Limpopo songbird Ntombhi Ya Mutsonga thanks fans
Masingita Shibambu, more commonly known as Ntombhi Ya Mutsonga, won the award for Best Traditional Praise Singer at the South African Traditional Musiac Achievements (SATMA) Awards.
LIMPOPO – The multi-award winning praise singer from Matiyani village in Malamulele does everything to promote arts and cultural identity, and is the founder of NYM Arts Academy, an arts institution aimed to build and nurture creatives in rural areas. She thanked all the people who voted for her.
“I extend my gratitude to everyone who utilised their time just to support me. It is very important that people start to follow culture and I want to inspire young people so we don’t forget where we come from. This award means the world looks at me as a young praise
singer. People are really supportive.
The moment I learned that I was nominated for the award, I embraced it and encouraged people to vote for me.
I never waited for someone to push it, I did myself. The journey was challenging but interesting as well, as I learned I have family on social media platforms and people who are ready to support everything I do,” said Shibambu.
She told CV that her book, which is about Xitsonga culture, is complete.
“The book is about the promotion of an arts and culture identity. I am also going to give my people more content because that’s the best I can do. I grew up in a Christian-oriented family. This made me engage in Sunday school, from drama to music, poetry and storytelling. This is where I discovered my gift of poetry. In 2014, during my first time on stage in a competition that had more than 500 people in the audience, I experienced a deep intense feeling and the poetry gushed out in words that I never thought resided in me. I won and I never looked back since,” she said.
She always dreamed of rendering a poem for the president, but thought that she will only be able to do that when she is 30 years old. The opportunity came earlier than she thought.
“The universe listens to whatever you put your mind to and God will grant you the desire of your heart. I can’t begin to explain what an experience it was to recite poetry for the president, but it was a really good one because it led to more opportunities,” she explained.
