Shumba or Simba, which will it be?

Simba
Simba

Music lovers across Africa know him as Shumba Ratshega, but Botswana’s favourite traditional musician, Moses Malapela, now wants fans to know him as Simba.

Well, both Shumba and Simba refer to the lion, king of the jungle.  Simba is the fictional character who appears in the production The Lion King while some African languages refer to the lion as Shumba.

The muscular musician recently released an album called Morobanyana under the name Simba and argues that such a move would not confuse his fans. “I am trying to create a different brand with a different musical focus and once you listen to the music in Morobanyana you will understand,” he said.Morobanyana is a mixture of mbaqanga, jazz and gospel with some remixes from the musician’s old tracks. “I have been catering for only one group of followers being traditional music lovers and now it is time to expand to other spheres.  This is by no means a desperate move because traditional music is still selling well,” he said.

Editor's Comment
Depression is real; let's take care of our mental health

It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...

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