The press conference was held at the Alliance Francaise and was hosted by Outspoken of Magamba Network. Very few people were in attanedance but they missed out on some very inciteful talks by the panelists. On the panel were two of the headliners for the Shoko Festival which included Akala from UK who gave a discourse about the history of hip hop and Hired Gun from the USA who spoke on violence in music. Comrade Fatso of Magamba Network gave an introduction to Shoko Festival, the desired outcomes of the festival and also answered the question of women in hip hop. Outspoken also shed some light on the challenges of organising a festival.
Hip Hop
The Hip Hop Concert which was held on the Saturday night was the highlight event for the festival which featured Tumi and the Volume, Hired Gun and Aura tha Poet was the Host along with Mischif. Aerosol teamed up with Sunniva Berg from Norway. There was a grand freestyle session which had some of Zimbabwe’s best come on stage including , Synik, Mischif and other members of the crowd got a chance to rock the mic. We also got to see Zimbabwe’s freestyle gorilla, mUnetsi in the flesh!
Poetry
The Slam Poetry Express held at the Mannenberg was a live poetry battle featuring leading poets from all over the world. Each poet had 3 minutes do deliver their poem. The audience, were the judges! The poets picked a number from the hat which would determine when they would deliver their poem. Five random judges were picked by the host non other than Godobori. They would each give the poet a mark out of 10. Then Godobori would take away the highest and the lowest then take the average of the last three marks and that was the score. There were three rounds with Mandisa Mabuthoe from Botswana coming out tops. The slam was a rip-roaring, fun-filled international poetry slam featuring leading poets from all over the world. DJ Marv Studd provided the music. It was my first time to hear a lot of Zimbabwes’ most talked about poets including Xapa, Synik, Aerosol and Flochyld and they all lived up to the hype. Other participants were Timothy Mwaura (Kenya), Mischael-Sarim (Germany), Black Pearl (Zimbabwe), KB (RSA)Mwana Africa (Zimbabwe), Madzitateguru (Zimbabwe), Nyamalikiti (Malawi), Lungile Lethola (RSA). DJ Marv kept the music pumping in between the breaks.
Xapa, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Mischael-Sarim, Germany at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Mandisa Mabuthoe, Botswana at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Synik, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Blaq Pearl, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Timothy Mwaura, Kenya at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Flochyld, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Aerosol, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Lungile Lethola South Africa at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Madzitateguru, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
KB, South Africa at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Mwana Africa, Zimbabwe at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Nyamalikiti, Malawi at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
DJ Marv Studd on the decks at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
Godobori at Shoko Poetry Slam Express
