---

---

Published by the government of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: Zima's Decision Ill-Advised

Wonder Guchu

8 October 2008

---

opinion

Harare — ORGANISERS of the Zimbabwe Music Awards have again sought to steer discussion on the forthcoming awards over categorisation and not on quality and the general developments in the music industry by scrapping Chimurenga and replacing it with a category called Socially Conscious Lyrics.

While it's a good gesture to move the awards ceremony, set for October 29, from Harare to Bulawayo, introducing another category that does not make any difference is not.

It is commendable that at last Zima organisers have realised that the Chimurenga category was an alleyway that would in the end come to a dead end.

This is so because Chimurenga is and has been Thomas Mapfumo's music and no other artiste can lay claim to it.

Mapfumo did not just come up with the name for the sake of a name, but he considered the role his music played in the struggle against the Rhodesian regime and the successful experiment he did with both traditional and modern instruments.

But it should not be forgotten that what Mapfumo called Chimurenga is simply and purely contemporary traditional because he fuses guitars and mbiras and uses songs taken from the public domain.

Mapfumo started off as a rock and roller with the Springfields in the 1960s when he performed traditional songs such as Chemutengure, Shungu Dzinondibaya and Kunaka Wakanaka using guitars.

His total transformation came with the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band when he released songs in Shona and Chewa.

Some of the songs are Tarambana, Mary, Shumba Inobva Mugomo, Amalume, Chandiparapata, Muwuyi Amuka, Ngoma Yarira and Murembo.

Mapfumo's music during those days, just like any other African beat, was called Afro-rock and until teaming up with the late Jonah Sithole and Picket Chiyangwa as Acid Band around 1978, his music was still called Afro-rock.

His debut album Hokoyo was released on an Afro-rock tip but subsequent songs that brought him anguish at the hands of the Smith regime took on an apparent defiant mode.

Harassment and then brief detention put Mapfumo in the pantheon of freedom fighters as a voice for the voiceless, hence the change of name from Afro-rock to Chimurenga.

Chimurenga music is, therefore, just a brand of contemporary traditional music attributable to Mapfumo and not to Pio Farai Macheka, the late Robbie Chagumuka or Brian Mteki.

This is so because if one listens to Mapfumo's music, they get defiant lyrics and a dominant mbira beat, which one does not get in Macheka, Chagumuka or Mteki's music.

Mapfumo's songs can best be described as socially conscious since they deal with people's hopes, struggles, successes, failures and anger as well as celebrate life in general.

A look at Mapfumo's releases over the years since 1973 clearly shows the nature of this struggle from the days of the liberation war through independence when he released songs that reflected the euphoria of the period.

The same trend continued in the mid 80s and early 90s, when Mapfumo dealt with various issues gripping a young nation, hitting hard at corruption, greed (Varombo Kuvarombo 1988 released as Corruption 1989) and on Government's slow pace at distributing land to the masses (Hondo 1992), HIV and Aids.

Even in the prevailing political polarisation, Mapfumo's lyrics still find purchase among neutrals as socially conscious lyrics.

Now one wonders what socially conscious lyrics Zima organisers are looking for?

Which musician will be placed in the new category and what measures will be used in judging their material?

These questions pop up because, in actual fact, much of Zimbabwean music can safely fit into the Socially Conscious Lyrics category.

How else does one describe Hosiah Chipanga, Pastor Charles Charamba, Shingisai Siluma or even Maskiri's music?

Maskiri, yes, because when he sings about a man who covets his female cousin, that's social consciousness!

He is saying there are men like that.

Some would suggest that the category should cater for Leonard Zhakata because his music is mostly about the problem workers in particular and people in general face.

But again Zhakata is a sungura musician if his background is to be taken into account.

Like many other musicians today who are inspired by Alick Macheso and Tongai Moyo, Zhakata looked up to the late Chimbetu brothers -- Simon and Naison -- who also had their roots deep in sungura.

The Sungura Boys at one time backed the Chimbetus after the brothers' stint with the OK Success at Mushandirapamwe Hotel in Highfield.

It is for this reason that Dendera music, as the Chimbetus call it, does not have the usual sungura traits because it borrowed from both East and Central African rhumba as well as the local brand of rhumba -- sungura.

In essence, Dendera is just a brand of sungura so is Zhakata's Zora music and Chipanga's nameless music.

If one stretches their mind further, the late Leonard Dembo comes into focus and again the question pops up -- where does his music lie?

Is it sungura, rhumba or now this socially conscious category?

Again the sungura angle comes into play considering Dembo's origins, his associates, inspirations and lyrics.

But with Dembo, one does not get the kind of beat the late John Chibadura and Sungura Boys played but the heavy bassline which characterises sungura is evident in most of his music.

His debut single Venenzia is proof of this although in later years, Dembo's music became lighter on the bassline, but heavier on rhythm and lead.

While there is need to categorise music, awards organisers seem to spend so much time on categories unlike in the 70s when music was Afro-pop, Afro-rock or Afro-jazz.

Likewise, Zimbabwean music today is sungura, contemporary traditional, gospel, urban grooves, Afro-jazz, mbira, choral and mass choral.

Organisers will find it easy if they trace the origins of each music genre to avoid splitting hairs.

Read comments. Write your own.

---