Zimbabwe's Edith Weutonga

Zimbabwe's Edith Weutonga performs at the  2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

Remember her?  She made a guest appearance with Publish the Quest and the Emerald 7.

Check out her sound:

Zimbabwe hip hop artists Stunner and Ba Shupi joined her on stage.

Listen for some Zimbabwe hip hop:

In case you were curious, that's the Zimbabwe flag he's rocking out.

Where's Waldo---Publish the Quest style!

Edith Weutonga performs with her seven piece band, Utonga.

For more information on Edith Weutonga.

For more information on HIFA.

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Cape Verde's Ary Morais

Norway-based Cape Verde's Ary Morais performs at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

Check out his sound, makes you want to be on an island's beach:

How can you not love that this guy is able to rock out a mullet?

Remember Blessing?  The most adorable drummer in the history of ever?

He also rocked out with Maia von Lekow.

A slower song by Ary Morais:

This guy could really play.

Check him out here -- Makes me miss all the Cape Verde music that drifted through Dakar:

Possibly performing barefoot is a Cape Verde tradition?

For more information on Ary Morais.

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Shout Out to Senegal: Ismaël Lô!

Senegal's Ismaël Lô performs during the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

He was soooo good; I can't believe I never saw him while living in Senegal!

To be honest: it made me really happy to hear some Senegalese music (it had been too long!):

Of all the concerts I've been to in my life, I've always seen cameras and phones held up to take photos and record.  

The Ipad was a first for me at HIFA...

Ismaël Lô was awesome.

In honor of my dear friend MH, who introduced me to this song after a moment of shock that I had never heard it:

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Publish the Quest

Seattle, Washington, United States's Publish the Quest performs at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

This guy was awesome.  We stopped counting the amount of instruments he played during the show somewhere around four or five.

Check out how they sound:

The keyboardist also played in the horn section, in case you remember the horns' appearance with Cape Verde's Maria de Barros.

This video is a little blurry, but it gives you a better feel for their horns' sound 

(which in case you couldn't tell, I love bands who can rock a horns section....!):

Zimbabwe's Edith Weutonga and the Emerald 7 joined Publish the Quest on stage.  It was awesome.  Check out how they sound:

For more information on Publish the Quest.

For more information on Edith Weutonga.

For more information on HIFA.

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Tumi & the Volume

Tumi and the Volume perform at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA)

in Harare Gardens, Harare, Zimbabwe.

The band comes from South Africa.

Check out one of their songs (and how Harare goes crazy at the shout out to Zimbabwe):

This guy announced every main stage concert.  Apparently he's been doing it forever. I kind of just wanted to find out how much that hat weighed...

And since I am obsessed with Christmas lights, I couldn't help but take this photo of one of the HIFA tents.

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Mokoomba & Gregor Salto Rock Out!

Mokoomba performs at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Harare Gardens, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Check out their sound:

Mokoomba is a Zimbabwe band which plays traditional Tonga music.

This video is a little shakey at first but I liked this song much better than the one from the first video:

Then Dutch DJ Gregor Salto joined them on stage!!

Check out their song Messe Messe:

Then Mokoomba exited and Gregor Salto spun.

In case you were curious how a Dutch DJ spins, take a listen.

In case you were curious how a Dutch DJ makes Adele techno, definitely listen:

For more information on Mokoomba.

For more information on Gregor Salto.

For more information on HIFA.

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The Amazing Maria de Barros

The amazing Maria de Barros.

The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

The singer, who comes from Cape Verde, was awesome!  Lucky to see her twice at HIFA.

Her Godmother is the Cape Verdean legend, Cesária Évora, who was known as the Barefoot Diva.

Her music had a wonderful island feel to it, making me miss the coast of Senegal:

Some of Seattle, Washington, U.S.'s Publish the Quest joined her on stage.

Check out how awesome they sound together:

The horns added a fantastic Latin feel to the music.

For more information on Maria de Barros.

I officially heart HIFA.

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So Zazu, a Kudu, a Mongoose, and an Eland Walk into a Bar...

The entrance to the Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe: warnings against rhino poaching.

The rhino poaching is something the conservancy is actively working against as the rhino numbers in Zimbabwe continue to fall.

I visited during the end of the rainy season, where the dry season has begun to make an appearance in the dry river beds.

We may have referred to this red-billed hornbill as "Zazu" for our entire visit to Save Valley....

A female kudu.

Confession: prior to the moment of seeing this impressive male eland, I had no idea that elands existed.

They are awesome.  Possibly a new favorite animal (I lie: elephants still win).

Why, hello, Mama and Baby giraffe!

Another confession: I really had no idea that this is what a mongoose looks like...

Et voila!  A young male kudu.

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