EXCITEMENT has reached fever-pitch among the starved Chimurenga music fans in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries such as South Africa on the backdrop of the arrival in Zimbabwe on Thursday of Chimurenga music guru, Thomas Mukanya Mapfumo, for his much-awaited homecoming show slated for April 28 at Glamis Stadium.
BY ALBERT MASAKA
This comes after a 14-year absence from the local musical scene.
While Mapfumo’s music has remained dominant locally, receiving its fair share of airplay on radio and in night clubs as well among kombi and long distance bus drivers, it is the live shows that his local fans have been starved of.
A cross-section of Zimbabweans told NewsDay Life & Style that they were excited to get the chance to witness the legend perform — also known as the Lion of Zimbabwe — whose stranglehold on the local music has defied his absence while in exile in the United States during the autocratic rule of President Robert Mugabe.
Hard-hitting messages, which speak truth to power on the songs Corruption, Mamvemve and many others found him with few friends in Mugabe’s regime.
However, to prominent Zimbabwe commodity broker, Bothwell Mahlengu, who was one of the stars in Mapfumo’s football team, Sporting Lions, that had a stint in the country’s premier league, Mukanya’s homecoming show means more to him than the political messages in his songs.
“I think it was long overdue. Mapfumo is the Pele of our music and he should be resident here, so that he can play a mentoring role to aspiring musicians. Imagine how many years we have been denied the best of Zimbabwe music. Welcome home Mukanya,” Mahlengu said.
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A loyal Mapfumo fan, Simbisai Makombe, from Glen Norah, said the musician should continue singing messages that reflect the true political situation in Zimbabwe.
“Mapfumo has been vindicated, he should not tire of singing truth to power. Never again in Zimbabwe should we have a government that stifles its artistes from saying the truth,” Makombe said.
Across the border in Mzansi, the Mapfumo mania is high, according to Zimbabwean businessman and musician, Alexander Matare.,
Matare says the Beitbridge border post is going to be busy soon, with many Zimbabweans based in South Africa coming home for a taste of the Mukanya magic when he stages his long-awaited show on home soil.
“We are elated that mudhara has decided to give his fans at home (a chance to see him live on stage again). I have been following his music since childhood and I am happy that he has decided to come home,” Matare said.
Mbare resident, Tare Josamu, said Mapfumo was one of the icons that rose from Mbare, together with his uncle, the late Afro-jazz legend, Elisha Josamu, and those in the populous suburb are keen to see their idol performing.
Former Young Warriors starlet and Sporting Lions player, Prosper Kadewere, said to him Mapfumo was like a father, who pulled him out of the streets of Highfield to play soccer in the top flight league.
“I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Besides soccer, mudhara was like a father to me. He brought me from the streets of Highfield and I ended up playing football at the highest level in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The former footballers are eager to see their hero again and cherish the opportunity to watch him live on stage belting out songs that have earned him local and international reverence.
Kadewere added that after he got injured, his father Onias encouraged him to do get professional training as a coach and Mukanya financed the courses.
Former Sporting Lions captain, Passmore Mukwena, urged the music legend to consider investing in football again to change the lives of disadvantaged ghetto youth who have turned to drugs in the face of the high employment rate.
