MOKOOMBA translates roughly as “life force” and it’s the name given to the Zambezi river by Zimbabwe’s minority Tonga people, who live in its proximity. 
They were displaced from their ancestral lands when the Kariba dam was built in 1955 and never compensated.
Ironically, many still wait to be connected to the electricity grid.
The Mokoomba sextet certainly live up to their name.From the Chinotimba township on the outskirts of Victoria Falls, they were teenage schoolmates before they formed the group, which explains the compact and intuitively fluid sound elaborated from the local sungura tradition and wider pan-African influences.
As they launch into opening number Kumukanda, lead vocalist Mathias Muzaza’s cultured and spine-tingling voice stuns the audience.
Coarse and improbably deep to start with, it soars into rich high notes with consummate ease and its clarity fills the venue wall to wall, as it does throughout the evening.
Muzaza’s bandmates provide a lively and pulsating rhythm, which is punctuated with Trustworth Samede’s surprisingly delicate guitar riffs in what essentially is joie-de-vivre rock’n’roll with a difference.
Whether singing virtually a cappella or backed by full-on instrumental blasts, Mokoomba’s collective voices, arranged as traditional African chants, imbue their music with a heart and soul that has an invigorating authenticity.
That’s no more in evidence than when they dialogue with their own people — the somewhat stern Njoka advises heeding the counsel of the elders while Njawane, allegorically perhaps, offers advice to young hunters faced with a dangerous lion.
This is an infectious show, with co-ordinated mini chorus-line routines, admirable musicianship and occasional clowning, expertly done.
Their latest album Luyando (Mother’s Love) is worth every penny.-Morningstar
