Mbofana: Performing is where I come alive

By In Conversation With Trevor | Jul. 14, 2024

Top singer and song writer Prudence Katomeni Mbofana In Conversation With Trevor Ncube recently

Top singer and song writer Prudence Katomeni Mbofana says her music career was shaped at an early age because she was surrounded by people that appreciated her talent.

Mbofana (PM) spoke about her successful career on the platform In Conversation with Trevor, which is hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN).

She mentioned her former teacher at Avondale Primary School Tessa Rossa and legendary poet Albert Nyathi as some of the people that identified her exceptional talent early and encouraged her to follow her dreams.

Below are excerpts from the interview.

TN: I'm in conversation with Prudence Katomeni Mbofana, a performing artist, vocal coach and a songwriter. Prudence Katomeni Mbofana, I am excited to have you here.

PM: Thank you for having me. I'm excited too to be here.

TN: Before we start, I need to share with our viewers that we are very excited about the growth of the show. We are currently sitting on nine million views and still growing.

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So you are like, I said, a performing artist, you are a vocal coach, you are a songwriter, which one of these is Prudence?

PM: I think it's the performing artist. That’s the one I identify with the most.

TN: Is that where you come alive?

PM: That's where I come alive. That’s where my escape is. I'm in my own little world.

When I'm there, I do engage the audience obviously but it's a lovely little space that I can express myself freely.

TN: Are there things that you do, you have a habit you know, before you go onto the stage and say this is what I'm going to do?

PM: Yes, well first of all, I try to avoid a lot of conversations.

It's more like a meditation to just get into the scene, do a little walk through what's going to happen, get connected with the spirit; the spirit of the ambiance of the space and of course I never go on stage without saying a little prayer.

TN: Beautiful. So you have been doing this for 20 years now, I mean as a vocal performer?

PM: I think it's over, actually over 20 years.

TN: Have you had the day where your voice has let you down?

PM: Yes. I have had quite a few although you know you have got nice people in the audience, who always come and say we didn't hear it.

But I think the one that pops up first is when I was going on my first tour with the Cool Crooners.

We left Zimbabwe round about the same time and then there was Hifa (Harare International Festival of the Arts).

So we had a performance at Hifa and then we had to catch the plane the next day and I lost my voice and I think it was more of nerves.

It was a very big crowd, I mean at Hifa and then performing with the Cool Crooners and Oliver Mtukudzi was going to perform after that.

So I think it was more of a psychological thing. So I lost my voice. Thank goodness there were quite a few people with all sorts of medication, which I drank and I made it through the show.

TN: So you rose to prominence with one of my favourite songs Ruva Rangu. I wish I had the voice to sing it.

Talk to me about that season of your life Ruva Rangu. The time you had with Jazz Invitation, you were with them for about 10 years or more. Talk to me about that season of your life.

PM: I'll just take you back a little bit to where I finished high school.

My last two years of high school I had just been exposed to jazz music on radio and I knew that after school one of the things I wanted to do was to be part of a band and just learn.

You know what happens with chemistry and things like that.

So I did a stint with a group called The Vice, and they really kind of fed me with the music and the knowledge I needed and during that time I would also do little gigs in the studio with Kelly Rusike and then Sam Matau started a project called the moving Jazz Cafe and he had most of the then Jazz Invitation members in that band and they decided to call me.

So that was pretty much like the formation of Jazz Invitation. I was the youngest at the time and, of course, when it's like that, I have always been told to take a seat back and watch how it's done, ask questions and of course don't forget to just express yourself when you can.

So it was an amazing journey seeing how everybody worked with gifted people who were knowledgeable not only about music, but other things.

So I learned a lot, I grew a lot under Jazz Invitation yeah.

TN: So you are working with gifted people. You learned a lot, you are expressing yourself; talk to me about the key takeaways for you. What were the key lessons that you took away from that season with the Jazz Invitational.

PM: It was more of having chemistry making sure that when you put a band together there has to be chemistry.

If that chemistry, like for me, if it's not there, I feel like our time together we will have to put that on ice.

So the chemistry was so good that even if we had planned to do a performance in a certain way, but if the audience reacts in a certain way, it just took like maybe an eye and everybody knew okay we are taking it this way.

So it's like we responded the same way and performed, reacting to the audience without it was almost telepathic and I believe that's because the chemistry was there.

