adminthe world body to declare the beat, world heritage material.
For Douglas Vambe, the drumbeat that has announced news bulletins on national radio and television is his life. He has lived on it. His family has lived on it.
For him to have trudged the length and breadth of the world, playing the drum, that any village boy bred in Mutoko can easily lay, is certainly God given.
Today, Vambe is at the centre of a religious storm that has effectively brought into the fore the issue of religion and religiosity, art and belief. “Even though I am a member of Church of Christ I still go and play drums at Christ Embassy in Harare. For me there is nothing wrong in doing that for as long as I pray to the same God,” said Vambe whose claim to fame was when he recorded the Mbende-Jerusarema drumbeat which has since become the news bulletin signature tune.
“I have always been a Christian but sometime last year people from Christ Embassy invited me to one of their outreach programmes. I agreed. “While I was there, I played the drums with a group of children and from then on I started attending their services.”
According to Vambe, it was all a dream when he heard a voice which said he should beat his chest in a certain rhythm.
“The voice said I should follow a certain rhythm and the next morning I told my grandfather about that dream and he immediately organised a ceremony and told the gathering that I should play the drums. Since I was a small boy he suggested that I stand on a stool to be able to play the drums.
Once I started playing the drums the crowd went into a trance,” he explained. However, Pastor Ruth Musarurwa of Christ Embassy confirmed Vambe was now a member of their church. “We invited him during the Zimbabwe outreach campaign and he became a born-again Christian. Our joy is to see people getting salvation and not necessarily joining our church. Salvation is when people make Jesus Christ as the head of their lives.
“As a church our concern is to turn people from darkness to light through the word. But, of course, you can’t see the light if you are not born again that is if you remember the story of Nicodemus. By the way if you are not born again you can’t enter the Kingdom of God,” Pastor Musarurwa said.
Asked why they specifically wanted Vambe, Pastor Musarurwa said it came through a vision to one of the pastors from the church.
“One of the pastors told us to look for Vambe during our campaigns. We went to his home in Marondera and invited him to come to church. He came and performed with his group and everybody liked it. Later, he said he wanted to give his life to Jesus and since then he has been driving all the way from Marondera to attend church services in Harare,” she said.
She reiterated that even though Vambe had made a sensational U-turn, the church was not there to condemn his talent but to enhance it.
“The church supports his talent because it was a gift from God,” she said.
The one time Nama Personality of the Year 2009 award winner, Vambe was named in Unesco music heritage competition in 2007 where he was number 43 out of 153.
Born on August 9, 1937 in Magunje Village of Uzumba, Vambe fell in love with the traditional drum at a very tender age. The first born in a family of six, he attended school at Chowtime, Nyamashato and Rukunguwe up to standard three and dropped out when his parents could not afford to keep him in school. In 1958, Vambe went to Harare in search of employment and stayed at the Jo’burg Lines in Mbare with his brother. He managed to secure a catering job where he worked for two years before leaving the town to learn about tobacco farming.
While staying in Mbare, he formed the Murehwa Uzumba Number One Jerusarema, which practised at the Old Bricks section.
During the practice sessions in 1958, a crew from the then Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation (now ZBC) which included the late veteran broadcaster Godwin Mbofana, Dominic Mandizha, Wilson Chavaura and Silas Ntini spotted the group going through their paces.
The RBC crew approached then and proposed visiting Vambe village to see the group playing before a large gathering that included schoolchildren, the chief and others.
The group was still fronted by the likes of Ephraim Hunda, Stanmore Chidamoyo, Kapito Magaya, David Muchenyura and one “Dhafu” Max from Musani.
Vambe later recorded at Mbare studios taking three guys – a hosho player and two others. It took the four a good two and half hours to record. In 1961, the drumbeat became the signature tune for news bulletins and had adhered itself with traditional identification. In 1980, Vambe played the drums as the Union Jack was lowered at midnight being the last time it would fly in independent Zimbabwe.
The drumbeat is so popular when the ZBCTV removed it from introducing and concluding its news bulletins for a few days in 1999, there was an outcry from viewers across the country.
Online Reporter