A decade of mixed fortunes

Lovemore Chikova Christian Entertainment
The Herald of September 23 2003 had a story with the headline: “Many artistes composing gospel music”. The article opened with a question: “Can one brave soul out there tell us why there is so much gospel music these days? “Is it the only popular genre around or it is because there is big business involved?” During that week, all new releases from most recording stables in the country were gospel music.

Gospel groups which no one had ever heard of released their scorcher albums and were topping the charts.

The groups included Power of Praise with their album “Akatendeka/Utembekile”, Ruoko RwaMwari with “Mwari Komborera Zimbabwe”, Uncle B-Right with “Christian Lyfes”, Ronnie and Hilton with “Kuzivakwashe” and Bootkin Klan with “Tsamba”.

Well, last week’s instalment clearly indicated that gospel music in Zimbabwe made great strides in the decade 1990 to 2000, thanks to the advent of independence in 1980 which ushered in a new era in the exposure of talent.

This was when daring musicians and guitarists came to the fore in the evangelical and Pentecostal churches, that were also taking the nation by storm.

But the opening paragraphs of this instalment aptly introduce the subject of this week.

We will be examining the growth or lack of it of gospel music in the decade between 2000 and 2010.

This decade was really amazing for gospel music in Zimbabwe.

In terms of quantity, gospel music was no match compared to other genres as there were so many gospel music artistes on the scene.

What surprised many followers of the genre was that the quantity did not correspondent to the quality which the array of musicians produced.

To me, this decade was a setback to the development of gospel music as the tens musicians who rocked the airwaves with their one-hit wonder albums quickly vanished into thin air.

The rise of so many gospel musicians during this decade could rightly be attributed to the Government’s progressive 75 percent local content prescribed for radio and television.

This policy accorded a chance for not only gospel musicians, but those in other genres as well, to shine.

Local radio and television, which had been so depended on foreign productions, suddenly found themselves calling for more recordings from locals for them to fulfil the statutory requirement of having 75 percent local content.

Many musicians came forward, but very few had the power to last the distance. The gospel musicians managed to rightly take advantage of the 75 percent local content, but it seems they were not foresighted enough.

When the implementation of the local content policy slackened towards the end of the decade, the many gospel musicians who had taken advantage of the policy suddenly fizzled out.

This decade had mixed fortunes for gospel music, with success stories and total failure in some instances.

Those who were focused enough managed to consolidate their hold on the genre.

This is why we still have musicians from this decade like Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave, Gospel Power, Pastor G, Carol Mujokoro, Ivy Kombo and Shingisai Suluma still being recognised on the musical scene.

It was clear that during this decade many musicians were thinking gospel once they take to composing music.

This was also the period when laziness crept into gospel artists.

A number of gospel musicians came onto the scene, but their major downfall was their reliance on hymns and popular tunes.

Suddenly, songs which have been sang in church for decades were being recorded and this clearly showed lack of creativity among the new crop of gospel musicians.

Musicians such as Kudzi Nyakudya, Mercy Mutsvene, Amanda Sagonda and many others came to the fore specialising on recycling hymns and other popular tunes.

Kudzi, for instance, simply sat down, opened the hymn book and started belting out age-old songs such “Ndinoshamiswa Kwazvo”, “Wakatakura Kuipa Jesu” and “Jerusarema Musha Wakanaka”. He did not need to scratch his head trying to come up with his own lyrics, but simply blended the hymns with a some keyboards and started selling the product to his audiences.

Mercy Mutsvene was also a star at this game, but she managed to go further than Kudzi.

She quoted a lot of controversy after it was discovered that her habit was to listen to South African gospel music star Rebecca Malope’s songs, master their lyrics and re-do them in Shona.

The beat of Malope’s songs would remain the same while she tried to imitate her voice as much as possible.

Mercy’s songs such as “Handingabvumi” and “Muri Mutsvene” are direct translations of Malope’s songs “Mangingavumi” and “Ulilanga Lelanga”.

She appeared to be making it on the local gospel music scene, but when her tendency started being debated in newspapers and among gospel music fans, her image suffered thoroughly.

Sagonda had the song “Jesu iNumber One”, a popular tune which she tried to present as new to gospel music listeners.

Then there were also the urban grooves gospel singers who did not take much notice about the need to be creativity in terms of instrumentation on their songs.

Their job was simply to sit in front of the computer and the next thing was that they would have produced a single.

It is not surprising that this type of gospel music did not survive because it was like “bubblegum” music without the staying power.

In this category, singers like Mr Bell, Excell, Culture T, Olinda Marowa and G-Spell come to mind.

The fact that most these groups are no longer in existence clearly shows that their music was not appealing to listeners.

But the fact is that very few gospel music groups made it beyond 2010, although most of them had dominated the airwaves for the decade.

Where is Ruth Mapfumo of the hit album “Mbiri Kuna Jesu”, Gordon Taurai Nzira, Primrose Cement, Sharon Manyika, Lynnet Nyatsambo, Esther Mukazika, Donna Chibaya, Bethan Pasinawako, Sagonda, Nyasha Bare, Liversy Mutamba and Partnus Chakabuda?

Gospel music followers would testify that these and many others whose list is endless were well known between 2000 and 2010.

But they failed to go beyond the decade because of some of the reasons mentioned above.

This decade also saw the rise of groups from the apostolic and Zion churches which had their fair share of success and failures, but this would a subject of another instalment of column in the near future.