The Sunday Mail
Garikai Mazara
The Sunday Mail caught up with Thomas Mapfumo last Sunday, on the sidelines on his Messina performance. Less than a hundred people turned up. Despite the poor turnout he is confident he can still conquer the local scene as he says he is now ready to come home.
The ‘‘crowd’’ that converged at the Messina Showgrounds could have easily fitted into one classroom, but Mukanya believes he will draw thousands when he returns home. Mukanya could be mistaken in assuming that he still has a following back home given the rise of Oliver Mtkudzi as the nation’s new musical sweetheart.
The musical scene is certainly not what it was when he left and questions have been asked as to whether his brand still has the pulling power it used to enjoy. Critics point out that he is now thin on material, having released little in recent years. More crucially, does his health add up?
Does he still have the stamina to still sustain gruelling performances to match upcoming rivals like Jah Prayzah?
Talk in Messina last Sunday was that the September show is hinging on Mapfumo agreeing terms with Oliver Mtukudzi, who is supposed to be roped in as one of the acts on the homecoming show. Mouth-watering stuff indeed — if it happens.
But the sticking point is that the Mtukudzi camp is holding out for a 50-50 pay-day, whereas the Mukanya camp is arguing that it is Mukanya who is the drawcard, the main attraction, hence should have the bigger piece of the cake.
It is to be expected that Mtukudzi and Mapfumo will haggle, it has characterised their relationship ever since, a kind of sibling rivalry.
Mtukudzi would be justified to demand an equal share of the spoils; he is now a celebrated star and cannot be seen to play second fiddle to Mukanya. They are equals, never mind that Mukanya is United States-based and has lost some of his relevance on the local scene. Even the young dancehall musicians would jump at a chance to do a collaboration with Mtukudzi, because they identify with him.
Mtukudzi has already recorded a number of well-received tracks with urban groovers. Can Mukanya still boast of similar appeal?
It is doubtful. When he left in 2000, the dancehall musicians who have taken over the local music scene were hardly out of their diapers — and so were most of their followers.
To ask that generation of music lovers to go and watch Thomas Mapfumo and yet they did not grow up on a diet of chimurenga music seems recklessly ambitious.
Even those who grew up listening to him and followed him loyally may have been seduced by other musicians in the intervening 14 years. A lot has happened on the local music landscape in that period.
Mukanya has not released much material onto the market, leaving him desperately thin on content.
To compound Mapfumo’s woes would be the frail state that he is in now. Not that he will soon be bed-ridden, but that he was helped up and down the steps of a stage that was only one-metre high speaks volumes about the state of his health. He was quick, though, to dispel any notions his health was failing although it was evident that he was struggling to walk. He dismissed rumours that he had shaved his dreadlocks because of cancer treatment. He has since stitched the locks back on.
Coming back to the issue of money, one could understand Mukanya’s point of view. If a bumper crowd is to be expected at his homecoming show, those thousands would have been drawn to the Mukanya brand, for many would love to see if Mukanya has undergone any artistic mutation during his decade-and-a-half absence.
There has been considerable speculation in the country especially over Mapfumo’s inclusion on the list of people wanted by the police. However, the musician came back in 2003 to a thunderous homecoming show, before holding endless welfare shows, which were largely seen as fund-raisings for his air tickets back to Oregon.
No arrest was ever made which suggests that he is a free citizen though there still remains a risk until the police explicitly declare that they have no interest in questioning him.
He said as much, last Sunday, saying that he was never on the run and will never be on the run. Such speculation, in part, was heightened when Mapfumo failed to attend his mother’s funeral and the talk of an imminent arrest became hysterical when he came as close to Zimbabwe as Botswana, Johannesburg and Messina, without ‘‘daring’’ to come and check on his family and relatives across the border.
Mapfumo admitted that his move to the United States had created problems for his international career, saying that most of the original Blacks Unlimited that he left Zimbabwe with have found employment all over the world.
“We cannot have shows throughout the year in America, so when it is winter they look for jobs and when it is summer, we have musical shows.”
And because of the winter jobs, the original Blacks Unlimited did not travel with him on the South Africa tour, but he promised that they will be part of the touring team in September.
Celebrated as a champion of the poor — thanks largely to a catalogue that includes songs like Corruption, Mamvemve, Musatambe Nenyika, Asingadi, amongst a host of songs that easily identify with the poor — many were disappointed when he left.
Now he says he will be coming back this September, albeit that his Zimbabwe shows will be a leg on his “world tour”, that should give his fans some glimmer of hope. Pressed on whether the September homecoming could be a signifier of intentions to relocate back home for good, Mapfumo was non-committal, simply answering that he was a Zimbabwean.
If a few hundred people bother to turn up for his planned September show, as they did in Messina last Sunday, you cannot fault the fans but Mapfumo himself.
He has alienated himself from his fans and the musical scene has carried on without him.
