Renowned for his partnership with brother Josephat as Pengaudzoke, Daiton Somanje died on Tuesday after a long illness.
Daiton, in the 1990s made waves with his brother Josephat fronting Pengaudzoke musical band and making hit songs like Seiko Kuonda and Zvibate Pamhaka and later Tsaona before splitting, apparently out of greed and starting solo careers that unfortunately proved unsuccessful.
The two, who, during their period of acrimony made a battery of accusations against each other, among them witchcraft, in 2010, attempted to rejoin each other but it could have been too little too late as the reunion did not work as they apparently had lost their fan base.
Their strength together was obviously the complementing vocals that became a trademark of Pengaudzoke and of course the steady sungura beat that was recognised for its rather rugged bass guitar and chants like handeeee, Secondary, Engineer! among many other things they jointly introduced into their songs.
The group was a force to reckon with during Zimbabwe’s golden age of sungura, the 1990s, when they toured growth points, rural and farm business centres to play their danceable music, which, despite not creating serious competition against sungura’s big forces of the day like Leonard Demobo, Leonard Zhatakata, Simon Chimbetu, still made an impact alongside Khiama Boys, Ngwenya Brothers, Zimbabwe Cha Cha Cha Kings, Aaron Chinamira Chakanyuka and Dendende Express among others.
Despite having lost his mojo due to the split, Daiton remained one of yesteryear’s musicians in Zimbabwe, earning a considerable amount of respect as many still listened to the old songs the Pengaudzoke duo made during their heydays.
RIP Daiton Engineer, Secondary!
Tapiwa Zivira, Online Reporter.
