You win some; you lose some – as the expression goes. In the past year Busara has experienced several set-backs and made several leaps forwards. Shortly after the last festival we reluctantly said farewell to Kwame, he’s been fundamental in making Sauti as you know it today, but it was time to write new chapters in his life’s story. In a small organisation losing a key member of staff can be quite a blow. Soon we recruited festival crew member Stellah to the permanent staff team. Later in the year we also recruited Mjusi another willing, friendly face. It wasn’t long before they were taking on responsibilities and sharing the load.

Another major set-back was losing our busaramusic.com domain name for THREE weeks. It’s funny to think we only registered it two years ago – but losing it was disastrous. Thankfully, it’s back with us now and lessons have been learnt. We helped 19 members of Maulidi ya Homu process passports and get to their gig in Paris, and we accompanied Bi Kidude to a cracking gig in Maputo for the Dockanema Film Festival. In May, Busara was on the jury for the Zanzibar “open mic” competition and then we sponsored the two winners – Wandima Tradition (Ngoma) and Huzaman (pictured) – to go to the B- Connected Festival in Dar, showcasing some of the best in young and upcoming musical talents.