HARARE, April 11 -- Zimbabwean gospel singer Abraham Matuka is set to release an international collaborative song this month aimed at promoting Zimbabwe's tourism and cultural understanding among nations.
The 36-year old Zimbabwean artist said Tuesday he will work with six artists from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and India to produce the song "Lovely Zimbabwe".
Matuka last year launched a song "China-Africa" which features Chinese musicians Han Liuqing and Li Hua as a way to promote and cement China-Zimbabwe cultural ties.
He received support from the Chinese community living in Zimbabwe to produce the song.
In "Lovely Zimbabwe", Matuka will again work with Han Liuqing, among other foreign artists.
He said "Lovely Zimbabwe" will be a multi-lingual and multi-cultural song, fusing the languages of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Malay, Indonesia, Indian and a bit of Shona, Zimbabwe's dominant vernacular language.
To be recorded in Zimbabwe, the song will fuse various music genres including jazz, pop, rhumba and instrumentals that depict Mandarin culture and music sense, said Matuka's manager Blessing Madura.
"We saw it fit to put together an ensemble of different nationalities so that we relay one message in different languages spoken across the world. We thought there is no any other way of doing it than collaborating with our friends," Madura said.
He appealed to the corporate world and other well wishers to assist in the production of the song.
Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province Miriam Chikukwa who has helped guide Matuka said the song will help to market Zimbabwe as well as promote cultural understanding among nations.
"I believe this song will do well in all the respective countries. I therefore call upon corporate and religious organizations, as well as social and cultural societies, to take advantage of this project and market everything Zimbabwean. The international publicity hat this project is going to attract will be of immense benefit to our country," she said.
One of the artists who will collaborate on the musical project is from the Indonesian Embassy in Harare.
Aswidya Indririski, an official from the information, social and cultural affairs department in the Indonesian Embassy, said Indonesia was excited to partner the musical group in the project.
"It is quite an exciting project to get people from different cultures and languages to collaborate in a song to market Zimbabwe tourism. Indonesia is famous for its tourism and this is why our embassy is keen to assist the team and this project because we know Zimbabwe has a lot of potential especially in tourism," she said.
Executive vice chairperson of the Zimbabwe-Chinese Business Association Li Manjuan said the Chinese community in Zimbabwe will help Matuka's musical project and efforts in marketing Zimbabwe through music.
"We love this country and we will try all our best to help Abraham on this project and efforts to market Zimbabwe in China and the international market," Li said.
