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Changamire Leo’s gruelling experiences

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The eight-track album contains tracks like Zee Musoro a collaboration with Sulumani Chimbetu
YOUNG Leo Chinyere’s early life is one he would easily want to forget.Just as he was still adjusting to the temperature outside his mother’s womb and, of course learning the ropes on suckling from the breast, she was taken away from earth two weeks into the joys of motherhood.

REPORT BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA

Heart-rending as it may be, baby Leo was to lose his father at four and was left in the care of his uncle.

Leo Chinyere
Leo Chinyere

Unlike many typical stories, his is not one where he regrets the life he lived under the guardianship of his uncle.

Yet the experiences of most orphans whose dreams and life keep ricocheting and never really seeming to make sense are some of the stories that he can flawlessly tell demanding immense attention.

It is not common to come across an artiste you barely ask a question in an interview.

It is a rare breed, the like of Oliver Mtukudzi, Alick Macheso and Cindy Munyavi among a handful of others who are exquisitely eloquent in driving their story home.

Oliver Mtukudzi
Oliver Mtukudzi: This is the class that Changamire Leo  belongs to

This is the class that Changamire Leo, as the young artiste prefers to be called, belongs to.

According to Changamire Leo, the drive to be an artiste has always been in him as he has either way ended up in arts circles.

He recalls years back when his “father” (uncle) would even get angry at him when he presented drawings that he felt did justice to his appearance.

“I felt I always did my best, but he was not amused,” he said with a chuckle.

“At school I was in the debate team winning prestigious accolades and was the first president for the Justice for Children Trust. I also got a scholarship to go and study in Switzerland although I do not really like talking about it now due to the gruesome experience that I suffered after it failed.

“I also co-wrote a full length film with my friend while were in ‘A’ Level, but it never really worked out as we were advised by experts that it was too expensive to produce. We were advised to work on a short film which we did, but that is when another disappointment came as the people from the Zimbabwe International Film Festival who advised us literally tried to kill our dream as it never worked.”

Still trying to find solace, the young arts enthusiast finished his “A” Level after which he faced another challenge with family as he tried to convince them to let him follow his heart.

He managed to enrol at the Harare Polytechnic instead of the family’s preferred university where he studied Applied Art and Design.

But as fate would have it, he was to fail in that regard as he failed to secure the $500 one-off payment that was required for his programme.

“My other uncle offered to pay in instalments of $100 per month and I could only resume studies after five months,” he said.

“As I was jobless I approached Simba Chakare who was into shipping and he introduced me to another friend of his Tinashe who worked at Burco.

“I managed to get a job two months later, but again got disappointed when I was told at Harare Poly that my programme could not be done part time.”

But back at school he remembers having tried out dancehall and realises that music is another form of art that he can pursue to rescue himself from the confines of his shipping office.

Having been inspired by one of the lectures at College, Changamire Leo then decided to localise his music instead of pursuing what he regards as foreign phenomena.

“I remember one of the lectures where we learnt that it was because of a certain artiste’s portrayal of the black race that everything black is now thought to be bad. So seeing that dancehall and urban grooves have got their roots in the so-called white societies I decided to do another music form that has its roots in Africa,” he said.

“That is how I became a jazz artiste.”

But even that was not as rosy.

“I kept asking my producer Mono Mkundu whether we would succeed because I could not see myself making it,” he said.

Changamire Leo is due to launch his debut album Hwehuhwe on September 30 at Book Café.

The eight-track album contains tracks like Zee Musoro a collaboration with Sulumani Chimbetu, Jamiah/Chisikwa Chitsva (a tribute to his daughter), Nhongwa, Peaceful Heart, Nhangemutange, Mhemberero, Ilangalihle and Hwehuhwe, the title track.

Leo Chinyere did a duet with Sulumani Chimbetu
Leo Chinyere did a duet with Sulumani Chimbetu

The album contains a different feel from the now common Afro jazz fusions on the market and is likely to thrust the young musician into limelight.

Changamire Leo was born on June 13 1988 in Harare and attended Kudzanayi Primary and Highfield High 1 schools.

He now runs a small shipping business together with a friend with the help of his wife Patience Vunganai.

He also is in the poultry business at his house in Southlea Park and rural home in Domboshava.

Listen to Leo Chinyere’s duet with Sulumani Chimbetu