By Patricia Shoko
Innocent Nyoni a Bulawayo based artist whose stage name is Thamsanqa won an Ecumenical Youth Arts Festival competition which was hosted by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches at Oikos Studio, Hatfield in Harare on the 10th of April 2021.
Thamsanqa was born in Nkayi in 1993 and he grew up in Esigodini where he was listening to gospel artists like Sipho Makhabane, Charles Charamba, among other artists and he got inspired. Thamsanqa realized his talent of singing in 2010 when he was singing for the mbube group called Gxobilahle Performing Arts and in the same year he founded a gospel group called Phakama Vangeli.
Since he started production in 2016, Thamsanqa has three CD albums, one DVD and a drama. His first CD titled ‘Kuthi kungambamba’ was released in 2016 and he produced a DVD on the same album in 2018. Then in 2019 Thamsanqa released another album titled ‘Ehlane’. His latest album is titled ‘Edale’ and it was released in 2020 together with the comedy drama titled ‘Uzaguga lawe’.
Thamsanqa received an invitation to partake on Ecumenical Youth Arts Festival competitions in Harare. They were given the theme of the year to write songs about that theme. The theme was ‘Fostering a Culture of Youth Participation in Nation Building’. As it was expected, Thamsanqa wrote a song which encourages youths to participate in nation building and his song became the best. “When I won the competition I was very happy and I even wished my parents were still alive so that they see my good work and celebrate with me”, he said.
In terms of marketing his music, Thamsanqa does city to city CD tour promotion in Zimbabwe and he had also done these tours in South Africa under the company Knowles Music Production. He also, had a privilege to share stage on various shows with established artists like Hlengiwe Mhlaba, Takesure Zamar, Rebecca Malope, to mention a few.
Thamsanqa’s ambition is to continue preaching the gospel of Christ through music. Also he wishes to own a music production company where he will be giving upcoming artists opportunities to explore their talents. To all Bulawayo artists, Thamsanqa is saying in spite of financial challenges being faced by almost every artist, moving forward in unity will make them achieve their goals.
Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube: Innocent Nyoni
shokopatricia3@gmail.com
