By Dr Michelina Andreucci

RELIVING and re-booting the memory of Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music during the recent events in the country, jolted the memories of many and brought to the fore an almost forgotten musical legacy.
Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music reminds us of the fundamental values of the liberation war ethos.
There is more to the songs of the Chimurenga than just sound.
The meaning of the lyrics ran deep into the soil and coursed in the blood of every liberation cadre.
During the liberation war, the ears of the revolution were young, impressionable and willing to take up arms at the prompt of the ancestors – ‘Torayi gidi muzvitonge’ from Mbuya Nehanda’s prophesy.
The revolution called on young people, fortified by the morale of Chimurenga music; their own voices made strong by the spirit of Murenga.
The war was fought for the rightful ownership of our land and everything that we attribute the land to.
According Dr Tony Monda: “Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music extolled the blood and soil values of the liberation struggle, articulating previous bondage, current nationhood, prosperity and freedom; the music is what buoyed the liberation struggle.”
Central to the causes of the war was the unequal and inequitable distribution of the land; the lack of rights for the indigenous people to inhabit and own land and the inability to prosper on one’s land.
Also pertinent was the prevention of the indigenous people to determine their own destiny.
Colonialism was a form of physical, spiritual and socio-economic bondage.
When the angels cry, the land bleeds and the ancestors call, the land listens.
The scream will be heard in the bowels of the earth and the ancestors respond.
These ancient sayings by indigenous wise souls of the winds – vari mumhepo; are channelled through the spirit of music.
Sentiments, principles and ambitions are made tactile and tangible by the music and songs of the liberation war.
Time and memory are made corporeal by this liberating sound.
Memories are ignited by the sound and songs of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, reliving the eve of independence on April 18 1980.
Intangible values such as unity, peace, prosperity and socio-economic progress are made manifest in the social lubricant of liberation music.
Prolific compositions of songs of revolution during the 1970s declaring the soil, water, skies, blood and spirit of Zimbabwe were composed to bequeath the country with a legacy of liberation and African independence from the yokes of colonial bondage.
During the struggle for liberation, music was created without the use of instruments or electronic and computerised gadgets. Devoid of instruments, fresh accapella voices, raw with emotion and driven by the spirit of Chimurenga, articulated the sounds that heralded the revolution on the land of our ancestors – the Chimurenga!
The discography of the liberation war stands to safeguard the memory and legacy of our liberation.
An ad hoc examination of some of the lyrics contained in Zimbabwe’s songs of Liberation reveal personal, spiritual, cultural and national yearnings, as well as articulations of freedom.
Green and Virginia Jangano’s song ‘Mbuya Nehanda’ is one of the signature tunes articulating the struggle for independence from 1893 to 1980.
It was revived in Andy Brown’s ‘VaChitepo’; a song expressing the same values as the First Chimurenga.
Tora gidi uzvitonge (Take up the gun and liberate yourselves), are words of prophesy that were articulated by Mbuya Nehanda for the liberation of Zimbabwe.
The Jairos Jiri Band of the early 1980s composed the song ‘Take Cover’, based on an oft-expressed military command during combat.
The poignant lyrics of the song are:
“Mudzimu waivepiko?
Vana vachitambura?
Baba namai, maivepi ko?
Isu tichitambura?”
These words are accompanied by the resonating sound of the AK; a staccato bassline and drumbeat imitative of the loading and firing of an AK rifle.
Other memorable songs of the war that still touch the hearts of many today include: ‘Zvinoda Wakashinga Moyo’, ‘Hama Dzedu Dzakapera Kufa’ and others such as: ‘Ndararangarira Gamba’, ‘Patakatsika’ and ‘Pane Asipo’ by Simon Chimbetu; songs described by the late Cde Chinx as ‘the lubricant of the struggle’.
The motivational marching directives: “Amai nababa, musandicheme kana ndafa nehondo. Ndini ndakazvida, kufira Zimbabwe,” are poignant lyrics of the struggle sung by newly-arrived recruits into the various camps.
Zimbabwe’s Chimurenga music served as an institutional repository of the people’s revolution and the war of liberation. The music inspired the people and buttressed the operations of freedom fighters.
The liberation songs emanating from secular and military sources had both popular musicians and military commanders singing to the same tunes.
Our Chimurenga musical memory, when revisited, ensures the existence of a patriotic populous who are keenly aware of their roots and the welfare and development of the land of their ancestors.
War songs inspired from the liberation war fostered a continuous generational identification and allegiance to their country of birth and maintains a historical heritage of its birth as an independent country in 1980.
Harare Mambos’ song written soon after independence ‘Ngatigare Tese’ (let us live together in peace and harmony), goes accordingly:
“Hazvina mhosva kuti unobva kupiko — (no matter where you are from),
Tese tirivana veZimbabwe — (We are all children of Zimbabwe)
(Chorus) Mwana weZimbabwe
Kuvengana kwanyanya — (there is too much hatred)
Kuroyana kwanyanya — (there is too much witchcraft)
Zvitadzo zvanyanya — (there are too many transgressions)
Music played a vital role in developing an encoded dialogue between the liberation soldiers and the urban and rural indigenous majority.
Some lyrics to the music were well encoded and culturally encrypted in Shona proverbial lore so as not to provoke the wrath of the oppressive colonial government of the time.
Other songs were more blatant and militant, as exemplified in Thomas Mapfumo’s ‘Tumirai vana kuhondo’.
At post-independence, Mapfumo was the first to compose a celebratory jibe directed at Smith’s Rhodesian regime with his song ‘Nyarayi kana makundwa’.
It is no wonder Mapfumo was incarcerated, together with other nationalists, for his poignant songs and lyrical prose that spurred on the liberation struggle.
Socio-political consciousness was encouraged through the Chimurenga music of the 1970s.
Chimurenga music left an indelible memory in the entertainment, social history, sociology, political and intellectual domain of the country, illustrative of why it still resounds in the memory of the people today.
‘Wells Forgo’, the popular urban rock group of the 1970s, predicted the bombing of the BP Shell petrol storage tanks in Harare’s industrial area with the song ‘Watch Out! A Big Storm is Coming’.
Lighting the night sky, the whole of Mbare shook with the effect of the explosion that night; the smoke was visible from Greater Harare South.
A wealth of music was also composed in support of the liberation struggle shortly after the formation of ZANLA, the armed wing of ZANU that initiated the Second Chimurenga.
Cognisant that victory comes at a cost; Oliver Mtukudzi’s 1970s ‘Rova Ngoma Mutavara’, was a composition to marshal all those involved in the liberation struggle in their various capacities, and to persevere in their fight against colonial oppression.
Music composed during and after, the protracted war for independence provided solace to the people with a promise of a liberated, harmonious and productive nation.
Today, these songs still resonate on the airwaves to recall the memory of the war of liberation and the freedom, equality and prosperity of the indigenous people of Zimbabwe in the present day.
Chimurenga music left us a cultural, military and socio-political legacy.
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant lecturer and specialist hospitality interior decorator. She is a published author in her field.