When I was a student overseas, Fungai Malianga and I formed a band known as The Stars of Liberty.
We performed regularly on Fridays at a jazz club in Oxford Street known as The100 Club. because it was situated at 100 Oxford Street.
On Saturdays, we would play at The Peacock in Islington. And I got lots of respect from the audiences especially from Zimbabweans in the diaspora—. I’d like to think this was due to my musicianship, but there was something else going on.
Stars of Liberty was the only Zimbabwean band based in London. We played regularly every Friday at 100 Oxford Street It became a meeting place for every Zimbabwean in the U.K.
Some came from as far afield as Scotland, and others from Wales.
We were bona fide by our place of origin, and obviously singing Shona songs to largely Zimbabwean audiences. And this gave us some distinction on the club scene overseas. Our patrons included the late David Karimanzira, Simba Makoni, Chenhamo Chimutengwende, the late Dr.Gibson Mandishona, Bright Matonga,, Dr. Herbert Murerwa, Dr. David Parirenyatwa, Job Hwabira and many more who later became prominent Zimbabweans.
I dug every minute of it.
So we got hired and hired again. Everybody smiled at us Whenever Zimbabweans had weddings or other functions in the U.K., we were the number one choice on their entertainment list. When they introduced the band, the announcer always made sure to say: “Please welcome on stage—all the way from Zimbabwe, Stars of Liberty !” We were from London though..
They clapped a little harder at that. Everybody loved Zimbabwe back then because of its struggle for independence., not just Thomas Mapfumo or Oliver Mtukudzi. Okay, maybe we were not the best African group in London (there was Osibisa, The Funkees and Jabula competing with us but we got a tiny taste of what being music stars and glamour was all about. We mingled with American music stars like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Eddie Grant, The Real Thing, Phil Fearon and others.
However, two of us were students as mentioned at the beginning. We decided to give the band a six months’ break while we concentrated on our studies. Big mistake!
But when we returned a few months later, the glamour had all stopped.We had deprived our audiences of their weekend outings. Julian Bahula with his group of exiled South Africans who called themselves Jabula had taken over the !00 Club. We had to start afresh. The 100 Club was no longer our residence. When we got there, the atmosphere had changed.
We didn’t get that tender loving care anymore. Nobody even bothered to mention our Zimbabwean origins anymore. They didn’t care a whit about it.
Something else had changed. Thomas Mapfumo had come to town and performing at the 100 club .His arrival from Zimbabwe had turned the tables on us.
And they had lots to talk about.
Zimbabwe’s music had come of age, and they didn’t envy us anymore. Poor Stars of Liberty were shut out in the cold.
And I knew who to blame. It was that damned Thomas Mapfumo’s first European tour which was co-ordinated by Peter Reich, a Germany national who had fallen in love with mbira music and who later married a Zimbabwean female mbira player, Stella Chiweshe.
On November 10, 1984 Mapfumo performed at a sold-out concert at Markthalle Theatre, Klosterwell in Hamburge, Germany. The next day, November 11, he held a double bill where he performed with Stella Chiweshe at – The Pavillion in Hannover, Germany. On November 12, he performed at– Sinkasten Auditorium, still in West Germany.
After three concerts in Germany, it was time to move on to other countries.
On November 15, he was at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, Holland. The audiences in Amsterdam were enthralled and bewildered by what they described as a new sound from Africa.
They had seen the likes of Fela Kuti, Hugh Masekela, Osibisa, Jabula and Manu Dibango before but they had never heard a sound similar to this one before. Thus Mapfumo became an instant hit.
After Holland, he left for Britain where concerts were hurriedly organised. It seemed the promoters in London had underestimated his popularity as on the November 18,
The London 100 Club in Oxford Street which takes a maximum of 500 people was sold out while hundreds more of Mapfumo’s fans jostled outside the venue trying to force their way in.
Mapfumo was overwhelmed by this reception and became very nervous. It took him a long time to go on the stage as he had not expected such a huge reception. The crowd kept asking him to play the song ‘Pidigori Waenda’ which was an instant hit.
The promoters, on realising how much revenue they had lost by staging his first London show at such a small venue, rushed to organise another concert at a much bigger venue.
On the November 25, 1984, The Forum Ballroom (later known as The Town and Country) in Kentish Town, London became the host to over 1000 music punters, mainly Zimbabweans who had now heard about Mapfumo’s presence in London.
Thomas was to repeat European tours over and over again as he gained popularity overseas over the years. .The media became very interested in Mapfumo’s music to the extent that he received great coverage from Capital Radio in London, BBC Network Africa, the Melody Maker, The Voice, New Musical Express and Black Echoes.
With this popularity, major Record companies in London began to take an interest in Mapfumo’s music and in no time at all, he had been signed by Earthworks, one of Britain’s major independent record labels. Earthworks with the assistance of Stern’s African Records became the major distributors of Mapfumo’s music throughout Europe and the United States of America.
Regionally, Thomas was also doing reasonably well as evidenced by his crowd-pulling concerts in Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania between 1985 and 1986.
Between 1990 and 2001, Thomas Mapfumo released five albums. Among them were the tracks Corruption, Mamvemve and Disaster which according to reports that circulated, did not go down well with the ruling Zanu (PF) government and the songs were consequently banned from airplay by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
The general rhetoric in these songs is the argument that today’s leaders have become corrupt, self-serving, and intolerant of dissention and as such have abandoned the interests of ordinary people.
Sure there were others to blame—he didn’t do it alone. But Mapfumo was the ringleader and role model. He showed what proud and confident Zimbabwean mbira music looked like—unapologetic and independent of Western-driven trends and expectations. And after Mapfumo, there was no going back. I would never enjoy that taste of British glamour again.
But I probably shouldn’t blame Mapfumo and (in his wake) these other strutting musicians. He was great—and, even more than great, he had created a formidable Chimurenga sound all his own, liberated from western influences. The upshot was that he had unleashed a whole new pro-African music vibe that soon spread all over the continent.
Even I loved listening to this stuff, despite the personal cost I paid. What else could I do?
Then in came the Bundu Boys. But that is a story for another time.
Feedback: frezindi@gmail.com.