REVEREND Togarepi Tapera Chivaviro made a name for himself singing while he was a member of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (Wesley).
The husky-voiced Chivaviro left the country in 2006 and settled in South Africa where he later founded his own church. He boasts a number of albums including Peace, Hope and Love (1999), Power (2000), Komborerai Africa (2002), Kuna Mwari Zvitaure — Hymnal Praise Volume 1 (2005), The Return (2009), Nguva Yakanakisa — Hymnal Praise Volume 2 (2010), To God Be The Glory – Hymnal Praise Volume 3 (2011), Ishe Taungana – Hymnal Worship Volume 4 (2013) and Ebenezer — Tiri Munyasha (2014). Nguva Yakanakisisa and Ishe Taungana were also recorded on DVD while Ebenezer is set to be launched in Harare early next month.
NewsDay reporter Jairos Saunyama (ND) spoke at length with the 40-year-old preacher from his base in Germston, Johannesburg, South Africa, about his music ministry. Here are the excerpts.
ND: Why did you leave the traditional Methodist Church?
TC: I just resurrected aspects of the Wesleyan tradition which I thought were not being emphasised, so the result was the Assemblies of Pentecostal Methodists (APM), which God allowed us to lead at the moment. We still believe it was founded by John Wesley.
ND: Does this mean you are now Pentecostal?
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TC: True. In fact, we have been Pentecostal since time immemorial. Unfortunately, we were being Pentecostal in a non-Pentecostal environment.
ND: Why and when did you leave Zimbabwe?
TC: I left Zimbabwe in December 2006 to pursue my PhD studies here in South Africa.
ND: You gained popularity singing Methodist hymns. Now that you left the Methodist Church, will this not affect your fan base?
TC: We are still Methodists by the way. I’m grateful to the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe which groomed me right from childhood and imparted upon me the need to appreciate the value of hymns. That’s my mother church and I will forever cherish their upbringing. There are various forms of Methodism and the hymns we sing mainly in these churches were composed mostly by Charles Wesley during the rise of Methodism. Fans are mostly inspired by what you sing and how you present it, it’s not really denominational. So our fans have always been across the denominational divide.
ND: Your last DVD album was done in a number of countries in the Middle East and Europe, which makes it expensive. Who sponsored you?
TC: It was expensive, yes, but affordable to us mainly because we used our own equipment which we have been putting together for a while now. We are often invited to minister in various countries so we took those travelling opportunities to carry our cameras and shoot videos for the songs. This made it a bit easier for us to do so in about eight different countries. We had the zeal and passion to try and do something no one has done before in Zimbabwe, just a goal to set new targets for ourselves, breaking new ground.
ND: Recently you held your debut live show in the United Kindom. How was the response?
TC: We were there for two weeks and that was an awesome time for us. The way the concerts were organised by Royal Destiny, the artistes who came to support, the numbers who came to attend, it was just God’s grace. And as a result, they invited us to come back end of September. The reports coming from our maiden UK tour have resulted in us getting more invitations. As we speak, we are finalising a United States ministration and music tour for the end of August and still battling to find space for an Australian one later this year. This means our calendar is packed.
ND: Is music not affecting your work as a church leader?
TC: Actually it’s enhancing it. We used to sing to perform, but now we sing to minister. Therefore, music is part of that ministry. You will notice we don’t do shows now, we just partake in revivals, crusades and so on and that’s where you will find us singing. Here and there we hold a couple of concerts for specific purposes.