Initially, the remit
of this paper addressed solely Zimbabwean Chimurenga music but it quickly
became apparent that the ties to mbira music are too profound to be ignored.
Therefore, in order to fully understand Chimurenga music’s role in preserving
and modernizing Zimbabwean cultural identity, the importance of mbira music
will first be assessed. This will be followed by a historical analysis of the
emergence of Chimurenga music with particular attention to the intended purpose
of the music. Finally, the problematic of modernization and change that the
genre has undoubtedly undergone, will be examined.
To begin with, it is crucial to bear
in mind how interlinked the world of the living is with that of the dead in
Shona culture. Without doubt, the most important use of the mbira is during a
bira ceremony. A bira is a consultation with the ancestors to determine the
cause of their dissatisfaction because the Shona believe that an affliction
befalls them as a result of something they have done to displease the ancestors
(Berliner, 1993, p.186). Indeed, Paul Berliner, the author of the seminal work,
The Soul of the Mbira, points out that ‘the world of the living is a
function of the workings of the spirit world’ (1978, p.186 cited in Preston,
2007). Chartwell Dutiro, a mbira musician, claims that during bira ceremonies
he ‘became a pivot between people and spirits’ (Dutiro & Howard, 2007,
p.3). It is immediately clear that the principal purpose of the mbira is not
for entertainment but to appeal to the ancestors.
Evidently, a great deal of cultural
importance is attached to the bira ceremony and it is representative of the
values of the Shona people. The notion of the familial and communal unity, a
reoccurring trait of most African cultures, is particularly prominent
throughout the ceremony. When a bira is held, the whole family comes together
on land that was owned by the ancestor they are trying to consult (Berliner,
1993, p.188). At the beginning of the ceremony, other members of the community
can seek guidance in the hope of resolving problems pertaining to their lives.
Even the music of the bira is communal. People contribute by clapping,
yodeling, chanting or singing and yet a sense of originality is not lost
because each person has their own ‘voice’, or distinctive manner in which they
contribute to the ceremony (Berliner, 1993, p. 190). Together the community
moulds and shapes the music of the bira so much so that no two bira ceremonies
are the same (Berliner, 1993, p.205).
What
is more, the bira tradition maintains the lineage of a given family. Ancestors
have preferred songs, therefore, the musicians must have a vast repertoire that
spans several years in order to entice a particular ancestor (Preston, 2007).
In this manner, ancestors are not forgotten and neither is the music of past
bira ceremonies. Above all, bira ceremonies keep the ethics and morals of a
community in check. During the consultation with the ancestors, other members
of the community are permitted to voice their opinion on the topic at hand. The
deliberation is influenced by all those present. It is a frank and open
discussion; a time for reflection. The bira ceremony is very much an
opportunity to strengthen or renew the sense of common identity, unity and
solidarity within a community (Berliner, 1993, p.205-206). In sum, mbira music
is loaded for it evokes the communal, historical and ethical connotations of
the bira ceremony.
Over time, Chimurenga music’s
purpose has evolved. Its changing nature is inextricably linked to historical
events that have shaped modern day Zimbabwe. The word Chimurenga means either
‘resistance’, ‘uprising’ (McLaughlin & Moorcraft, 1982, p.1) or as is more
commonly suggested ‘struggle’ (Locke, 1984, p.135). In the first instance, it
is important to understand the legacy of colonialism in relation to music and
cultural identity. Throughout Africa, colonialism had a distorting and
destructive impact and Zimbabwe is no exception. Music with mystical and
spiritual functions, such as the mbira, was repressed and banned from being
played in public by missionaries who labeled it as satanic or pagan (Ewens,
2007, p. 172). The missionaries also brought with them the guitar and church
hymns, which were to have profound impacts on Chimurenga music. Furthermore,
during the colonial era, people who lived on the most fertile land were
resettled in order to make way for white settlers. People were moved away from
their ancestral lands thus rendering bira ceremonies less meaningful and
obscuring one of the foundations of Zimbabwean cultural identity. In essence,
colonialism was the ‘triumph of a foreign ideology’ (Chitando, 2002, p.49-53
and p.91, cited in Preston, 2007, p.23).
The
term ‘Chimurenga’ is also used to refer to wars. The First Chimurenga
(1896-1897) was a joint Shona-Ndebele rebellion against the British South
Africa Company, which resulted in British victory (McLaughlin & Moorcraft,
1982, p.3-5). The Second Chimurenga began in 1965 with Prime Minister Ian
Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) and ended in 1980 with the
establishment of the Republic of Zimbabwe (McLaughlin & Moorcraft, 1982,
p.15-17). It was in the context of the Second Chimurenga that Chimurenga music
rose to prominence.
