Proud of African rhythmAs many artists in Africa tend to go for western sound, on the other hand Barnabas Peter Manyaga, a gospel artist is trying to restore African rhythm. Manyaga was born in Tanzania, to Peter and Catherine Manyaga. The dad was a pastor. Manyaga came to Rwanda in 1999 and is now married to Denise Kabatesi. They have three children. He traveled to Rwanda unsure of where his life was going. However, he says God blessed him on many levels. The 40-year-old Manyaga commonly known as Barnabas is currently the president of Asaph Music International at Zion Temple church. Barnabas attributes his success to his parents who supported his music career as he grew up in singing in church choir. He started playing guitar at the age of five, and was inspired by his brother. He has two albums ‘Uri Uwera Gitare’ and “Utukuzwe”. Utukuzwe is composed of 10 singles with different African melody, five songs in Swahili and the rest in Kirundi and Kinyarwanda and was produced by Ilunga studio. “I’m very proud of African rhythm, it’s high time we as musicians restored our rhythm into the church although before it was always used in witch craft,” Barnabas said. “Western style should not be taken as the only one to be used in churches as worship and praise songs; we can glorify God in our own African style songs,” he says. He said the new album is composed of all East African community genres. Among them, Amani in Congolese style, Tunepata ushindi in Tanzanian style, Iyomana in Kirundi style and the rest in Rwandan and Kenyan. Barnabas said that he is working on the album’s videos those it’s already on the market. He said that his new album will be launched in December this year. Ends
