Entertainment / Music
Not all men are bad, says gospel artiste
13 Sep 2020 at 07:08hrs | Views
BULAWAYO budding contemporary gospel musician and leader of the Preachers of the Word Gospel group Nobesuthu Shyleen Mkandla is disturbed by the continued prejudice against women in all spheres of life.
Mkandla, who started her music career in 2018, is finding the arts terrain getting tough largely, according to her, because of negative perceptions and chauvinistic attitudes held by some male counterparts towards females.
So many things happen in the music industry many a times unprecedented undue pressure to coerce female artistes to succumb to men's insatiable selfish suggestive desires which puts female's artistic abilities into oblivion.
Speaking to Standard Style, Mkandla, however, said people should not place wholesale blame on all men.
"Not all men are bad towards female artistes, but surprisingly in this music industry very few if ever are there female artistes who do not have a sorry story to tell with regard to men's unwarranted advances," she said.
"Something really needs to be done to have a change of mindset from these men of viewing females as sex objects."
Mkandla, who arrived on the gospel landscape with her debut eight-track album titled Ungumhlengi, maintains that sheer determination has made her succeed in brushing off these tendencies by some male counterparts.
"Being principled and having a clear vision of what I want in my life has brought me this far hence my call to fellow female artistes to stand up for what they are and not succumb to some men's selfish and evil desires which thwarts our Godgiven gifts," she said.
Just like many artistes across the music industry, she has her fair share of problems.
"Lack of instruments and space for practice, discouragement from people and demanding obligations of housewife duties are some the problems which are equally counterproductive to our efforts," said Mkandla.
She says she has worked with other successful artistes who have helped her to develop a thick skin in the face of these challenges.
She said: "I have worked with Neshvillie Nyika as my producer, Samuel Moyo who featured on my track number two [Akathengwa ngeGolide], Cornelius Ncube and Ntethelelo Ndlovu featuring as backing vocalists on my first project. Currently, I am working with the likes of Agenda Maphosa, Gazelimnyama, Given Sibbs and Ntethelelo Ndlovu."
The Covid-19 pandemic has also derailed her plans to drop her second album this year on which she also worked with several artistes.
"Due to Covid-19 many dreams have been affected, no live shows and I was supposed to drop my album titled Hlalethembeni which as a result of the pandemic I am now looking forward to drop it in 2021," she said.
Mkandla, who started her music career in 2018, is finding the arts terrain getting tough largely, according to her, because of negative perceptions and chauvinistic attitudes held by some male counterparts towards females.
So many things happen in the music industry many a times unprecedented undue pressure to coerce female artistes to succumb to men's insatiable selfish suggestive desires which puts female's artistic abilities into oblivion.
Speaking to Standard Style, Mkandla, however, said people should not place wholesale blame on all men.
"Not all men are bad towards female artistes, but surprisingly in this music industry very few if ever are there female artistes who do not have a sorry story to tell with regard to men's unwarranted advances," she said.
"Something really needs to be done to have a change of mindset from these men of viewing females as sex objects."
Mkandla, who arrived on the gospel landscape with her debut eight-track album titled Ungumhlengi, maintains that sheer determination has made her succeed in brushing off these tendencies by some male counterparts.
"Being principled and having a clear vision of what I want in my life has brought me this far hence my call to fellow female artistes to stand up for what they are and not succumb to some men's selfish and evil desires which thwarts our Godgiven gifts," she said.
Just like many artistes across the music industry, she has her fair share of problems.
"Lack of instruments and space for practice, discouragement from people and demanding obligations of housewife duties are some the problems which are equally counterproductive to our efforts," said Mkandla.
She says she has worked with other successful artistes who have helped her to develop a thick skin in the face of these challenges.
She said: "I have worked with Neshvillie Nyika as my producer, Samuel Moyo who featured on my track number two [Akathengwa ngeGolide], Cornelius Ncube and Ntethelelo Ndlovu featuring as backing vocalists on my first project. Currently, I am working with the likes of Agenda Maphosa, Gazelimnyama, Given Sibbs and Ntethelelo Ndlovu."
The Covid-19 pandemic has also derailed her plans to drop her second album this year on which she also worked with several artistes.
"Due to Covid-19 many dreams have been affected, no live shows and I was supposed to drop my album titled Hlalethembeni which as a result of the pandemic I am now looking forward to drop it in 2021," she said.
Source - the standard
