Fans and friends of Zimbabwean music band, Mokoomba, have set up an online campaign to petition against “EU VISA discrimination of musicians.” Last week Music Crossroads announced that the band had cancelled its European Summer Tour 2009 as it had been denied VISAs.

“After insurmountable VISA hassles and around-the-clock efforts to obtain these precious documents - only one week before the first concert - we have had,  for the first time in Music Crossroads' history, to realise that visas will not be ready on time and, finally forced to succumb to European countries' immigration offices ignorance, indifference and formalism, the 2009 European summer tour of ‘Mokoomba' had to be cancelled," said Dag Franzén, Executive Director of Music Crossroads International.

 

^ Mokoomba performs at HIFA 2009.

Mokoomba hails from the Victoria Falls and shot to prominence after winning the 1st prize at the Music Crossroads InterRegional Festival in Lilongwe, August 2008. Since then, they have been working to expand their repertoire and have been doing intense sessions with Music Crossroads International's Band Manager Poney Gross. They have recorded and produced a CD made other preparations for the six member band’s tour which would have seen them performing in Spain, Holland, Belgium, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Croatia.

Mokoomba gave a thrilling performance at this year’s Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).

The VISA campaign includes an online petition and a Facebook group which at the time of writing this article had 218 members (1109hs, 15 June 2009). The campaigners hope to get the attention of José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

In 2006, the European Community signed the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity, committing Europe to develop "measures in developed countries with a view to facilitating access to their territory for cultural activities from developing countries," yet administrative procedures have yet to reflect these good intentions.

Mokoomba band leader Abundance Mutori, whose songs speak of social ills, the HIV pandemic, love and a Zimbabwean nation determined never to give up hope said "we believe the potential for Tonga music is still to be explored and will one day reach the world at large."

^ Mokoomba in action.

The Mokoomba tour is part of the Music Crossroads program, a mammoth youth empowerment program in Southern Africa, supported and funded by the Government authorities in Norway, Spain and Sweden. "It is an ironic tragedy that Mokoomba has been bared from taking the stage in countries who helped create the dream," said Blasko Smilevski.

The call to action by the petition initiators ends with the words: “Don't let visa regulations restrict cultural exchange between Europe and the rest of the world- take action now.”

As the Zimbo Jam, we have had very personal experiences with VISA issues so we will not comment lest it gets hot in here.

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wamilele  - its getting too much   |2009-06-15 08:33:47 kuti tiuye ikoko vanoda tsamba yekwakatsekera....high time every [person of colour speaks up against these double standards on visas by the west Reply 1   0

Mokoomba Supporter   |2009-06-17 04:50:44 Firstly a BIG THANK YOU! to all of you special people who have joined us in this fight for musical justice. This is just a quick update to let you know that http://www.facebook.com/l/;thepetitionsite.com has been down for the past 12hrs or so but is back online! If you couldn't put your signature down you can now, make it count for the thousands of musicians who have been denied the opportunity to share their love and culture with Europe. Reply 0   0

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