Harare — A number of people who attended the Swedish group Zimba Marimba's performance at the Global Stage at Hifa yesterday shed tears.

After the show, one man said that he had been coming to Hifa ever since its inception and had never come across an occasion that was so touching and honestly presented like that performance.

Zimba Marimba plays Zimbabwean music -- marimba, drums, hosho and magavhu (leg rattles).

I did not cry but the performance made me ask whether some Zimbabwean youths who do not want to have anything to do with their music are going where others are coming from?

The nine-piece group performed a number of songs among them Dzinonwa Kuna Save, Thomas Mapfumo's Chigwindiri, Vana Vangu Vapera and the late Jenkins Mandaza's Taive Gumi Nevaviri which I believe knocked hard on a number of people's hearts.

It was not only the singing that made Zimba Marimba a unique outfit but also the way they play marimba and flow along with the African rhythms.

Even the dance routine was not only just an act learnt through training but something that runs in each of the players' blood. That foot-stamping, the ululations, the unfettered joy that comes with the rhythm, that light in the eyes and the total control of marimba and rattles -- all this is not learnt but fused into the performers' souls and lives.

The group's trainer Tipei Marazanye, a teacher at Prince Edward School in Harare who also was a part-time music teacher at the Zimbabwe College of Music, said the youths were very excited when he started teaching them marimba during a visit of Sweden in 2003.

"Although it was difficult at first, the youths were very excited to get on with the programme. That made it easier for them to master the African rhythms," he said after the performance.

Bandleader Peta Axelsson, who is Zimbabwean by birth and was married to the late Olof Axelsson who was one of the first music teachers at Kwanongoma College of Music, described marimba music as fantastic and African music as binding and inclusive.

"African music is so inclusive. It puts people together. It does not alienate," she said adding that in Sweden people cry when they perform in the streets.

"They cry because of the inclusiveness of African music. It makes you feel that you are part of a whole. We want therefore to show that African music moves hearts. It is powerful. It's a pity that Zimbabwean youths do not understand what they could be elsewhere if they stick to their music," she said.

Peta, who started working with the youths when they were 10 years old, said the group earns a living from playing African music.

"We started small because of the complexity of the music and then built up by developing drumming, rattles and lyrics," Peta explained.

Zimba Marimba will tour the country after Hifa. They play today at the Coca Cola Green.

Meanwhile, Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Sten Rylander has said Hifa was building bridges between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world.

Mr Rylander, who was speaking during the official opening of the Zimba Marimba show also said the current Zimbabwean situation is different from what the western media is saying.

"What people in the west hear about Zimbabwe is in stark conflict with we are seeing here. There is everything, peace, unity and even lots of entertainment. We should all realise that Hifa brings people from all walks of life and different corners of the globe together.

"It builds bridges between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world," he added.

Zimba Marimba is a Swedish-based marimba band that plays Zimbabwean music.

The 10-member group is a brainchild of Peta Axelsson, who took several local mbira experts to Sweden to teach traditional music in Swedish colleges.

Last year, the group spent three-and-a-half months staying in Chiriseri near Domboshava, where it attended ritual ceremonies and practised with local groups.