The Sunday Mail
Zim dancehall, the country’s leading crowd puller music genre with hundreds of singers and scores of established and underground studios, has left many wondering why it seems to be a preserve of Harare.
Though the growth of the genre can easily be traced to high-density areas, informally called ghettoes, what has surprised many Zimbabweans is why dancehall has remained rooted in Harare. As much as there are plenty of dancehall singers dotted around the country, only the Harare artistes have been hogging the limelight.
Even in Harare, the concentration of dancehall artistes is confined to the ghettoes, with the northern suburbs, largely perceived as the bastions of affluence, not producing any dancehall artiste.
The affluent suburbs, though, have embraced the genre.
Jonathan Banda, Winky D’s manager, has a ready explanation as to the concentration of dancehall to the south of the city.
“Poverty is our energy, it is our main drive as we pursue our musical careers.
“The experience of living or growing up in the ghetto where poverty is the common factor inspire ghetto artists to want a positive change of their lifestyles.
“And the only outlet to them is singing and interestingly enough, dancehall identifies with the most of the causes of ghetto youths.”
At the turn of the millennium, when urban grooves became the buzzword in town, urban grooves artistes were born and found in almost every corner of the country.
The country had Nonsi, Sku and PoZee coming from Bulawayo, Madiz from Gweru, the late Jamal from Mutare, in fact very corner of the country was represented.
But with dancehall, as much as Bulawayo fans might have accepted Tocky Vibes, it is quite surprising that no major dancehall artiste has come out of that city to shake the country. The same can be said about Mutare, Gweru and the other cities.
Could it be because Harare has the numbers, when it comes to audience-building?
“Probably so,” said a promoter who refused to be named. “It is easier to break into the mainstream when you are in Harare as compared to other cities, probably that is the reason why there seems to be a concentration of dancehall artistes in the capital, as compared to other cities.”
As much as poverty is a common and driving factor in inspiring dancehall artistes, that poverty is not limited to Harare alone, as other cities share ghettoes with similar, if not worse, stories than the capital’s.
In Mutare, there is Chikanga suburb, which could be equal to Harare’s Mbare, whereas Bulawayo has Makokoba, Mpopoma and Mzilikazi, which could equally inspire the yutes to sing dancehall. When it comes to Harare, the absence of poverty in the more affluent northern suburbs, could be the reason why no artistes have been born there.
Either they don’t identify with the issues that dancehall identifies with, or even if they were to sing about the issues, the ghetto yutes who make up the audience, might not identify with the artistes.Banda added: “Zimdancehall is like a template that keeps us strong enough not to live in perpetual poverty in the ghetto.
“The music inspires other ghetto residents to progress in some part of their lives and represent ghetto talents to a bigger level.
Zim-dancehall DJ Godfather Templeman is of the opinion that dancehall is an avenue from ghetto poverty. Most of the Zim-dancehall artists come from the ghetto. They are very ambitious in pursuing their musical career because they see it as the only way to get out of poverty,” he said.
“Considering the fact that there are lots of young people who have completed their ‘A’ and ‘O’ Levels and are still jobless, these ghetto youths have so much hope in Zim-dancehall,” he said. He said Zim dancehall is presently the main activity that has brought a platform for the high density areas. And though the genre started off popularly in Harare, it is now spreading to other towns such as Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru, Bindura, Mutare, Shamva and Chinhoyi, among others.
