“Call Us Artists, Not Female Artists”: Feli Nandi Sparks a Needed Conversation

A clip is shared on social media where Feli Nandi is addressing the media as part of the Press Conference that happened on 9 October ahead of the Kadoma Music Festival that was held this Saturday. In the clip, a journalist asks her what advice she has to give to other ‘female’ artists, and Feli Nandi kindly responds, ‘I’d really appreciate it if you just call us artists, without first saying female’.

Commentary on the dynamics and implications of labels on artists.

By Justice Tawedzegwa Mfiri

She further explains that prefixing an artist’s name with their gender, for females, makes it sound like you are doing them a favour for them to be on the big stage. And she is right. Now because Feli Nandi didn’t have the pleasure of time, I’ll do more of the explaining of what she means by that so that journalists can be guided on the dynamics and implications of labelling in the media and society. 

For a journalist, it feels like a qualifier to prefix the word artist with the gender of the artist, yet this only applies when journalists write about female artists. Why?

Precisely because the journalist is writing from a patriarchal standpoint. 

What the journalist in that moment, by doing so, doesn’t realise, is that they would have inadvertently evoked the memory of the history of prejudice and stereotypes against women. These stereotypes are aptly put across by Nisha Ts in her recently released song, Gender Iyi. One would hope that such messages in song reach the masses and change social behaviour and perceptions, but this recent case demonstrates how far off the target society still is, from understanding the dynamics and implications of labelling. 

Society remains stratified by gender, class, race, even location etcetera, and when you qualify an artist by any of these, you lose it on them. This is why Dambudzo Marechera would brew war if you called him ‘black writer’. Why qualify it? Because you think it’s surprising a black man can write? Because you’re surprised a woman is making it big in the music industry traditionally dominated by men?

Think about it.

We know from the writings of Dairai, Dziva et al, in Gender Conversations in Zimbabwe, that the art landscape is already flawed by what is called the ‘male gaze’ where (in reference to visual art), artworks are coded for a male dominated audience. That’s why most females go nude on videos, because the man behind the script is targeting to attract male audiences. The opposite truth is precisely the same reason you have not seen successful artists like Feli Nandi or Nisha Ts go nude on videos, because their craft is validated by substance and not mischievous ways of gaining relevance. That’s powerful art now.

But what does it take to be an artist and what qualifies one to be called to the big stage if criteria is to be applied? It’s a conversation that will ruffle feathers, but it has to be said. And at the end of the discussion, you might just realise that when the principles of art are applied, many of the ones generally considered artists, are still far from living up to the name. 

According to the words of the legendary Oliver Mtukudzi, a musician is someone who can sing and play an instrument. That alone, already relegates some artists because they have neither of these.

Zeroing in on Feli Nandi, you can help but admire the level of artistry involved in her work as a complete body. Here is an artist with melodic vocals of a nature that the globe could never have been ready for until she broke the shell into the limelight. Beyond the vocals, you can’t help but admire Feli Nandi when she takes to the stage, to beat the drum like the dead would rise from their graves, adorned in signature fabric that she herself designs, and delivering meaningful music that touches the soul. With a band that makes the melody of her voice rise to the level of nature’s beauty, and backing vocalists that deliver harmony, Feli Nandi becomes the apex of artistic delivery, both on stage and in the studio. You cannot ignore the stage presence that she commands – barefoot like Chioniso Maraire, almost as if to tap from the very ground that gave humanity its life. It’s undeniable that Feli Nandi delivers.

Now with that level of acumen, there’s no fit category but to simply see her for what she has accomplished, the music she has crafted to perfection, the ‘Vasikana Vemarokwe’ signature apparel she has popularised, and the love she has earned from the fans. She stands out as the solitary soldier who has not only preserved her culture in lyrics, shona rhythms and instrumentation, but a remarkable model of what the music should be. One woman embodies all these qualities and has not only created good music, but a whole culture around the artistry she stands for. That is Feli Nandi.

The society is expected to grow on its knowledge systems, and journalists are the mediators of such knowledge. It is time journalists write or convey their messages without disenfranchising another gender, another race, or class by inadvertently evoking stereotypical labels on their subjects. Let every single artist be seen for what they have delivered to the industry, and not who they are, or how they look, or where they come from.

Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. Make your choice.