adminNkosilathi Sibanda Urban Beats and Culture
I AM one of many Zimbabweans who paid little attention to local music chart busters lists. It is either I did not follow local content or just plain dumb to care. Radio stations, all in the reach of a dial, have their daily top songs lists, yet a few of us follow that. We are well content with the UK top charts and the whole international junk loaded on our music players.
Even the loudest of patriots don’t know who is topping the chart at Star FM this weekend.
In the 1980s and 1990s, radio used to be the ultra accessory to own. If your father had not bought a Supersonic, you had to beg to listen from your neighbour’s.
Uncomfortable it was, but it was worth listening to your favourite DJ and waking up the next day an expert in contemporary music.
Then it was impossible to fit in the clique of the “haves” — those kids who knew all about current music. But if you listened to top thumping music on the then Radio 3’s Hitsville, you would be the kind of “dude” to hang out with.
This has suddenly changed. People now listen to Ndolwane Super Sounds. I used to attach the music from this Plumtree group to a certain class of society.
Where I grew up, Ndolwane was all to do with the guy from the growth point, our fellows with a strong rural background. The ones we call in hushed voices as the SRB.
This was in the days of a united Ndolwane Super Sounds, when Martin Sibanda and Charles Ndebele drank tea from the same pot.
If you owned any Ndolwane cassette, you definitely came from Filabusi, Tsholotsho, Madlambudzi or Kezi.
City life would not accept people who danced to that music. You were a misfit!
This is not meant to offend anyone, but it is one observation shared by many who were born and bred in urban streets.
Of late that has changed. Ndolwane music has turned the streets. We love themm but forget the day we cursed their fans.
Now Charles boasts of his better Ndolwane music, of which I cannot take anything away from.
But, today we want to make a star of Martin’s version. I single out this Kalanga muso because he deserves mention.
Music lovers talk and comment about Ndolwane, as if they have brought in a new dimension. Across the breadth of Matabeleland this group has rose to prominence.
It all came with the scorcher album Bakhuzeni. Suddenly the whole city is crazy.
Every song is an anthem. The staunch salala can sing along and go further to win the karaoke show with any song in Bakhuzeni.
Tell me of a Bulawayo resident who doesn’t know the line: Umuntu odelela abanye uyakhuzwa/ uyakhuzwa/yena uyakhuzwa.
Club DJs have the album in their CD racks. If they are ashamed to be seen with a Ndolwane CD, at least they have it on a flash drive.
That’s how popular Martin’s Ndolwane has come to be.
All over the region, people made Ndolwane a household name. Martin spoke glowingly about this.
“We sold more than 2,000 copies an hour after releasing the album.”
An advice to a small town DJ is to play any of the songs in Bakhuzeni and they would be guaranteed of an appreciative audience.
Who would have thought Ndolwane would be a club hit in their lifetime? It is a sure sign that Martin Sibanda has adjusted his music to draw the city folk who long listen to foreign beats.
The urban dweller now has a stronger rural background. The rise of Ndolwane, reclaiming the urban scene means music is for the rural bred. Beats are universal and transcend backgrounds.
Confronting the grisly showbiz industry, Martin’s Ndolwane has released hit after hit, something worthy to copy for a budding muso in Nkayi.
Giving so much reverence to Bakhuzeni is not enough than to comment on a perceived re-united Ndolwane.
Had Charles and Martin not split, the talk would be different.
Ndolwane of the old days had its fair share to fame.
Since the debut release, Ndoyana, culminating to the album Hluphile, it was clear these Plumtree guys meant business.
If Martin and Charles split to give us a better version of Ndolwane, that is good for music.
Besides the studio wars and rumours about the split, Ndolwane music remains a cultural fabric to many. The music still holds the core to the continuation of values in contemporary societies.
I would like to call this the Ndolwane enlightenment.
Online Reporter