Berita

On her 2013 debut album, Conquering Spirit, Berita presented herself as a fighter for love, armed with an acoustic guitar and a powerful voice. Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 1991, Berita sang in the church choir as a youngster before buying herself a guitar when she finished school at 18. While studying at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, she learned the IsiXhosa language and joined the long lineage of Xhosa Afro-soul singers, some of whose influence one can pick up in her music, such as Zahara, Simphiwe Dana, Siphokazi and Camagwini. On Conquering Spirit, she sang sensitively about the experience of romance, from being smitten to the inevitable lows of relationships. Coupled with an optimistic outlook on life, womanhood and being African, the singer’s debut album and the others that followed are comforting listens anchored by her lush vocals.