IPast Project: Mokoomba, one of Africa’s most exciting young bands in concert – June 29th @ 7:00 pm Warren G. Harding Cafetorium
Mokoomba is one of Africa’s most exciting young bands to emerge from the African continent in the past 10-15 years. Hailing from Victoria Falls in the NW corner of Zimbabwe, they are setting dance-floors ablaze with their unique mix of traditional Tonga and pan -African music cultures with dashes of Rap, Ska, Soukous and Afro-Cuban music.
Since winning the Music Crossroads Inter-regional Festival Competition in Malawi in 2008, Mokoomba has toured more than 40 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania. In 2013 Mokoomba was featured at Harare International Festival of the Arts 2013’s closing concert in collaboration with Senegalese star Baaba Maal.
They then embarked on a 40 date summer tour with debut performances at WOMAD (UK), Roskilde Festival (Denmark) and the Gnaoua Festival (Morocco) as well as trips to South Korea, Kenya and Reunion Island.
In 2014 Mokoomba performed at WOMAD Australia, WOMAD New Zealand and did a European tour including13 dates in the UK. That summer they debuted in North America on a 6 week tour that took them to Montreal, Quebec, Vancouver, London (ON), and Seattle, among other cities.
Spring 2016 Mokoomba played the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, and brought down the house as part of the Africa Now Festival. They toured again in the US in the fall of 2016 (LOTUS Festival, Joshua Tree Festival, Globalquerque), and spring of 2017, playing the internationally renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Festival Internationale de Louisiane in Lafayette, LA, and the LEAF Festival in NC.
The rest of the summer saw them performing at the Concert of Colors festival in Detroit, Nuits d’Afriques in Montreal, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mountain Stage in WV, Lowell Folk Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and the Edmonton Folk Festival, before returning to Europe where they continued touring for another 6 weeks.
The band was on the road for 6 ½ months in 2017 alone, and continue to make new and passionate fans wherever they perform.
Videos:
Njoka, Live at Sziget Festival (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ3GJBdnamE
