswana dances.