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Blessings Chidakwa Arts Reporter
The world’s only disease respected by even medical practitioners, which they have no cure for — ‘Janu-worry’ disease — is cured by money.
For whatever reasons, whoever decided to colloquially call the first month of the year, January disease, would have been ravaged by poverty.
The preceding month, December is usually one associated with feasting, celebrating Christmas and of course the New Year’s Eve.
You may be mistaken to think that the world has no challenges with the way people usually merry make in this month, but alas wait until January a shock reality always wakes up people.
Talk of back-to-school stuff, rentals, among a host of other things.
Around this time a lot of activities are usually put to a halt across many sectors.
The arts sector is no exception as evidenced by the low number of shows witnessed during the period, this has now become an annual trend.
Since time immemorial a number of theories have been thrown around with some artistes arguing it is their time to rest since they would have busy schedules in December.
Others are of the thought that people’s pockets would have run dry during the festive season hence it will be suicidal to host shows in this month.
Some artistes usually take time to start or perfect their products that will be on offer during the course of the year.
Whatever the reasons, one thing is evident that January has proven to be a month when “guitars are on leave” especially in Zimbabwe.
Dendera music kingpin Sulumani Chimbetu is among those who believe January is time to rest.
“January disease we don’t have live shows, it’s our time to mingle with my other artistes!” he posted on his Instagram.
Sungura ace, Alick Macheso speaking with our sister paper The Sunday Mail claimed that taking a break in January is a “ritual” that dates back to the days when musicians like the late Leonard Dembo and Nicholas Zakaria ruled the music world.
“For me, it is a kind of a ritual, a tradition. Some people might say that we are not holding shows because the fans do not have money, but this is not the case.
“If I was to perform, say this weekend, I will bet that the venue will be filled to the rafters,” Macheso, who was speaking through Tich Makahamadze, his manager, said.
The sungura kingpin said it is “taboo” for him and other local musicians to hold live shows in January.
“The late James Chimombe and Leonard Dembo also did the same. They would never perform in January.
“This has nothing to do with people having money or not,” he added.
At the farm, Macheso, who took with him his family and relatives, is growing maize and rearing cattle.
“During the festive season, we pocketed a bit of money that will sustain us during the month.
“I would like to thank my fans for supporting us. Otherwise, we would have been toiling day and night,” he said.
The Orchestra Mberikwazvo front-man is also using the long break to fine-tune the new album that he is currently working on.
The eagerly-anticipated album is set to be released on June 7.
It is now more like a bandwagon for artistes, with Mark Ngwazi also taking a break cultivating tobacco at his farm in Mhangura.
Ngwazi tipped to take the sungura reigns after Macheso is apparently following in the footsteps even off stage, venturing into farming.
He said by avoiding shows in January, it was simply following a tradition.
“As you might be aware, traditional healers do not attend to their clients during certain months. This is the same with us musicians, we do not perform in January,” said Ngwazi. Legendary sungura musician Nicholas “Madzibaba” Zakaria urged other musicians to observe this tradition of taking a break in January.
“To be honest with you, I do not know how this came about. I am urging my fellow musicians to observe such unwritten taboos,” Zakaria said.
Online Reporter