South Africa's premier nasheed artist, Zain Bhikha (seen here with one of his protégés Nadira Alli at the VOC Festival) returns to Cape Town this week for a charity concert following a busy year during which he toured both the US and UK where he also conducted successful workshops for Muslim youth on creativity. This initiative began in South Africa last year in conjunction with Islamic Relief. His latest concert - the last of three which sold out last week in Durban and Johannesburg - is in aid of Islamic Relief's 25th anniversary.
"The workshops were fantastic. We had five of them - one in Johannesburg, one in Pretoria, one in Cape Town and two in Durban where we spoke mainly to teenagers about creative thinking, encouraging them to write and express themselves. At each workshop we had about 100 - 120 kids, a total of 500 - 600 kids coming through the workshop," Bhikha told VOC on Wednesday, speaking from Durban where he was taking a brief break before journeying to Cape Town on Saturday.
"At every workshop there was also a competition as we chose the 10 best works from these young people from around the country. Alhamdulilah, the 10 best writers were well represented from all the provinces and they attended a dinner in Pretoria last August. We now have them on board to write more material - songs, poems or rap - so that we can continue to work on his huge project that we are planning for later this year."
Fun and Interactive
The artist and record producer is hoping to have these highly interactive and fun creative workshops more regularly in South Africa, but he has already begun to extend it to other parts of the world. "This is really just the beginning. It gave me a platform to take the workshop concept abroad. When we approached Muslim organizations in the UK, they were not really sure what to expect. They don't really have anything available for the youth in this format."
He drew on the skills of his friend, Canadian singer/songwriter Dawud Wransby Ali to run the one week workshop in the UK, hosted by one of the burrow municipalities in London. "It took place during a conference and was so fantastic that they invited us back to do similar workshops in other areas of the UK."
Then in May and June Bhikha had a 27 event tour in the US, half of which was combined with further workshops. "We did workshops across the US and it was really intense. I must say it was a lot of hard work but really fantastic to see its impact. The response from everyone was amazing. Similarly now we have invitations to do the same in Holland, India in November, then back to the UK and possibly in Australia early next year."
Giving youth a voice
Asked what he hopes to achieve with these workshops, Bhikha said: "They are the leaders of tomorrow and the plan is to keep the youth involved and give them a voice, for very often they feel alienated from adults. This gives them a chance to speak out and hopefully this project will be for the youth by the youth.
"But also, the makers of popular culture are young people. They make the songs, decide on fashionable dress and therefore our youth need to become more mobilized in using their talents, but to do so with a greater sense of responsibility towards their community, just trying to make the world better."
Having had his start in 1994 or the Islamic year 1415 - hence the name of his latest album - Bhikha said his focus now was more on helping to develop and nurture new talent like these. "So I'm encouraging them not to be shy, because the more variety we have, the more positive songs that we produce for young people, the better we will do in promoting good messages and good morals."
You can see Zain Bhikha performing at the Cape Town City Hall Sunday at 2.30pm with comedian Riaad Moosa and local nasheed group, Desert Rose. Tickets are available at Islamic Relief or Desert Rose. You can also listen to his latest CD released this month, 1415 - The Beginning at http://www.zainbhikha.com/ and tune in to Open Lines for an in-depth interview with him on the state of the global nasheed industry. VOC |
