Thomas Mapfumo
Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo, also known by his nicknames "Mukanya" or "gandanga", is a Zimbabwean Chimurenga music singer, a songwriter who is based in the USA. Mapfumo is one of Zimbabwe's top musicians. His genre of music is called Chimurenga (Shona for Revolution ) and many of his songs comment on socio-political issues. In 2001, Mapfumo went on a self-imposed exiled in the United States of America claiming his family could be harmed by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) government. His music career spans decades having started in the early 60s. Following the ouster of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe in November 2017, it was announced that Mapfumo would be returning for a concert in Zimbabwe. Mapfumo came on the night of 18 April 2018 and was welcomed by a big crowd at Harare International Airport. Mapfumo hadn't performed in Zimbabwe for 14 years. Mapfumo was born on 2 July 1945 in Marondera where he lived with his grandparents. His grandfather was a musician and his family was well experienced in the Shona traditional way of celebration songs accompanied by drums and Mbira. In Marondera, he attended Chiwonana School. After moving from Marondera to Mabvuku, Thomas did his primary education at Donnybrook School in the then Salisbury. He later moved to Mbare. Mapfumo is married to Verna Mapfumo. He has two daughters, Janet and Charmaine from his first marriage. He has three other children from his second marriage to Verna – Chiedza, Matinyanya and son Tapfumaneyi.One of his daughters recently qualified as a Medical Doctor in America. Donnybrook Primary School Mapfumo said he got his first break to perform music with a quartet called Zoot Brothers (called Zutu in other reports) in Mabvuku while he was still in School. After hearing the Beatles and Wilson Pickett in the early '60s, Mapfumo taught himself guitar. But he also sang songs from African countries such as style known as Rhumba from the then Zaire. In Mbare, Mapfumo was trained by Kenneth Mataka, Laina Mataka and their son, Edison Mataka whom Mapfumo described later as a "great musician". According to Laina, Mapfumo had tried music with the Zutu Brothers but failed before he approached them for help in 1962. He joined the Mataka family (Father, Mother and Son) to become the Cosmic Four Dots. They played rock and roll music after Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Mapfumo moved onto the Springfields in 1966 with which he recorded songs at the then Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation until 1973 when Daram Karanga headhunted him for the formation of the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band in Mhangura. It was with the Hallelujah Chicken Run band where his traditional style became real traditional by the inclusion of guitars that produced mbira sounds. When he left Mhangura, Mapfumo had no band and would hang around until he met the late Jonah Sithole at Jamaica Inn. Jonah was leading the Drifters, a band he had brought from Mutare in 1974. The band had changed its name from Pepsi Combo to Vibrations and the Drifters. Eventually, they formed The Black Spirits together with Jonah Sithole. But the Black Spirits was to be disbanded and the Acid Band formed without Sithole. The Acid Band itself was short-lived and gave way to a Blacks Unlimited again with Sithole in 1978. Their first album as Blacks Unlimited was Gwindigwi Rineshumba (There Are Lions In This Wilderness). Mapfumo has worked with the Blacks Unlimited band to date. He developed his mbira pop sound with guitarists Jonah Sithole and Leonard “Picket” Chiyangwa, bassist Charles Makokova, and others. Mapfumo’s lyrics reflected the concerns of the people around him such as the hardships of rural life, young men heading to the bush to fight, and a rising sense of indignation at white rulers who had systematically devalued Shona culture for four generations. The guerrilla fighters had taken the name “Chimurenga”, Shona for “struggle”, and Mapfumo decided to call his new sound “Chimurenga music”. Chimurenga songs captured the imaginations of black people at that time. Mapfumo dedicated most of his songs to the fight of the Liberation struggle. Mapfumo's music and its popularity with black people led to tensions with the white government and in 1977 was sent to prison for subversion. To obtain his release, Mapfumo is said to have agreed to perform for the white government, but at the concert, he sang only his most revolutionary songs and said later: "I told them that since I'd been in detention, I didn't have time to write new ones." At the attainment of Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, Mapfumo's group shared the stage with Bob Marley and the Wailers at the national celebration of Zimbabwean independence. That concert is credited with the transition from a local musician to an international one, as he landed some international recording contracts. In 1987 Mapfumo performed with Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen at the 1987 Human Rights Concert in Harare, Zimbabwe. Thomas Mapfumo toured worldwide mostly USA and UK. In 1989 when he saw the new black political leaders as not serving the people, he started penning songs that opposed them. He warned young people not to let themselves be used by dirty politicians and in that year released the album Corruption. Throughout the 90s and 2000s Mapfumo continued to pen and sing some anti-government songs releasing such albums as Chimurenga '98, Chimurenga Explosion , Toi Toi (Thomas Mapfumo album) Toi Toi and Chimurenga Rebel Manhungetunge1. The album Chimurenga Explosion, for example, which was released in 2000, had the following songs: Musanyepere (translated, "Don't Lie"), Mamvemve (translated, "Tatters"), Disaster, and Nhamo Zvakare (translated, "Back to poverty"), among others. Mapfumo was the resident musician at Club HideOut 99 just before 2000 when Mapfumo moved his family to the United States on self-imposed Exile claiming that his life was in danger from the ruling political party, ZANU PF. Writers at government-owned newspapers, especially The Herald, however, dismissed his claims as exaggerated and that he was not under threat as he would come to Zimbabwe annually for shows from 2001 until 2005 when he stopped. Mapfumo was linked to an auto-theft ring and police said that they would pick him up for an unclosed docket involving allegedly stolen cars. In 2012 he reportedly told the UK based New Zimbabwe blog that he would not return to Zimbabwe because he did not want to live in a country in which he's rich in a sea of poverty. He also said he didn't want to ask people who are struggling to just get by to pay to watch him sing. Mapfumo said his return to Zimbabwe was unlikely with the former President Robert Mugabe still in charge. In 2018 it was reported that Thomas Mapfumo was coming to perform to Zimbabwe. The show was scheduled for Aprill 28, 2018 at the Glamis Arena. Thomas ‘Mukanya’ Mapfumo was expected back in December of 2018 to perform in several cities and towns. Mukanya’s Peace Tour was expected to see him perform at Gweru Golf Club on December 7, 2018. After the Gweru show, Mapfumo was also expected to perform in Bulawayo at the Large City Hall on December 8, 2018. A week later Mapfumo was to perform at Pagomba Café in Beitbridge. On December 15, 2018 he would perform at Caravan Park in Masvingo then at Golden Peacock in Mutare on December 21 followed by Kadoma on December 22 at Odyssey.
Chimurenga
