By Staff Reporter

A LONDON-based musical group calling itself Zimbabwe vigil band has become a popular and permanent feature outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in Britain, The ZimDiaspora has found out.

The group is made up of two human rights activists whose musical career is inspired by the fight against injustices and crime committed by President Mugabe’s government. They are Farai Marema and Dumi Tutani.

The group usually camp outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London’s Strand street where they sing and entertain fellow Zimbabweans including passersbys on various Zimbabwean music. They sing mostly on human rights abuses and political violence they experienced in their country.

They sing about the violent land reform programme to rape and torture under the watch of President Mugabe and are appealing to the international community to intervene and rescue Zimbabweans from the “brutal” jaws of ZANU-PF.

Farai Marema and Dumi Tutani

In an interview this week, Marema said: “We formed Zim Vigil band to raise awareness of the human rights abuses, political violence, break down of rule of law, corruption in Zimbabwe. The aim is to expose to the world how people of Zimbabwe are suffering under tyrant Robert Mugabe,” said Farai Marema, one of the band members.

Another band-member, Dumi Tutani said: “The Zim Vigil band are the voice of the Zimbabweans who are suffering under the Robert Mugabe regime but are unable to speak  or dare criticize the status quo. There is a lot of people who have been murdered and raped with impunity. We need justice for victims of Mugabe”.

Marema added that: “Zim vigil band is proud to be able to stand up against the regime on behalf of the Zimbabweans who are not able to do so. We though forming such a band will raise awareness of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. We are also campaigning for free and fair internationally monitored elections in Zimbabwe just to give the people a chance to democratically elect their own government without fear”.

The Zimbabwe Vigil Band: Tutani (right) and Marema outside the Zimbabwe House, London

“We the Zim vigil band will continue to sing and address these matters concerning the political situation in Zimbabwe and the rest of the African continent. We are privileged to be able to sing like this, because it only in the diaspora we are able to sing and address these matters, so we though we should take that opportunity and let the world know about our plight,” said Tutani.

He added that “Our music consists of different melodies and rhythms from around the world including Zimbabwean African rhythms and it falls under the category "world music" and is available for download at www.imusicafrica.com”.

The two musicians first met at the vigil protests outside the Zimbabwe embassy which usually take place every Saturday between 2pm to 6pm

For more information contact Dumi on 07960039775 or Farai on 07846924799