We had each other's backs. You know when somebody isn't in a good space and we try and cover that up or try and uplift that person, so for me that was the greatest takeaway.

TN: And you were young, I mean which takes me to the point that you started singing at three years old is that true?

PM: Three years old in my grandmother's passage. I would close doors and compose in that passage.

I don't know what it was about the passage, but I did that and then I believe that the person who then really recognised my talent and did a lot to expose it out there was the lady called Tessa Rosa.

I was then eight by then, but before that, during family functions I would sing but I think in the home it wasn't considered like oh wow what a great gift because everybody in there sings.

My mom could sing, her sisters could sing, her brothers and when they decided to go into worship, cause that was mandatory in the house of Jacob that was my grandfather, we had to do devotion especially every evening.

I was singing. It was considered, yeah okay, she can sing but Tessa Rosa is the one who said okay you can sing and we need to put you out there.

TN: So the cradle that formed appears like it is that environment with your grandmother that influenced you taking on this career. Is that the sense you get?

PM: Yes. It was subconscious, but definitely being around those people and them singing all the time and being around music definitely shaped me in that way and it took me in that direction.

TN: And Tessa Rosa, this was at Avondale Primary School? You were eight years old when you first encountered her. Is she alive? Is she around?

PM: No. Unfortunately she passed on.

TN: But she absolutely had a big influence on your life. Talk to me about that encounter and the way she nurtured you?

PM: Tessa was the music teacher at Avondale Primary School and I believe that year she was doing an audition for The Wizard of Oz Musical and one of my friends dared me and said, ‘let's see if you can be part of it’.

So I went and I sang my heart out for her and she was like Oh my gosh you have got such a great voice, but your height suits for a munchkin, but don't you worry I have got you.

So I was a munchkin for Wizard of Oz, but after that she would take me to our house and expose me to various kinds of music and she would shape me and take me in front of a lot of different audiences.

She would say I want you to make them love you and I must say it was very difficult because at the time I'm a little young black girl and she takes us to retirement homes where there was a lot of white folk who I'm sure were coming from that kind of time.

But she would say make them love you. If you can make them love you through your voice you are good.

So when I would sing I would be very aware of people's reaction and what was going on in my mind was, ‘Okay how can I then take this to a direction, where then I can take it, I can get his attention or her attention.

So those are things that we did a lot of times and again that I think shaped the performance as well.

TN: Did you get the opportunity to go and tell her that she had this big influence on your life, did she know?

PM: I hope so. She retired while I was still at school.

I was in junior high, Form One or Form Two, no Form Three actually and then her and her husband, she was married to a judge, I think he was in the High Court here so they retired and they went to Botswana.

There was also Mr Bell and a guy called Tapiwa Cherisa and Kenneth is the one who was called Mr Bell.

She managed to get in touch with the daughter and she said " look I have managed to get hold of a daughter and what we then did was convey a message to her through her like ‘We really appreciate you; we hope you are good in Botswana.’

And what I also then did at the time was every time I had a platform like this I would always acknowledge her.

TN: That's beautiful, we need to do that.

So before actually you joined Jazz Invitational, you made your debut with the multi award-winning movie More Time. Am I right? Do I get my sequencing right? 1993?

PM: Yes, that's correct.

TN: How did you get involved with (More Time). I mean that was a celebrated, still a celebrated movie.

Talk to me about how you got involved, how they found; you did you audition or what?

PM: Yes. I had to audition but what happened was I went to a girl’s high school, so obviously being at girls high school you had a lot of talent shows and at one of them Albert Nyathi was the adjudicator.

So he came through and then I have no idea what it was I was doing, but he definitely spotted me.

He was part of a group called The All City dub poets. So they had music poetry and then they needed somebody to sing so he would come and rehearse at girls high school and he would ask me to be a part of that.

So I would sing and you know, we would do a whole lot of shows here and there.

I believe with Albert it was like I have got a girl, who I think can play this part so my first audition was at Harare Gardens.

Albert Nyathi had a show, but then he decided he's like before I go on you need to get on stage and just sing a song or two and I'm like ‘what are you doing to me; you want to kill me?’

Little did I know it was actually the first audition. He was like ‘just go and do something.’

I sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the Zulu laabi and they loved it and then after that I did the audition in front of the camera and that was it.