Elisa Huet, face of the fight for marrabenta

The Kacana band from Mozambique were in Portugal for a series of concerts. After performing at B.Leza and Festa do Avante, CM spoke with two founding members, Yolanda Chikane and Jimmy Gwaza, on the evening of their performance at the Malandro do Marquês restaurant in Lisbon. Yolanda met Jimmy when the guitarist was a member of an Afro-jazz band that performed in a restaurant.

“I asked to sing a song and he liked my voice. This is how our friendship began,” recalls the singer. “He invited me to be part of an old project he wanted to bring to life called Atrevidos. I agreed, and we started rehearsing, and from Atrevidos, Banda Kakana was born in 2004,” recalls Yolanda Chikane, or Yolanda Kakana, as she is also called among the group’s fans.

These two elements were joined by another guitarist, bassist and drummer to play traditional Mozambican music, but with references to rock and Afrojazz. A mixture that results in a style that is highly prized by Mozambicans.

“In the beginning, when I met Yolanda, I had the idea of ​​​​bringing a rock music project to life. I wanted to play rock because I knew her voice had potential. Over time, we realized that rock was not the music to focus on, given that there are several styles of music in Mozambique that we needed to sort of introduce and bring to the foreign market. We understand that to achieve success in the music industry, we must focus on the music that identifies us. We decided to mix rock with other Mozambican rhythms,” says Jimmy Gwaza.

Banda Kakana combines traditional Mozambican rhythms with more modern sounds.

There are eleven provinces in Mozambique, each with different rhythms, and wherever Banda Kakana went, they felt that people expressed themselves in different ways culturally. “We have several rhythms, but the ones that stand out are Tufo, Marrabenta, Mapiko, Singombela, Sisayizana and Mutimba. That’s all. There’s a lot to explore here,” emphasizes the guitarist and composer. “Banda Kakana is a fusion of these rhythms with a more modern sound,” adds the singer. In Mozambique there are several languages ​​they sing in their songs besides English, Portuguese and French.

The group recorded three albums: the first was “Serenata” in 2013, then “Juntos” in 2017 and “Uma Nova Flor” in 2022. “At the beginning we weren’t quite sure what we wanted. The album “Serenata” partly reflects the confusion of identity that we are faced with. We have several rhythms there: between Mozambicans and foreigners. We can say that we had not met yet on the first album. In the second one we got more into the wave of Mozambican rhythms,” says Jimmy Gwaza.

“Great concerts happen, but for foreign groups”

“In Mozambique we have a lot of shows, but in brothels. There is live music every weekend in Maputo and Matola. Now there is a new scene where restaurants are located outside of the city and this is where there is more live music. In this regard, everything is going well, but there is a gap here: at large festivals, on large stages, where we have an audience of more than one and a half thousand people, there was little of it,” warns Jimmy. According to Yolanda: “Big shows are big investments and our producers are naturally worried about making money. There are excellent concerts, but for foreign groups. In the end, we were the ones who opened the concerts. But in terms of music, Mozambique is developing a lot. It’s normal to go out at night and listen to live music, which wasn’t the case before. This movement has intensified since the pandemic.”

Taking Mozambican music to the top of the world as far as possible is the mission of Banda Kakana and their goal in music. “Our way of life, Mozambican culture, but mostly messages related to peace and love. At its core, the Kakana Band is a social intervention group. We want to heal the world like Michael Jackson and others tried to do,” explains Yolanda Chikane cheerfully and confidently.

“It’s easier to go to Europe or America than to an African country”

The latest album “Uma Nova Flor” featured many artists such as Tito Paris, Mikas Cabral, Mingas, Vasimbo, Mister Cuca, Otis, Quim Alves. “We haven’t recorded with many international artists yet, but we end up exchanging them every time foreign musicians come to Mozambique. So we take the opportunity to meet musicians from other parts of the world,” says the Mozambican singer.

France, Canada, Cape Verde, Egypt, South Africa are just some of the countries in which they have worked. “The strange and funny thing is that it is easier for us to go to Europe or America than to an African country. I don’t understand why we Africans don’t have this connection. Count how many times we went to Angola, Guinea-Bissau or Sao Tome and Principe. We need to start thinking about how we can make these visits to each other more often. I think this could help us find a way out,” says Jimmy Gwaza.

“Everyone knows, everyone dances [Elisa Ue]»

The group intends to return to Portugal more often, especially in the summer, to enjoy the festivals. “The Kakana group travels a lot, but it is always a government matter. “We are going to represent the country. But now we also want to play festivals in Europe,” says Yolanda Chikane on a stage where the group is very versatile, as demonstrated at the Malandro do Marquês concert. One of the themes performed was Eliza.

“This is an adaptation of the popular Mozambican theme by Elisa Vee (Gomara Saya). Symbolic theme of Mozambique. Everyone knows it, everyone dances. So we took that song and gave it a new look. This is of great value to us. Because this is, in a sense, the song that we chose to give a face to this struggle to promote marrabenta,” reports Jimmy. “In this song we appreciate the area of ​​Maputo called Mafalala, a cultural area where many football stars such as Eusebio and music stars were born. We took the opportunity to pay tribute to the area,” concludes Yolanda Kakana.