Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Richmore Tera
14 March 2009
analysis
Harare — SUNGURA musician Cephas Mashakada has warned that a number of small musical groups might collapse following the dollarisation of the economy.
Mashakada includes himself in the group of musicians who are struggling to make ends meet in the wake of dollarisation, which has resulted in virtual phasing out of the local currency.
The problem for Mashakada and his colleagues is that their music appeals largely to the rural and farming community who would attend live shows in numbers.
However, these communities have been hit hard by dollarisation and are likely to take time before adapting to the changes and earning enough foreign currency to afford attending musical shows.
With their fans battling to find enough foreign currency to buy food, Mashakada and his colleagues have been deprived of their "ready" source of income.
As a result they have scaled down or even suspended shows and their pockets are virtually empty and they cannot see light at the end of the tunnel.
Mashakada, who insists that he is still going strong amid beliefs that he is now past his prime, believes the solution lies in a return to the Zim dollar.
"We have deliberately scaled down on live shows because of dollarisation.
"Scaling down on shows does not mean that one is now a spent force. We are now forced to play at least twice a week because people are not accepting any admission fee that exceeds US$1.
"This has made it tough for our band to survive because few people come to our shows. In the remote areas where we mostly hold our shows, few of the people are paid in forex and how can one expect us to get money?
"On top of that we would have incurred a lot of expenses such as transport, bookings, posters, fuel and food. This is not only affecting the Muddy Face but most bands.
"We are down, we are not making money.
"Since people are not getting enough money (foreign currency) we are expecting that we start using our own currency, probably things would normalise.
"In the past, people afford to throng to our shows because the money was easily accessible since everyone was using the same (zim dollar) money," explained Mashakada.
The veteran musician turned 49 on February 28 but he has ruled out early retirement from music.
There are those who believe that Mashakada has never really been a "big" musician but one who was fortunate to benefit from the galas that were held consistently over the last four years and beamed live on television.
With the galas seemingly on their way out, Mashakada needed to come up with fresh ideas to stay relevant in the music community, this according to his critics.
However, the dreadlocked Chitungwiza-based musician says he has instead dedicated the rest of his years to "singing no other topic except praise songs for the miracles that the good Lord has worked in my life," than waste his time explaining whether he was popular or not.
He steers his discussion to his belief that it was because of God's mercy that he conquered his worst enemy - the diabetes that saw the limb of his right leg being amputated in 2006.
"I believe I have achieved what I sought to achieve in life through my music, and now my remaining mission is to praise God through music for taking me through thick and thin in life.
"As you know, I fell sick but now my diabetes is now totally under control although I still take some tablets here and there," he says.
Mashakada also said he has since started grooming some members of his band to "bear the torch" in the event that he passed on.
"My wish is for people to regard the Muddy Face as a big team such as Dynamos or Highlanders. Legends come and go but the team moves on even after they have left.
"Muddy Face should keep on holding its own. Even if after I've left, they should go on. But now that I am still into music, I am in the process of grooming my replacements," he says, singling out a number of band members whom he could only identify
with their first names and nicknames, but could not remember their nicknames.
It seems Mashakada's memory is failing him, probably because of age, as he cannot remember most of the titles of his albums and band members.
He relies on his wife of 27 years, Eunice, who is always at his behest and call whenever an issue that requires clarification arises.
Mashakada recently worked on a compilation album titled "Artistes for Christ Gospel One" that he recorded with various upcoming artistes.
These include Nyaradzo Mashayamombe, Fiona Chinembiri, Tracy Pfumai, Onias Sande, Rudo Ngoshi, Tauya Murisa, and Olinda Marowa.
"The idea for this album came from the people at Gramma. I featured on the album as a guest artiste and its aim was to bring them to the level where we have reached.
"I particularly loved working with Nyaradzo (Mashayamombe), she is a very talented and dedicated young musician and she is gifted with a very lovely voice that can take her places.
"It is my first time to do a duet of this nature (on the song Vasikana Vane Gumi that is causing a stir on the local airwaves). She liked my beat and adopted it well as if she was a member of our band.
"I've got many songs that I might offer her and probably record a duet album with her, but first of all I want to judge how people are receiving the song," said Mashakada.
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