Nduna uses music to teach ‘ShonNdex’

Munyaradzi Doma

Talented afro-jazz musician, Ben Moyo says there is need for Shona and Ndebele languages to be given prominence as they are the most commonly used in the country.

Nduna, as the musician is affectionately called by his fans, said in order to push for the prominence of these languages, he has coined the term “ShonNdex”, which is the message he is now driving at his shows.

“This is a mixture of Shona and Ndebele, so what I’m doing is I’m teaching people Shona and Ndebele through music.

“So, what we are doing at all our shows is that we are making sure we harmonise the two languages, Shona and Ndebele.

“We want people to learn and speak these two languages because we believe they are the most dominant in our country, so it will be good if we properly get this message across.

“For all our promotional material, that’s what we are pushing for and for shows that’s our message, we want to clearly push Zimbabwean music,” said Nduna in an interview with Zim Now.

The former Chase Skuza dancer and backing vocalist, who formed his own group Ubuntu Classical Band in 2020, has one album and five singles under his belt.

“I started music in 2009 with Chase Skuza as a dancer and backing vocalist. Now I sing afro-jazz because I was inspired by Jabu Khanyile and Oliver Mtukudzi’s music.

“My album is called Ngiyazifela and my singles are: Umariya, Ngazvinake, Ini Naye, Kachembere and Usomandla,” he revealed.

Along with his band, they have been staging shows in and around Harare and Nduna says the response has been good.

“The responses I have been receiving whenever I perform have given me inspiration to push more and I want to take my music further and the good thing about music is you can communicate easily and I’m happy God gave me the gift to sing.

“I’m now aiming to do some collaborations with others, so that’s one of my plans to take my music further,” added Nduna.