The Sunday Mail
IT is a very cold Saturday night, but the weather does not douse the party spirit for the thousands of music lovers gathered at Harare Gardens to commemorate the death of the legendary Jah B.
As midnight approaches, a certain artiste is introduced to the stage and from the loud roars, whistles and screams coming from the crowd, one can easily tell the performer who is about to come on is loved.
Donning black jeans, a black and gold sweater, gold cap and matching gold backpack, the chanter hops on stage and pulls off one of the best performances of the night.
As he leaves the stage, the fans call for him to be brought back. They cannot have enough of him.
In music circles they call him Hwindi President, one of the hottest Zim dancehall chanters at the moment.
Most recognisable for his hit single “Tambirai Monaki”, the artiste — whose real name is Bessel Mugo Parewa — has stolen the hearts of many Zim dancehall fans and his energy on stage is cementing his status as a top performer.
Last week The Sunday Mail Leisure paid Hwindi President a visit at his base in Chitungwiza to find out the story behind the chanter. As it turns out, the artiste is a real hwindi (tout) after all, who spends the greater part of his day loading kombis at a rank near Zengeza 2 service station, which is where we found him.
“When you get to Zengeza 2 service station, just ask anyone to direct you to paMahwindi, you will find me there,” said Hwindi while giving this reporter directions over the phone.
He is well respected in this area, where he is referred to as the “president”. At first glance it cannot be disputed that the guy is a tout. He does not seem to be out of place among many other touts gathered in the shade of a big tree by the roadside.
“Where we are standing under this tree we call it the Bhema Valley where touts gather and wait for Kombis that are coming from town. When kombis get here, the conductors leave them in our hands and we go around the area dropping off people while we load those getting into town and we drop off here when the kombis are going back to town,” explains Hwindi.
This might not seem like the typical lifestyle of a celebrity but the 30-year-old fits perfectly in this whole picture. Many artistes have various versions of how they came up with their stage names but in this case, it would not need a rocket scientist to figure out why the artiste came to be known as Hwindi President.
“The reason why I chose to call myself Hwindi President is because I am a full time tout, although, these days some of my time is now dedicated to music. When I started recording, before I even thought I would become popular, I just decided that I would represent touts in the music industry just like Calaz with Mabanditi or Winky D with the Ninjas so I just decided to be the Hwindi President,” he said.
Although he represents Chitungwiza on the music scene, he is not originally from the area, being born and bred in Chihota.
“I was born in 1986 in Chihota, which is where I grew up, attending St Luce Gukuta for both my primary and secondary education.
I finished O-Level in 2002 and did not find any employment until 2006 when my brother who was staying in Rusape called and organised a job for me at a beverages company.
“I worked there for three years in the packaging department where we would sometimes help ourselves to the opaque beer although it was against company regulations.”
Having developed a passion for music from an early age, he linked up with three other musical friends during his stay in Rusape and this would be his first step towards venturing into the music industry. “In 2008 while I was in Rusape, I met Rutendo Mwayana, Paidamoyo Changundega and Byron Mugwededza who were all interested in music. We started writing songs and we almost started a group we intended to call Tribe Sounds but things didn’t work out because we did not have anywhere to record our music since there were no studios in Rusape.”
Hwindi President would then move to Chitungwiza in 2009 at the invitation of his uncle who was a kombi driver. After quitting his job at Delta, he set his sights on a new career path, that of touting and later on music.
“When I first came here, I had no idea about how the touts worked but as time went on I got the hang of it and at one point I was a conductor but I decided to go back to touting after two years. During all this time I was still writing music but did not get the opportunity to record until I met a guy named Jah Lalo in 2014 who did not even have a studio but had recording software on his laptop and that is when I had my first shot at recording.
“Although the quality of songs I recorded were of poor quality, it gave me the opportunity to be heard by other popular producers and music lovers in the area. There was a guy named Bheto who happened to like our music and he started doing weekly sessions called ‘Mad Sundays’ at his house where we would go and perform alongside other underground artistes but every now and then Dadza D would show up to support the upcoming talent.”
These Sunday sessions did not only give the aspiring artiste exposure to the public but also presented him with the opportunity to link up with established personalities in the industry.
“It was at one of the sessions where Dadza D saw me performing and liked my music. The following day he called me along with another artiste named Luda Fire and he gave us money for transport to go to Kutso’s studio and this was the first time that I got to record in a proper studio. This opened more opportunities and I started recording at other popular studios like Chilspot and Kenako.”
The year 2015 proved to be Hwindi President’s as he continued to rise up the popularity ladder, producing hit songs that went on to become anthems. Collaborations with other top artistes also helped catapult his career to greater heights.
“I think for people to start paying attention to my music, it was because of my collaboration with Kinnah on my first album “Zvatanga”, which did not do very well because it was poorly marketed but that particular song with Kinnah gave me some mileage.
“When I released ‘Tambirai Monaki’, my status rose to another level because the song became an instant hit and the response from the fans was so overwhelming. I did not expect the song to be such a success because when we recorded it we were actually joking around in the studio but as it turned out, we were actually making a hit.”
The success of “Tambirai Monaki” was a wakeup call for the chanter who until that time had not realised that he could actually earn a living from music.
“After ‘Tambirai Monaki’, I realised that music could take me somewhere so I started recording more music and to date I think I have recorded more than 150 songs, most of them yet to be released.”
The artiste has released a string of other hit singles including “Bhavhadhe raKinnah”, “Tsvagai Mabasa”, “Tavapahasha”, “Zvihuta” and “Pakadoma” among others.
He won an award at this year’s edition of the Zim dancehall Awards for Most Promising Artiste after being nominated in three categories. In April, the artiste had his first taste of international stardom when he toured South Africa, staging two shows in Cape Town. In September, he will be performing in various cities in the UK alongside other local chanters who include Killer T, Soul Jah Love, Lady Squander and Shinsoman. About a month ago, Hwindi President and his wife were blessed with a son, Blessing Takunda, whom he believes is has indeed brought blessings into his life.