In
effect, British colonial rule ended with UDI but this was not Smith’s sole
goal. In so doing, Smith hoped to prevent both the Zimbabwean African National
Union (ZANU), led by Robert Mugabe, and the Zimbabwean African People’s Union
(ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, from establishing a black-majority government (Ewens,
1991, p.172). Smith is often quoted as having said ‘never in 1,000 years will
there be a black leader of Rhodesia’ (Konkouris, 2007, p.12). From this
statement, it is inferred that Smith was opposed to any black rule but some
have pointed out that he did not rule out the possibility of a power-sharing
government (Godwin, 2007). Nonetheless, this policy of exclusion was met with
resistance and armed conflict. Throughout Africa liberation struggles were
beginning. Indeed, there was, as Harold Macmillan recognized, a ‘wind of
change’ sweeping through the continent (Hollings, 1971, p.49). It was in this
context that many Chimurenga artists grew up and that the genre itself was
born.
Contrary
to popular belief, Chimurenga music is not nationalistic. To claim so is a
mischaracterization for it is much broader in its scope. It incorporates
elements of empowerment and freedom, not solely from an oppressive apartheid
system but also from everyday problems of poverty, lack of education, distorted
culture and the suchlike (Scannel, 2001, p.23). This misconception arises from
the fact that during the Second Chimurenga, the intentions of politicians and
musicians were temporarily aligned. Parties like ZANU and ZAPU used Chimurenga
music to get their message across and thought that with independence in the
1980s they would maintain popular support and legitimacy through music
(Pongweni, 1982 cited in Vambe, 2000, p.75). Perhaps the most popular and well
known Chimurenga musician, Thomas Mapfumo, states that he does not sing for
politicians but rather for the people (Eyre, 1991 cited in Locke, 2002, p.136).
Mapfumo
grew up during the Second Chimurenga. As a child, he recalled listening to
artists such as Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Elvis Presley and the Rolling
Stones on the radio. However, Mapfumo speaks of a disconnect between the music
he heard on the radio and the traditional music he would hear in his village (Mapfumo,
2008). His musical career began by playing covers of foreign rock songs.
Mapfumo attempts to explain the impact of the colonial legacy by claiming that
‘as a people who had lost our culture, it was very difficult to get it back’
(Eyre, 1991 cited in Locke, 2002, p.135). Though one might object to the use of
the term ‘lost’, it must be conceded that the Western music scene was much more
prominent at the time (Dutiro & Howard, 2007, p.4). According to Mapfumo
there came a point when he ‘realised [he] was an African’ and that ‘[he] had a
culture to look after’ (Mapfumo, 2008). Similarly, Dutiro deplored the fact
that a guitar player was paid more than an mbira player in Zimbabwe and he says
of moving to Britain that ‘you can take me out of place where I grew up, but
you can’t take the place out of me’ (Dutiro & Howard, 2007, p.5). Certainly,
during the Second Chimurenga, there was an emerging consensus, or a realization
that music had a duty to preserve Shona culture. This, in tandem with the
struggle for liberation, was the crux of the Chimurenga music’s message.
In
1973, Mapfumo stopped doing covers of Western songs and created the ‘Hallelujah
Chicken Run Band’, which fused Western rock with African rhythms. It was a sort
of Afro-rock that used electric guitars to mimic the sound of the mbira and
included yodels (Ewens, 1991, p.178; Bender, 1991, p.163). He also started
playing updated versions of traditional songs about people liberating
themselves. One of the most seditious songs was entitled ‘send your children to
war’, which got Mapfumo arrested. The Smith government tried to censor
Mapfumo’s music but instead of quelling its proliferation, the opposite effect
was achieved because it bolstered its appeal and granted it more creditability
or legitimacy (Bender, 1991, p.161; Locke, 2002, p.135; Ewens, 1991, p.177). Also,
the colonial authorities only banned a song once they realized it was becoming
popular among rebel fighters because Mapfumo, subversively sung in Shona, which
they could not understand (Locke, 2002, p.160-161). Under fire from the state, Mapfumo’s
songs got smarter and he buried his message behinds several layers of meaning (Ewens,
1991, p.177).
With
the advent of guerilla radio stations Chimurenga music’s popularity grew
further. In 1974, ZANU established a radio station in Mozambique called the
‘Voice of Zimbabwe’, whose flagship programme was ‘Chimurenga Requests’ (Ewens,
1991, p.177). In a similar vein, ZAPU used Radio Zambia, Radio Tanzania and
Radio Cairo to recruit fighters and to characterize the Second Chimurenga as a
struggle between the white minority and the black majority (Bender, 1991, p.
160). Once songs made it onto these various radio stations, Smith’s government
banned them. As a consequence, many Chimurenga artists’ songs went straight to
the shops (Ewens, 1991, p.179).
