MTN Bushfire Releases Bholoja, Stewart Sukuma CollaboNation Song
26 July 2024
MTN Bushfire is excited to announce the official track release of the 2024 CollaboNation song “Mother” by Mozambique’s Stewart Sukuma and Eswatini’s Bholoja. The song is out now and available for listening and download on all digital music platforms.
Both social commentary and source of hope, “Mother” is honest, pure, and powerful. It is a song inspired by the crucial need to address one of the burning issues in our society: Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
CollaboNation is an annual MTN Bushfire arts development project supported by MTN Eswatini and produced by Bushfire Records.
After a month-long CollaboNation call-out process that saw 182 applications from more than 15 African countries – as far as Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Kenya and Cameroon, as well as the southern African region – the legendary Stewart Sukuma from Mozambique and the King of Swazi Soul, Bholoja Ngubane from Eswatini, were selected.
Image Credit: Collabonation
They met for the first time at the recording studio in Maputo, Mozambique, created this deeply moving song, and then performed it at the MTN Bushfire international festival of music and the arts in May.
CollaboNation artists are selected in line with MTN Bushfire’s clarion call to action, Bring Your Fire, which encourages the proactive contribution of the individual towards addressing burning social and environmental issues. CollaboNation is a powerful platform for creative advocacy.
“CollaboNation connects and unites the continent through a series of unique cross-border and cross-genre music collaborations, weaving together Africa’s rich and diverse musical genres to create a game-changing creative narrative and inspire social cohesion in an increasingly divided world,” said MTN Bushfire Director Jiggs Thorne.
He also pointed out that “CollaboNation is designed to extend the reach of African artists by cross-pollinating fan bases, and linking them with new markets, media, promoters and other industry professionals in different countries.”
Supporting African artists in developing their brands is a key goal of the CollaboNation project, which aims to grow the continent’s creative economy.
CollaboNation was founded in 2022 with a generous grant from the Sound Connects Fund, implemented by the Music In Africa Foundation. The Sounds Connect Fund was a European Union-funded initiative to support the arts in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
EU Ambassador to Eswatini, H.E. Dessislava Choumelova shared that “We are proud with the results of the CollaboNation project, established with funding from the European Union. In Eswatini, we enjoy a strong and long-running partnership with MTN Bushfire, peaking each year in our EU Bushfire Schools Festival. Our partnership is founded in our mutual commitment to empowering youth, women, communities and citizens with socio-economic rights. GBV, in its different forms, is one of the gravest violations of human rights.
Art has a big role to play in social transformation and can help build bridges and fight social evils. This song speaks directly to our hearts and educates the minds. As such, I am confident that the song will mobilise EmaSwati and the region in the fight against Gender-Based Violence.”
MTN Bushfire is a socially conscious festival that works with a range of development partners, including the United Nations in Eswatini, to effect positive change.
“We welcome the launch of “Mother”, said Laila Nazarali, Senior Human Rights Adviser to the United Nations in Eswatini, “We hope the song will amplify the call to action on GBV that is a scourge on the Southern African region including Eswatini where, according to the Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), about half (48%) of all women report having experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime.
Creative artists have a responsibility to use their voices to build coalitions to address GBV, generate resources, promote human rights and speak up for the voiceless.”
A veteran arts activist, Stewart Sukuma wholeheartedly agrees. “As a citizen in a country you have social responsibilities. As an artist, as a musician, your responsibility grows as you have access to bigger crowds. The way men treat women in Mozambique is still very dubious and very violent and I think this song brings that subject up just to remind the people that our mothers, our sisters, they are part of us – or the other way around, we are part of them. Without them, we wouldn’t exist,” he says.
For Bholoja, CollaboNation has fulfilled his desire to collaborate with a Mozambican artist. He remarks, “Collabonation has been a dream come true; my wish to experience Eswatini sounds fused with Mozambican sounds came to reality. l am blessed to have collaborated with Stewart Sukuma, together advocating for women and against Gender-Based Violence. We both saw that it was crucial for us to address this issue through a song,” he said, adding, “Unity is power.
Through CollaboNation, MTN Bushfire have made it possible, and they have found a simple way of uniting Africans, of uniting musicians, to come together and speak one language.” “Mother” has been released globally by Bushfire Records, in partnership with Paradise Worldwide, an independent global distribution company. Paradise Worldwide’s access to network partners across New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, Berlin, Romania and other key Schengen cities will take these powerful and beautiful African sounds to the global market.
To follow these amazing annual collaborative journeys, with in-studio vids, artist reels, and other audio and visual releases, simply follow “CollaboNation” on Facebook, Instagram, and @CollaboNation_ on X, subscribe to the CollaboNation YouTube channel and check out the CollaboNation page on the MTN BUSHFIRE WEBSITE;
Meet The Artists
Bholoja
Bholoja, born Mbongiseni Ngubane in the Kingdom of Eswatini, is considered one of the most relevant figures on the contemporary African music scene. With an infectious sense of humour and irrepressible optimism, Bholoja’s voice has become a mouthpiece for the underprivileged. Singing in Siswati and English, his signature Swazi Soul style blends Alternative Soul, Gospel, Jazz, Blues, and traditional African rhythms.
A genuine innovator, Bholoja is a symbol of Eswatini’s native rhythms, melodies and culture. His powerful lyrics, combined with his striking, multi-coloured voice, has won him international acclaim. Among many awards and accolades, for three consecutive years Bholoja won the Best-Selling Swazi Artist award and was ranked Top Ten at Radio France International (RFI).
Stewart Sukuma
Irreverent, versatile and multi-talented, Stewart Sukuma is one of Mozambique’s foremost musicians, as well as being a published poet, TV presenter, humanitarian, social activist, and environmental advocate. He combines traditional and contemporary Mozambican music with revolutionary instrumentation, creating an energetic, danceable and infectious sound, mixed with sweet yet powerful melodies that carry a message of hope and renewal.
He has recorded and shared the stage with some of the biggest names in international music and received a host of awards over his 40-year career, being decorated with the Medal of Arts and Letters by the President of Mozambique, the Official Degree of the Order of Merit of Infante D. Henrique by the President of Portugal and the Medal of the Legião Paranaense do Expedicionário by Brazil in recognition of his contribution to the dissemination of cultural values in the world. The Municipality of his hometown, Quelimane, granted him the title of Honorary Citizen in 2022.
