By Bongani Ndlovu
A small slice of the humongous Kalawa Homecoming cake is what revellers experienced during the annual fete’s club version on Thursday night with performances by Busiswa, Stiff and DJ Zinhle.
This year, organisers downsized the party due to the prevailing economic challenges the country is facing.
Busiswa was the person that most of people who thronged the venue wanted to watch as she was the headline act.
She had a phenomenal year as she has a lot of hit songs with the most known being Bazoyenza and Banomoya. Along with her two dancers, Busiswa owned the stage. In fact she was the highlight of the night.
She is an entertainer who knows what is expected of her and treats her craft as work with each dance move.
Her set lasted around 45 minutes and it ended too soon.
DJ Zinhle added spark to the show with her mixes of her own tunes such as My Name Is that featured Busiswa and her most recent track Uzobuya. She threw some Gqom tracks such as Laze Lavuka, iDimoni, Amalukuku, Pakisha, Iwalk yePhara and Makhe which saw almost all the revellers on their feet.
Even Stiff that opened the show set the bar high and it was good there was not much of an interlude between acts, except before Busiswa got on stage when DJ Crazy Black gave the crowd some soothing reggae tunes. He eased his set into some Zimdancehall with the usual hits, Ngirozi, Kanjiva and Sweetie (Ngicel’ iStonyeni) sending the crowd into a frenzy.
But it was hard not to think back and reminisce how past Homecoming parties have been. Imagine if Busiswa had come to perform and electrify the multitudes of revellers who religiously throng the Kalawa homecoming party at its ceremonial home, Queens Sports Club. Imagine her saying “Kuthi Wuuu” and getting a rapturous response from the crowd.
There are so many songs that have been released and are hits and people like the Durban crew of Dladla Mshunqisi, TipCee and DJ Tira would have rocked the party. Another dance with Distruction Boyz would have been good and people like Mlindo, Moon Child Sanelly of Makhe fame and Sho Madjozi the woman behind the hit track Huku would have spiced up the event.
This year was just a smaller version of the Kalawa Homecoming party that titillated followers and just had a piece of fun to quench their thirst.
The VIP areas were packed and those in them were drinking expensive booze and one wonders where some people are getting such money to splash.
Hopefully next year the Kalawa Homecoming party will be back to its big scale that Bulawayo is used to. The Chronicle.
