By Sydney Mukwenje

IN 1999 I wrote an article, which was published in The Herald in which I expressed my own opinion regarding Thomas Mapfumo’s calling himself the pioneer of Chimurenga Music or ‘The Chimurenga King’.
I expressed some reservations regarding that assertion because such self entitlement was against the actual origin, meaning, significance and spirit of Chimurenga.
Simply put, the Chimurengas were the three liberation wars against the white settler regime in which the first one was fought by our forefathers using bows, arrows, ox hide shields, spears, assegais, herbal poison and axes, the second one by our gallant brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers dead or alive using modern arms and ammunition and the third being the current economic one.
It was during those times that songs to uplift the spirits of those fighting in those wars were sung hence the name Chimurenga Music.
On the day my article was published, Eric Knight the then Radio 2 DJ now turned politician, obviously incensed by my views blasted me over the radio for having said Mapfumo was not supposed to call himself a Chimurenga Music pioneer.
I now believe he took it politically because this was just after the formation of MDC-T and the coincidence was just too much.
It was during the just recently harmonised elections when he unsuccessfully ran for a legislative seat in Mbare that my suspicion was vindicated.
I did not or am not doing so because Mapfumo clearly showed people which side of the political divide he is because he was openly criticising ZANU PF, but I am or was just being objective.
I still stand by my word that Mapfumo’s music is neither Chimurenga nor is he a pioneer of this genre if we are to consider the actual meaning and significance of Chimurenga.
If Mapfumo’s or Mukanya,s (as he is popularly known) music does not reflect the characteristics of military resistance against some political and economic injustices that we are suffering from at the hands of our former colonisers like what our forefathers did, then his songs do not deserve the title Chimurenga.
He should consider calling his music Chidzimba or Shangara or Jiti.
Songs which go like “… mwana uye ndimomuda, makumbo ake ndinoada or “…..vakomana musanditorere Madhebhura…” cannot be labelled Chimurenga music, but just ordinary Jiti songs.
He and other musicians like Zexie Manatsa in “Hangaiwa idzi mukadziona-a-a musadzibaye” used to sing Chimurenga music before and immediately after independence, but he abandoned it completely for another type, which he is now calling Chimurenga when in actual fact it is not.
A true Chimurenga fighter or warrior does not sing songs that give the enemy the upper hand in our struggle against imperialism like: “vakomana mumba muno maita disaster, vakomana mumba medu muno maita corruption, matsotsi here hererere-e-e matsotsi or…. patakabva kuhondo takanyeperwa”- condemning the same Chimurenga that he purported to support when the same warriors participating in that struggle (hondo yeminda) needed inspirational songs to boost their morale.
How then can he be called ‘Gandanga’ or Chimurenga guru when he was denouncing some of his magandanga fighting this time in an economic war?
A true Chimurenga or liberation war fighter in true Zimbabwean spirit and terms does not denounce the same Chimurenga that he is participating in because a few trusted individuals have sold out.
He does not abandon the struggle and start selling out, but is consistent, persistent and unwavering in his quest to attain political and economic justice.
I am saying selling out because of some utterances that he made while in America like, “I ran away from persecution by the Zimbabwean government.”
The Shona during the 1893 – 1897 uprising did not wage Chimurenga against their kith and kin, the Ndebele, but against the Pioneer Column, likewise the Ndebele.
So if he thinks singing such songs against your kith and kin and using mbira and a hoarse guttural voice, is called Chimurenga then he is very mistaken.
If Mapfumo is a true revolutionary, I challenge him to denounce these illegal sanctions imposed against our country while he is there in America where he has proclaimed himself ‘Big in America’.
Mapfumo is now a world class musician whose voice can be taken heed of.
If he tells America and Britain to spare our ‘poor’ country against this economic onslaught during one of concerts, I hope they might listen to him.