adminand jazz fans may be misled by the name into believing that this group plays their kind of music genre. Instead, they should be prepared to listen to rhumba music.
In the late 1970s a group based at a mining compound situated in the south-eastern parts of Zimbabwe emerged.
Its founder member was Jonah Sithole, born in October, 1956.
The group called itself Devera Ngwena (which loosely means “follow the crocodile”) Jazz Band. The music by this group was a fusion of Zairean rhumba with local rhythms, which is commonly known as sungura beat.
Jonah Moyo (not the politician), who worked as a clerk at Mashaba Asbestos Mine near Masvingo, thought up the idea of establishing a band which would play for the miners at month-ends.
He saw this move as a way of making extra cash for himself as his full-time job, including overtime, did not give him enough money to make ends meet.
The idea became a reality in 1979 when Jonah asked Patrick Zhuwawu (not the MP) who had been playing drums for a group known as Mandoz in Masvingo to join him.
Patrick was also given a job at Mashaba Mine and serious rehearsals with two other guitarists began.
For three evenings a week the band was engaged in song-writing and practice sessions.
After a successful evening during one of their month-end performances, which was attended by over 500 people from the mining compound and surrounding areas, Jonah had convinced his players that forming a band was a worthwhile venture.
The mining authorities were also convinced that apart from the band providing recreation to the children of the miners, the venture could be financially viable to the mine.
As a result a contract was signed between the band and the mine whereby it was agreed that the mine would provide musical equipment for the band in return for some of the band’s income until the equipment was fully paid for.
After this, there was no looking back, Jonah soon secured a recording deal with Teal Recording Company (now called Gramma Records).
At independence, Devera Ngwena Jazz Band was the band of the moment. In no time at all they made the top 10 charts with hits like “Barbara” and “Solo naMutsai”. Between 1981 and 1989, Devera Ngwena recorded 13 albums and 57 singles most of them selling over 100 000 copies each, thus becoming one of the best sellers the country had ever seen.
A touring British group, UB40, spent several hours listening to their music and later asked the band to share the stage with them at Rufaro Stadium in Harare.
The popularity of Devera Ngwena soared, as most people could not believe that the unique sound they were hearing was coming from a mining compound in Zimbabwe.
The advantage the group had was the fact that most mining compounds in Zimbabwe were using migrant labour usually from Malawi and Mozambique.
Moyo quickly learned that to appeal to these people he had to sometimes use their rhythms and languages.
Songs such as “Lekani Kuula” sung in Chi Chewa, a Malawian language, was written with this idea in mind.
Zhuwawu, the drummer, could speak Chi Sena, a Mozambican language, as his folks were originally from there.
As a result he also assisted in the phrasing of some of the words.
In 1986 the band suffered a major split over money issues with Jonah and Patrick remaining the only founder members while the rest formed their own band, Zhimozhi. Jonah soon recruited his brothers, Joshua and Stanley, to replace those who had left the band. With this new group hits such as “Chiredzi”, “Masvingo neCarpet” were churned out.
A year later (1987) the new band, which now included a brass section featuring Christopher Ncube and Kudzi Mashereni, as well as Robson Banda on bass and Innocent Bitu on rhythm guitar, toured the UK where they changed their name to “Follow The Crocodile” under the management of Ian McIntosh.
Their new dance music was well appreciated by British audiences. In the same year the band left the mining company as they became busier and had become detached from the mine.
Many people felt that if Devera Ngwena had been given a decent royalty rate by their record company, they could have easily become the wealthiest band in the first ten years of Zimbabwean independence.
But according to Jonah, they only received 5 percent royalties from their record sales.
In 1993, Jonah and the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band released another album called “Usamubate” and it sold like hot cakes.
This album went gold when it sold 120 000 copies in South Africa.
Although he was now recording in South Africa, this did not mean Jonah had forgotten his multitude of followers back home.
According to him, the group was still intact despite the breakaway by certain members who formed splinter groups like Zhimozhi and Petro naJohane.
When Devera Ngwena toured Europe in 1987, critics hailed it as a welcome relief from the static European music market. The more daring ones suggested they were much better than The Bhundu
Boys. The Bhundus, for their own part, celebrated their brothers’ arrival by doing the rhumba jit-jive, which gave the rock-infested European boppers such a thrill.
Some even professed that they would never listen to rock again. All in all, Jonah and his Devera Ngwena Jazz Band performed some 45 shows in England, Scotland and Holland and made a lot of new converts on the way.
By the end of their tour, they had stolen the hearts of the critics there. They stole all four shows they did with Johnny Clegg at the Royal Theatre in Bristol.
They appeared in a joint concert with Zimbabwean rhumba greats, The Real Sounds of Africa, at the Town and Country Club in Kentish Town, London.
They performed with the Bhundu Boys and Hugh Masekela in Brixton, London. They teamed up with Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Hammersmith Odeon, London.
Then they made Glastonbury Festival – a place synonymous with the “sell-outest”, “packed-est” concerts you ever heard.
It is said that at Glastonbury, they performed in front of an estimated 35 000 people.
Finally, they appeared before a capacity 10 000-strong crowd in Holland where they happened to be the only musical group at an annual festival.
So what was making Devera Ngwena tick so much more wondrously than any granddad clock?
According to Jonah: “The audiences said the music was danceable, easy to follow and they quickly adapted to it.
“They were saying we were above the standards of some bands from Africa they had seen before. And some critics unashamedly told us we were better than the Bhundu Boys, right in front of Biggie Tembo!”
Despite the thousands of fans in Europe, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the name Devera Ngwena Jazz Band seems to have fizzled out.
No one talks about them anymore. The question is what has happened to this fabulous band which wowed a lot of music fans in the 1980s and 1990s?
- Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]
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