adminFor instance, on January 27 this year when Mavado — a dancehall artiste from Jamaica — performed at the Harare International Conference Centre there was a dispute between Sniper and Winky D.
Sniper stormed on the stage and grabbed the microphone from Winky D during his performance, and this is what he had to say: “My name is Sniper! This man has been on stage for over 30 minutes. He is preventing Mavado from performing”.
I was disgusted, not by Sniper’s action, but by the action of those who allowed Sniper to behave this way.
It was difficult to establish who had given Sniper the courage to do that as there was no stage manager. There were dozens of people who were on stage doing nothing.
The promoter of the show, Clint Robinson, was seen walking up and down the stage. Someone must have given Sniper the power to go and wrestle the microphone from Winky D during the middle of a song.
My first reaction was, “How unprofessional?” I thought to myself why are they allowing this young man (Sniper) to dig his own grave? From the crowd’s reaction, one could tell no one liked what Sniper had done.
He must have lost a number of fans at that show. I am reliably informed that it was people behind the stage who allowed Sniper to act the way he did. Jonathan Banda, Winky D’s manager, was equally disgusted and had no kind words for the promoters.
I thought of holding a conference to mediate between the parties in dispute, but I decided it was not my place to do so. Besides, the history of scholarship is the history of disagreements. When Sniper realised his boob, he apologised to Winky D afterwards.
Now another storm seems to be brewing among the Chimbetu family. The traditional image of “family” as a cosy nest of love, security, togetherness and never-ending happiness seems to have been battered in this family.
The Chimbetu dynasty stretches from Simon, Naison, Alan, Briam, Douglas, Tryson and Sulumani, to mention only a few. The list is endless. All these I have mentioned are musicians who have come to the forefront because of Simon and Naison’s legacy.
Simon and Naison were brothers who formed The Marxist Brothers and later Orchestra Dendera Kings with Alan, and were the proponents of dendera music.
After the two brothers’ deaths, the rest of the Chimbetus, especially Sulumani and Tryson, are now said to be washing their dirty linen in public.
It started with the dispute of equipment ownership after the death of Simon. Family and traditional leaders were roped in to resolve this problem and that was done amicably. It is now reported that Sulumani and Tryson are fighting over songs which were written by their late parents. To add salt to injury, Tryson is said to have taken away his cousin’s dancers. In short, it seems like they are out to destroy each other.
I asked Sulumani whether this rivalry and family misunderstandings were due to a longstanding family feud.
This is what he said: “Alan, Naison, Briam are all my uncles. Douglas and Tryson are my cousins and I have always had a good relationship with all of them.
“The problem now is that we are all involved in the propagation of dendera music, but there is no communication among us.
“For instance, at the 21st February Movement Gala in Chipinge, Tryson performed before me and he chose some songs which were also on my programme.
“That, in itself, spoiled my show. However, contrary to what people are saying, I am not trying to bar anyone from singing my late father’s songs at live shows. All I am saying is we should be a bit more co-ordinated in future, because when I am on stage the pressure from the audiences is for me to sing “Chauta” or “One Way” or “Ndarangarira Gamba”.
“I need to follow their wishes but what is the point of doing so when Tryson would have done the same?
“I did not even know that my father had bequeathed his songs to me until I went to Zimura offices to find out what their status was,” he added.
I suggested to Sulumani that all the Chimbetus have had a good ride on Simon’s coat-tails and have all benefited. While Tryson also argues that the songs he sings were co-written by Simon and his father, Naison, and he also has a right to them, it is time now for them to amicably bury the hatchet and start writing their own material.
For instance, the song “Kwedu”, which Sulumani wrote, is appealing to the public, maybe because Oliver Mtukudzi also sings on it or it is just good.
Whatever the reason, Sulumani should pursue this formula until he weans himself off Simon’s legacy. The same advice goes to Tryson and Allan.
It looks like the Chimbetus need effective and professional family counselling, and not advice from non-professionals or cultural traditionalists who might look at their own interests first before those of the family.
Exploring music copyright is a complex matter. If you are friends with the originator of a song, then you may not need his or her permission to exploit it.
Legally, however, Zimbabwe is signed to worldwide conventions on copyright which include the Berne Convention. Under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act (Chapter 26:05) Number 32 of 2004, no one should record or perform live musical work which qualifies for copyright protection unless the owner gives exclusive rights to authorise others to do so.
Sulumani, in this case, is the rightful owner of his father’s songs and the rest of the Chimbetus or anybody else who uses his father’s material should get authority to do so from him.
But the Chimbetus mentioned above are a family.
Family unity should therefore prevail and they must find a way of dealing with this challenge. More communication is needed.
I know that Cindy Munyavi recorded “One Way” and there are others who have redone Simon’s or other people’s songs without permission.
For instance, Mbare Trio have done their own versions of songs like “Anodyiwa Haataure” and “Special Meat”.
Oliver Mtukudzi has done Steve Makoni’s “Handiende” and so forth. These should be tolerated as they do not make loads of money out of such ventures.
The worst offenders in this regard are the Jamaicans.
Whenever a song is a hit in the US, the next day you hear the reggae version of it in Kingston. They do not even bother to acknowledge the originator of the tune.
That is lawlessness but the Americans tolerate them as they know that some money being made out of their works, but not enough to start worrying about!
Under normal circumstances, this is how copyright should work:
Suppose you want to record and sell your own version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, this would not present a problem as Tchaikovsky has certainly been dead for over 70 years, the work itself would now be out of copyright, and available as a work in the public domain.
Provided you performed and recorded the work yourself, no infringement would have occurred according to Zimbabwean law. You would, however, be justifiably annoyed if someone else simply copied your recording and started selling it themselves.
This is where the copyright in the sound recording comes into play. Copyright law recognises the problematic nature of this situation which is unique to sound recordings, and gives sound recordings distinct protection in their own right that is separate from that in the underlying work.
The copyright in the sound recording will run for 50 years from the year of recording, or 50 years from date of release if released in that time.
If you need to get permission to use a piece of music, normally the best place to start is with the last known publisher for the work. In Zimbabwe, Zimura would know. They will certainly know how to get permission to use the work, so they will certainly know who you would need to contact.
Sulumani told me that all the songs on his third album, “Non-Stop” are original and nothing there belongs to his father. If that is the case, that is the way to go as no one will dispute ownership of the material.
However, I am looking forward to hearing stories about a family show which features Sulumani, Allan and Tryson sharing the same stage. Alternatively, I would like to read a story about the Chimbetus going to church together, then I will know that the disputes have now been solved.
l Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]
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