Independence
changed everything. Chimurenga music declined in popularity because it had accomplished
what it set out to do (Locke, 2002, p.136). Many thought that it had lost its
main impetus or raison d’être when it
ceased being censored (Bender, 1991, p. 159). Yet again, this assumption rests
on the misguided perception that Chimurenga music was solely political.
Politicians misguidedly thought they could continue to use Chimurenga music as
a means of controlling the masses (Vambe, 2000, p.75). Significantly, the
signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, which brought independence to Zimbabwe,
did not bring peace (Konkouris, 2007, 13). Though ZAPU and ZANU had fought
together during the Second Chimurenga, after independence, they turned on each
other. This resulted in the Matabeleland massacres, more commonly known as
Gukurahundi where the Ndebele, who supported Joshua Nkomo, were killed by
ZANU’s armed wing. The massacres ended with merger of ZANU and ZAPU to form
ZANU-PF. Effectively, Mugabe had consolidated power (Mapfumo, 2008). These
events were the fuel that Chimurenga music was propelled by after liberation.
They simply adopted a new struggle, in its broader sense and there were many to
choose from. Mapfumo sang about the corruption of the Mugabe government (Eyre,
1991 cited in Locke, 2002, p.136), Gukurahundi (Mapfumo, 2008) and bemoaned how
far leaders had come since the ideals and rhetoric of the liberation period.
Paul Matavire questioned the paradox that poverty existed in the midst of
Mugabe’s supposedly socialist project. Oliver Mtukudzi lamented the loss of
community spirit. Nicholas Zacharria deplored the emerging tribal divisions
between the Shona and Ndebele in Matabeleland. Leonard Zhakata spoke of the
effect of the adoption of Structural Adjustment Policies by the Mugabe
government (Vambe, 2000, 77-8). Also, in the wake of liberation, Bob Marley
played at a concert in Harare which spurred the emergence of a budding Zimbabwean
Reggae and Rastafarian scene, which very much sympathized with the broad notion
of struggle. Mapfumo once said ‘we will never stop singing about the struggle,’
(Eyre, 1991 cited in Locke, 2002, p.136) this was because, quite plainly,
struggles are everywhere.
Moreover,
Chimurenga music underwent a process of gradual evolution. From a relatively
narrow message concerned with achieving liberation and promoting Shona culture,
to a broader scope, which incorporated the various aforementioned struggles.
What Mapfumo and other Chimurenga musicians grappled with, was the problematic
of modernization without destruction.
That is to say, creating an ideal blend or striking the perfect balance, which
both preserves and rejuvenates cultural identity (Brusila, 2002, p.44 cited in
Preston, 2007, p. 21). For it is true that music reconstructs and restores
cultural identity. In the same way that mbira music and the bira ceremonies
that it evokes moulds or shapes a community, so Chimurenga music seeks to critique
Zimbabwean society in an enriching manner (Preston, 2007, p. 20). It has assumed
the mantle of mbira music both by adapting
the electric guitar to sound like mbira and by adopting the communal, historical and ethical functions of
traditional Shona music (Bender, 1991, p.165). This is why one cannot begin to
understand Chimurenga music if it is detached from its mbira roots. For
Chartwell, this has interesting ramifications. He questions whether the guitar
has now become indigenized and asks at what point does something foreign, when
altered, become Zimbabwean? Does it still maintain the spiritual connection
that the mbira evokes (Preston, 2007, p.22-23)? These are thought-provoking
questions and the answer depends very much on the manner in which one perceives
cultural identity. Is it, as Stuart Hall posits, a changing concept that can be
modernised or rather, as Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe would have us think, is it in fact a
resolutely monolithic entity (Hall, 1994; Ekwe-Ekwe, 2001). Chartwell
subscribes to the latter, claiming that only the mbira can create a spiritual
connection but again, the answer very much depends on which side of this
age-old argument one falls. What is sure, is that Chimurenga music successfully
managed to create a new paradigm of modernization
without destruction and in so doing, pinpointed the most pressing dilemma
in defining Zimbabwean cultural identity (Scannel, 2001, p.23).
In
conclusion, Chimurenga music does act as a vector of cultural identity. It does
this my mirroring mbira music and thus conjuring up the traditional communal,
historical and ethical functions associated with bira ceremonies. It also is
deeply grounded in the historical aspects of the evolution of modern-day
Zimbabwe. Changes in the genre are intrinsically related to historical issues
pertinent at the time. These have changed overtime as Zimbabwean society
concerns itself with new struggles not just solely the struggle for liberation,
with which it tends to be most commonly associated. To be sure, Chimurenga
music always has a message. Lyrics are never void of meaning and there is an inherent
positivism in the style that aims to further develop cultural identity through
critiquing the status quo.
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