adminVincent Gono Magazine Editor
HE is a secondary school teacher and does not teach music yet he has managed so well to divide his time between preparing for lessons and writing songs as well as rehearsing them. He has so far released a seven-track dancehall album titled Ebola that is receiving fair airplay on National FM as well as Star FM, something that has turned him into a celebrity in the rural community he lives in and teaches. His dancehall is, however, a departure from the usual rhyming and verse chanting where sometimes one struggles to make meaning of the message to a more educative one with a gospel flair.
This is just a summary of the little known life of 36-year-old Silvanos Chanduru known in music circles as Ras Chanduru who is a Religious Studies teacher at Guni Secondary School, 50km outside Masvingo town.
His story is not that of trading the chalks for a microphone. Rather, it is that of holding the mic with one hand while the other is holding chalks and a duster.
In an interview with Sunday Leisure recently Chanduru said he was happy that his debut album was received well by the Masvingo community and that it was being played on national radio stations was evidence of its relevance.
He said growing up, he used to enjoy listening to musicians such as Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu, Nicholas “Senior Lecturer” Zacharia and Leonard Dembo and never thought he would be counted among the musicians of the country worse still in the dancehall genre that was not known then.
He is assisted by one of his former pupils, Forget Mafari aka Fire Fogo who sat for his Advanced Level examinations last year and is waiting for results.
Chanduru said although he grew up in a community dominated by sungura music he chose dancehall after realising that it was gaining more ground and was growing in popularity across all age groups.
He said his dancehall music was different in that it was more focused on delivering a meaningful message to a more mature audience than just the beat and the rhymes.
“Dancehall music has been associated with drugs and unruly behaviour but you would find that my tracks are more message driven. I live in the communities where there are a lot of things happening. So I take those topical things and do a social commentary on them. So mine is dancehall yes, but targeting a mature audience with a meaningful lyrical content.
“In other words it is the message that I want to fit into the music genre. You would realise that the title track Ebola is a warning and educative song about the disease and of how people should respond to cases of the deadly ailment. I also included a gospel track Ndimwari on the album and it is getting popular with those who love dancehall and who are also church goers,” he said.
Chanduru added that he had become both a celebrity and a role model to the youths in the rural community he is serving saying he was eager to show them that not only youths in Harare and Bulawayo could sing but that they too could do it even with minimum resources.
He also encourages school children to work hard in his track Shanda Nesimba which promises to be one of the long time hits of his album.
Another popular track on his album is Kushaya hanya where he takes a dig at Masvingo City Council police after an incident when they ran over a child while chasing vendors last year at Mucheke long distance bus terminus. The incident became the talk of the town as the angry vendors ganged up against the city council police. A kombi was burnt in the fracas. The council police had to run away from the furious mob of vendors and touts that threatened justice in a similar but infamous movie style where the police were caught at the hands of an apostolic sect in Harare last year.
The track has become an instant hit in Masvingo town and its surroundings after the incident was widely reported.
Chanduru said although he had not yet assembled a band, he was working towards having one so that he starts going out for shows. He also hinted that he was planning on releasing videos for the album. He, however, lamented lack of promoters in Masvingo saying that was negatively affecting the development of arts particularly music in the city.
Asked whether his music was not being pirated, he said like any other musician piracy has not spared him. He highlighted the need for a fair pricing system that will make piracy pointless.
“Those are just some of the leeside of technology. We cannot run away from that neither can we win the war. The only solution is to compete in prices if we are to win because I believe half a loaf is better than no bread. If we produce original CDs and sell them at prices that makes pirated ones lose relevance I think we can reduce the scourge because no-one would want a pirated disc when the original is there at an almost equal price as the pirated one,” he said.
He added that his producer CKlear was working on a dancehall compilation Sweet Emotions wich features 50 dancehall artistes from across the country and he is one of them with his song Vana veZimbabwe.
Chanduru said he was not going to look back in his music career as he had identified some talented young boys from the community that he intends to rope into his band when he gets the resources to assemble one.
This he said was in line with the country’s current economic blueprint, Zim Asset where the arts could be used to drive the rate of unemployment to an all time low.
It therefore remains to be seen whether he is going to remain focused in the dynamic and strong willed arts industry and be counted among the country’s dancehall gurus such as Tocky Vibes, Seh Calaz, Winky D, Guspy Warrior and many others who have managed to conquer the country with their music.
Bongani Ndlovu