Macheso to celebrate birthday in style

Garikai Mazara

Online Editor

Passion Java, loving to prefix his name with “prophet” being entirely a personal choice, has somehow courted mixed reactions to either his personality or the manner with which he conducts his sermons.

To most of us, fence-sitters, we have largely dismissed him as an attention-seeker – kind of suffering from that same genetic disorder with those who flaunt their earthly wealth in public, moreso on social media.

So it is small wonder we paid little or no attention to his “marriage” with Enzo Ishall, in any case dancehall music appeals to those, in my honest opinion, who have never really tasted sungura music. It was one of those self-serving journeys, most of us must have mused.

Then the “divorce” was followed by a flurry of videos, mostly shot in Asian countries, where the “prophet” was giving prophecies to his congregants. The “prophecies”, for want of a better word, were laced with a blend of street lingo, Harare street lingo for that matter, a sprinkling of Shona words and well, some tongue language (please don’t ask me what language it is).

Self-serving, genetic disorder, we continued singing.

Then he introduced the “Gara Mumba Iwe” lockdown live shows broadcast on social media. Having proposed love, married and divorced with Enzo, some of us dismissed the inaugural live show as a way of getting back to the dancehall artiste. In any case, he is said to have passed some ungodly comments on the demons troubling the artiste.

But over the intervening weeks since the inaugural live show in April, some of us, the fence-sitters, have warmed up to the idea, albeit with that, that little doubt hanging at the back of the mind, as to the purposes and intents of the initiative.

And you cannot completely fault us, we were used, before the coronavirus changed our lifestyles, to live shows being a sprinkling of booze, booze and more booze. Add to the equation the ambience in a venue like HICC, then you altogether reason out why the scepticism has somehow stuck.

But truth is, life has greatly changed and there is a new normal in town. For some unknown time to come, the new normal will have to be part of us, or might even become the real normal.

Then today, Wednesday June 10, Alick Macheso enters into the fray: the sungura maestro (could now be a cliché) turns 52 and to make matters worse (black American English), he is set to perform for an hour in the Gara Mumba Iwe series.

Now Prophet Passion Java has our attention, undivided attention. Pity though, over the past weeks the live shows have turned out to be a competition for numbers (true, we all know that figures don’t lie), as to who is more popular, Winky D, Suluman, Stunner, etc.

The social media gurus and analysts have used the figures for the “live show attendants” to prove their argument, that the artiste with the higher viewership is the better artiste. Which could be true or wrong, for there are many factors that determine why, how and when someone goes to attend a live show on social media.

Broadcast in partnership with ZTN, a game-changer in the country’s television broadcasting landscape, the Gara Mumba Iwe concept is, without doubt, going to get a different and new dimension with Macheso’s birthday celebrations today.

But I have my reservations as well.

At about this time of the year, every year, Macheso performs at Guruve Hotel and every Jack and Jill in and around Guruve knows about this feat. So year-in, and year-out he holds sold-out shows at the said venue.

Ditto for his Mt Darwin, Checheche, Beitbridge, Gokwe – almost every other corner of Zimbabwe – shows, his fans know of the cycle, when and where he performs. And some of them, for good measure an assortment of characters from makorokoza, herdboys to farmers, the kind of people whom you are not likely to find on social media, know when and where to find their sungura icon.

But corona, corona, corona, has changed all that and they need to know that they might not be watching Macheso, or any other artiste, at a venue near them in the foreseeable future. But do they have the network and the data to afford watching their icons on social media?

Which leaves only Harare (and we have always argued that Harare is not Zimbabwe) and probably the Diaspora dictating who is the best musician, following on the viewership figures and patterns.

Whilst this might sound more like a commentary on the Gara Mumba Iwe concept, it is more of a tribute to the icon that we call Alick Macheso, that we have had the priviledge to know and enjoy during his – and our – time. Whether there is a full house tonight at 8pm, or no-one turns up for the live show (what we usually call a flop), what cannot be disputed is that Macheso is the greatest of them all (living, I should add).

Disclaimer: please note I wrote this listening to Monalisa, Chisoni, Kumhanya Kuripo, Mwari Wenyasha, Chara Chimwe, Zvimiro, Baba NaMai, Charakupa, Madhuve and Petunia, so you can excuse my drunken stupor. But this is not to say this will be his line-up tonight, far from it. Am eagerly waiting, as you are probably doing, to see if Macheso will bring the house down (as he always does) and show these small boys who the bull in the kraal is.

Happy birthday Baba Shero, here is to the next 52!