This year’s Kora All Africa Music Awards held at Sun City last Saturday were a real treat, with just about every winner showing up to receive their trophies.
It made a change from last year when the audience spent a good deal of the evening clapping for an empty podium. A testament to its success is that the next day the Sunday papers had little coverage of the event, meaning that it ran without fault or controversy — no sensation for the press.
The Koras have developed a sort of routine over the last six years. On the Friday night there’s a small fashion show where the organisers hand out the Kora Fashion Award. This year it went to Ghanaian Beatrice Arthur who offered up heavily printed and appliquéd garments in a sort of tropical Fifties style.
The event happened amid an underlying tension. At the pre-award press conference on Saturday afternoon a room of aggressive South African journalists confronted Kora secretary general and composer Wally Badarou for no apparent reason. The South African media is determined to turn the Koras into some sort of monster. Complaints ranged from the fact that the Koras showcase only major talent (not of the grassroots) to the fact that the awards incorporate n non-African artists n from the diaspora, including African Americans, Caribbeans and South Americans. When winner of the North American category, n Bebe Winans appeared before the unruly press contingent he was confronted on the issue of how African he really is.
Saturday night’s ceremony was televised to a footprint of 390-million people. Nelson Mandela arrived with Graça Machel who was to receive a lifetime achievement award. Sun International director Philip Georgas took the opportunity to ask, “When is Graça Machel going to be called Graça Mandela?” The crowd roared and the Mandelas were shown close-up on giant television screens grinning for all they were worth.
Later, having received her accolade, Machel got up on stage to stare lovingly at Bebe Winans who sang a song accompanied by Ernie Smith on guitar.
Brenda Fassie, whose birthday it was on the same night, and who won a special judges’ award, sang a number dressed as a schoolgirl. At the end of the song she jumped into the air, parted her legs and fell to the ground doing the splits. She looked like she was in great pain, to say the least.
Miriam Makeba received the award for Best Arrangement, and Kora judge Yvonne Chaka Chaka took the trophy on her behalf. Chaka Chaka did impersonations of both Makeba and Mandela, proving that she’s a very good stand-up comic indeed.
South Africa’s Bongo Maffin received the award for Best African Group and when they performed they brought the house down — the upper house, that is. The Superbowl is of course divided in two, VIPs at ground level banqueting, and the riff raff in the grandstand above. This was brimming with very rowdy citizens of North West province. For the youth of that district it’s obvious that the Koras cast out a vital lifeline, bringing with them popular culture from the big city. Why, one wonders, don’t the Sun City organisers host big conglomerate music events outside of the Koras? There’s a quick buck waiting to be made.
The show rounded off with a short set by Ragga king Shaggy who happened to be in Gauteng for a concert the previous night. At the end he appealed to the gods, and a host of children dressed up as angels joined him on stage, along with the diversity of African artists who had won awards.