By Fidelis Manyange
REGGAE legend Bob Marley has the distinction of being the first global superstar to perform in a free Zimbabwe at Rufaro Stadium on the eve of independence in April 1980.
No doubt, Zimbabweans were privileged to see Marley, a politically and socially influential musician with a strong connection with Africa, performing live on their home soil.
Since then various Jamaican artistes have been making a beeline for Zimbabwe, notably Jimmy Cliff, I Jah Man, Culture, Morgan Heritage, Capleton, Buju Banton, Luciano, Fantan Mojah, Sizzla Kalonji, Mavado, Elephant Man, Popcaan, Freddie McGregor, Chris Martin, Sean Paul, Burning Spear, among others.
The tours by foreign artistes have been a blessing for local outfits, such as Transit Crew, Mic Inity and his Hotta Fyah, Ras Jabu and Crucial Mix and Guspy Warrior, who have been selected as the supporting artistes. What an opportunity to rub shoulders and exchange notes with the best in the trade!
While reggae fans were spoilt for choice, fans of other music genres were not starved of international flavour either. Hence, entertainment venues including Rufaro Stadium and the Harare International Conference Centre were packed to capacity for memorable shows by Tracy Chapman, Paul Simon, Harry Belafonte, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.
The 1990s saw an influx of France-based rhumba artistes like Koffi Olomide, Pepe Kalle, Kanda Bongoman (pictured), General Defao, Salomon, Yondo Sister, M’bilia Bel and Aurlus Mabele of Loketo fame, among others, who gave local fans value for their money.
Pepe Kalle, nicknamed the Elephant of Zaire thanks to his stocky built, lit up Harare, Gweru and Mutare stages with his hit songs and popular dancing dwarfs, Emoro, Pretty Baby, Dokolos and Dominique Mabwa. So popular were the midgets that local artistes like Ngwenya Brothers, among others, included similar acts in their choreography.
Zimbabwe’s top-selling artistes such as Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, John Chibadura, Lovemore Majaivana, etc, also boosted their earnings as the supporting acts.
The question has always been asked whether bringing in foreign artistes is a good or bad idea. Those in favour say hosting international shows benefits the country by significantly boosting tourism, generating economic activity through increased spending by visitors, enhancing the country’s global profile and potentially leading to infrastructure development and long-term investment. A well-organised international show can showcase a country’s positive image and culture to a global audience, attracting more tourists and businesses in the future.
International events attract fans from diverse backgrounds, thereby fostering cultural understanding and exchange. Hosting a high-profile musical show can be an opportunity to showcase the host country’s unique cultural heritage and traditions to the world.
But there is also a downside. Musician-turned-promoter Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa (pictured) went bankrupt and subsequently succumbed to a stress-related illness after hosting a ‘once-in-a lifetime’ concert featuring Akon and Sean Paul at the National Sports Stadium in 2010.
Dubbed ‘The Real Deal’, the show was attended by over 40 000 fans, but was deemed to have made a loss after it turned out that only 1 400 of those fans had actually paid to attend the show. The rest turned out to ‘ghost tickets’.
Worse still, some visiting artistes come with hidden agendas, like the Trojan horse.
The now defunct Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), an international arts festival hosted by pianist Emmanuel Baggoro, is a case in point. The festival attracted an assortment of fans, among them lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.
The writer witnessed first-hand the dark side of the festival during the 2005 edition. Without fail, the organisers held a media briefing every morning where entrance tickets for the upcoming events were issued.
Among the events was one called ‘Gavin Drives the Bus’. The bus, with a shirtless white gay driver by the name Gavin, left the National Art Gallery promptly at 11.00 am and only returned at sunset.
Despite being issued with tickets to board the bus, members of the press were always denied the opportunity to board it under the pretext that it was already full. The crux of the matter was that homosexuals were used the bus as their rendezvous.
It was this homosexual link that ultimately led to the demise of the former iconic festival. It is a fact that as people adopt foreign customs, languages and beliefs, traditional practices may diminish or disappear altogether, impacting community cohesion and identity as well as loss of hunhu/ubuntu — our guiding philosophy.
Cultural festivals and practices may be commercialised or commodified in response to external pressures, leading to a dilution of our original paradigm.
At the height of the rhumba fever, there was an outcry from the corridors of power that the raunchy dances by the dancing girls were too explicit and likely to lead to loose morals. This was particularly so given that Zimbabwe was in the throes of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Indeed, then Minister of Health, Dr Timothy Stamps, was very vocal in his calls for a blanket ban on rhumba shows.
His calls were apparently justified after a married fan of Loketo frontman Arlus Mabele was pictured on the cover of a local magazine simulating sex with the rhumba maestro. Needless to say, the woman’s marriage soon hit the rocks.
While rhumba artistes were criticised for encouraging moral decay, reggae artistes have also come under fire for spreading a drug culture among the youths. A new genre, Zimdancehall, has since been spawned in Zimbabwe thanks to the likes of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Company. According to well-placed sources, Marley and Tosh had clauses in their performance contacts that allowed them to smoke weed in the comfort of their hotel rooms without fear of arrest by the police.
The practitioners of Zimdancehall have apparently taken up smoking weed as their stock-in-trade.
No country is an island. Thus Zimbabwe cannot close its borders to foreign artistes, just as the Diaspora welcomes our top artistes such as Jah Prayzah, Alick Macheso, Mokoomba and Hope Masike, among others.
It is, therefore, up to us to create a win-win situation. We can do this by interacting and sharing notes with global artistes without opening ourselves to cultural decadence.
In addition, local communities can combat cultural erosion by promoting cultural education programmes that emphasise local traditions and history.
Above all, Zimbabwe can also organise events that celebrate its unique heritage, encouraging participation from all age groups. We can do this by entering into partnerships with organisations focused on cultural preservation can help provide resources and support to maintain local customs in the face of globalisation.
The long and short of it is that as a people who believe in hunhu/ubuntu, we welcome international artistes, now and in the future, who positively benefit our people without leaving perversion in their wake.
