Cheikh, Pathe and Madieng, the drummers of my 'African Heart' band, are playing a spontaneous drum session. We are in Heaven's Mountain Lodge in Chimanimani /Zimbabwe, the day after our festival concert. A wonderful place, much green, surrounded by high mountains, almost like in the mountains in Austria or Switzerland. Benny Hoffart, both German VSO worker and manager of the festival, explained to us that the mountains already belong to Mozambique. We are only about 8 miles away from the border.

A short look back: After an almost 18 hour flight from Vienna via Frankfurt and Johannesburg to Harare we are picked up by Mathias Bangure, our local manager. Part of our instruments has got stuck in Johannesburg and is to be delivered later.We still have a 7 hour bus ride in front of us which to bring us to the border area to the Chimanimani Arts Festival. We arrive pretty shattered, yet there on the festival grounds all hell has broken loose: Almost 5-6000 visitors are listening to the bands of the first night.

On the next day Benny tells us about the great significance of the festival for the area; both the local shops and craft industry as well as the restaurants benefit from the many visitors. The takings remain in the region- an important source of income as there are few jobs available. At 9 p. m. we are on stage and have technical trouble during the first 2 or 3 pieces. Then things go quite well. During our concert three fire jugglers are in action in the closed off area between stage and audience, whirling fireballs through the night with sticks and chains. A magic situation.

After the concert enthusiastic congratulations - our reputation was to hurry ahead of us until the final concert of the tour at the HIFA (Harare International Festival of the Arts). Various people tell me:
"Keep the spirit of this band!"

During the days to come we play another 2 concerts in Mutare and Bulawayo. Again and again the political and social situation of the country is being discussed, among concert visitors, Austrians living in the country, in the hotel.... and ever again a new facet. And often enough your hear in a conversation the exact opposite of what you heard before - which causes the accompanying journalist Andreas Felber after a few days to sigh about the complicated situation...
Whereas the picture transmitted by the media - above all about last year's farm occupations - was a rather disquieting one, the on-the-spot visitor is faced with a different view: The country is quiet and peaceful on the surface (and, this has to be said: very beautiful), yet when talking with the people their dissatisfaction with the ever getting worse economic situation is all too obvious. For example the crisis concerning foreign exchange: The US $, which has an official value of 55 ZIM Dollar, is on the grey market traded for 110 ZIM Dollar though. When the country became independent both dollar currencies were nearly equally strong though! Another example : petrol crisis: There is a shortage of petrol, which causes long queues in front of the petrol stations as soon as rumour spreads that a tanker is on its way . We too once experienced searching and waiting for hours until we had petrol to drive on...

After a week in Zimbabwe we fly to Johannesburg / South Africa to give further concerts and above all workshops in various high schools. At the airport we are received by Ms Gudenus from the Austrian embassy and Geoff Mphakati. Geoff, our local organiser from AACA (Association for the Advancement of Creative Artists) is an impressive man of 60 with white beard and much experience which he tells us story by story during the next couple of days. His stories make clear what deep wounds Apartheid has left.

Geoff is fighting for a mentally liberated Africa - a decolonization of the mind - which is still dominated by English patterns of speech, western clothing, music, TV. And strangely enough: In South Africa you never see any traditional African clothing in the streets any more, people listen to Afro - Pop (emphasis on Pop) on the radio. What a contrast to our experiences in Senegal last year: There you could still find all these elements, and the people are proud of their African culture.

Our programme for this week consists of 4 workshops, which we are doing in the townships of Pretoria and Johannesburg, and 3 concerts in these towns (2 of them in the renowned State Theatre in Pretoria, the former State Theatre of the Apartheid government. Especially the workshops are moving and impressive experiences for the whole group (i.e. in addition to Madieng Fall, Pathe Beye and Cheikh M'Boup from Senegal the Austrians Werner Puntigam/ trombone and Martin Mondl/bass).

There are those 11-16 year-old boys and girls in their school uniforms, we explain our instruments and start playing a few tunes- and suddenly things livened up - people are singing, cheering and dancing! And here again: 2 teachers come and say to me 'Keep the spirit of the band!'

After one of the workshops a 12year-old girl asks our lead singer Cheikh full of surprise:'Tell me, how come you got in touch with those Whites?' A question, which more than clearly illustrates the de facto still existing separation of the society in South Africa. On the one hand the Whites in their residential areas, shopping centres, schools etc...you feel as if you were in a European-American big city - and everything is surrounded by barbed wire. And on the other hand the black population in the townships, with bad infrastructure, low educational level......and all of a sudden you are in the third world again.

On the day before our departure we are taken on a trip to Soweto by our South African organisers. Nearly 6 million inhabitants live here in cramped conditions , ever-present the small brick houses on ground level, which the apartheid government had built to resettle the black population from the towns and literally push to the fringes ( of the town, the society...)

We are flying back to Harare/Zimbabwe to take part in the HIFA. Manuel Bangorro, manager of the festival has created an event which is impressive by its mere size. Dance performances, classical concerts, workshops, ethnic bands and of course jazz are to be found in the programme of the festival, which has been excellently organised.

I listen to the opening night, a big production as hommage to Duke Ellington with Big Band, choir, singer soloists, speakers, step and show dancers, And again I am overcome by a strange feeling: We are in the midst of Africa, and both on the stage and in the audience ( which is approaching with camping chairs and cool boxes) you almost exclusively see white faces. And this with the music of one of the greatest Afro American composers being celebrated!

On the following day we stand on the same stage to give our concert in the course of the festival. Happily, the audience is more mixed than on the previous night. The band plays highly motivated, and when in the first rows people (partly with real choregraphies) start dancing, the band rises to top performance.
And again, after the concert, I hear those voices :'Keep the spirit of this band!'

On the next day the Austrian ambassador in Zimbabwe, Mr Leitenbauer, gives a reception in his residence on the occasion of our concert. Again the present economic crisis is being discussed and I learn that this year the investments have sunk an atrocious 90% (!) compared to last year's. Gradually our stay is approaching its end.

On the last day before our departure we are taken on a trip into the hills around Harare by our friends - we are awaited by a beautiful scenery culminating in a spectacular sunset - Pictures that I suppose will stay long. In the evening I listen to the English singer Juliet Roberts with saxophonist Denis Baptiste: a band in good form with a singer who also proves to be entertaining.
The day of our departure has come. Sadly we take leave from all people we met.

Good bye, Zimbabwe; I hope I will soon be able to keep my promise and come back again!