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in Leicester the next day and at Premier Banqueting in Leeds on June 30 is said to have given a colossal performance. In my view, Winky D has now matured as an artiste .
Last year, I wrote about Winky D’s UK tour and gave him harsh criticism stating that he did not deliver according to the people’s expectations. With all the ratings he was getting back home the important London shows were a backlash and disappointment to a certain level among other things. I personally pointed out that he should have had a backing band to be an authentic artiste and win foreign audiences because without a band, the shows would end up like club (PA) performances .
What I respect about Winky D as an artiste, his management in Jonathan Banda and the rest of his promoters is that they did not sulk and get mad at me for rating his performance as average but agreed to take advice. I am glad Winky D and his management team took my advice seriously and vowed never to go back to the UK without a band.
This time The Vigilance Band went along and everyone agrees that they made a difference to the performance. All those UK fans who had originally thought that Winky D was a joke, began to think differently as he seemed to have struck the right chord with UK fans.
Pablo Nakappa, bassist in the Vigilance Band who clearly showed excitement about going to the UK to perform, said to me before they left for England: “Prof, we all have everything to thank you for. The promoters had wanted Winky D to come again and perform using backing tracks instead of a live band but Winky took your advice seriously. He stood his ground and we are going with him this time.”
On return after the performances, this is what Pablo had to say: “Y2K promotions are an organised team. Thank you guys for looking after us during our stay in the UK. We at Vigilance Band say Bang . . . Jah bless!”
It is obvious the band had a great time while in the UK and reports coming from there show that apart from all three venues being filled to maximum capacity, the audiences too had a great time.
Winky D is one of the luckiest Zimbabwe’s dancehall artistes that travel to perform in the UK regularly. Last time he was slotted to represent Zimbabwe at Africa Unplugged UK, a huge festival featuring some of Africa’s greats. We hope this last trip made the impact it deserved for Winky D as it would be a perfect selling point to international music market which is important at this time in his career because he has done it all back home. In Zimbabwe, he is currently riding high with his smash hit, “Mafira Kureva”, in which he despises the use of drugs among the youth.
“Mafira Kureva”, however, seems to have stirred a hornets’ nest among some ghetto youths.
The song, which takes a swipe at ghetto youths who rely heavily on drug abuse, has been received with mixed feelings.
As one ghetto youth said disdainfully: “Winky D’s first album was ‘Ghetto Defender’. Now that he is into advertising and he has made his money, he starts to disrespect the ghetto youths that made him. We are not even sure if that is a song meant to advise us or it is his way of getting another endorsement deal. The only time he performs in the ghetto is when big companies are involved.
“His ‘Mafira Kureva’ message we have no idea if it is rooted from love or out to get another ambassadorial deal with the NGOs funding anti-drug abuse campaigns,” he said.
Indeed, Winky D has been known to be prominently at the forefront of advertising youth programmes such as “Pinda musmart – Get circumcised” with billboards carrying such messages displayed throughout the country. Winky D is regarded highly in the high-density suburbs by the many youths who see him as a role model but there are a few who are unhappy about his latest song.
“The song has a message to all the youths who are abusing drugs especially in the ghetto. The song is condemning it,” said Jonathan Banda, Winky D’s manager.
While some youths have embraced the message on the song, some have decided to take a dig at the dancehall chanter. I remember way back in 1987 when I attended Peter Tosh’s concert at London’s Finsbury Town Hall. Tosh lit up a big spliff on stage before singing “Legalise Marijuana”. He chanted, “Down with dis ya Babylon shitstem. Ganja is good for you! It is the only cure for asthma!”
There were several policemen in the concert hall and he pointed at them and declared: “Dem are not gonna touch I and I for smoking marijuana, because if they do, I won’t sing for you. And if I don’t sing for you, you will riot, seen!” Indeed, the police seemed powerless to stop him smoking his spliff publicly.
I thought to myself, what a load of nonsense! I have never heard about Peter Tosh suffering from asthma, so why is he smoking it especially when he knows it is illegal to do so? If he had suffered from a headache, would he go on stage with an aspirin tablet and declare “Aspirin is good for you. It is the only cure for headaches?” Of course not!
It was fashionable to be a rebel against the system at the time and that confusion influenced a lot of youths who today think for no other reason that the use of drugs is a good thing because their role model, Peter Tosh, said so. Some youths in Jamaica still follow the teachings of the old guard such as Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, U-Roy, Horace
Andy and John Holt who encouraged them to smoke ganja through statements like, “It makes you wiser!”
Twenty-six years after the death of Peter Tosh, we still have youths in Jamaica who think that smoking ganja is cool. Only in 2011 Sizzla Kalonji, a dancehall singer, came to Zimbabwe at the invitation of the Government preaching about smoking ganja. He smoked it publicly. Ganja smoking is illegal in this country. The police did nothing to stop Sizzla. How ironic!
Now, in Zimbabwe, we are lucky to have another role model advising the youth against the use of (“fodya yamabhinya”) drugs. Winky D is now writing songs which reflect positively on social issues – (another advice I gave him last year). This singing against drug abuse has sparked controversy among the ghetto youths.
Another youth commented: “Winky D sang about weed in his songs earlier on in his career, such as ‘Ndiri Rasta’, ‘Godo’, ‘Mzii’ and other songs talking about weed. Now he switches and says it’s wrong because he has money.”
I can defend Winky D and declare that human beings are dynamic and Winky D has matured now. Winky D continues to be a role model by showing the youths that drug-taking is detrimental to one’s health, directionless and it destroys lives.
Yes, it might give one a “feel good” effect, but it will eventually destroy you. Winky D is attempting to save the lives of ghetto youths. He is not running away from them as some would like to think.
I have browsed through British and American journals of medicine but failed to find concrete information supporting the use of ganja apart from the fact that ganja users have higher caloric intakes. It makes you want to eat more.
The rest is negative as ganja affects one’s brain through a chemical known as tetrahydrocannabinol which blocks memory formation, affects your balance, gives you psychosis, hallucinations, increases the risk of depression, anxiety, panic and fear. Regular intake may also cause cancer.
Winky D is right in giving the ghetto youths advice. If this information offends the drug-taking youths, then I can categorically say that those drugs do not make them any wiser.
One youth who thinks positively about Winky D’s latest offering, sums it up as follows: “Well, for some of us who have been through that directionless, aimless road of weed, drugs and drinking WE SUPPORT WINKY D 100 percent.
“It destroys lives. Ask some urban groovers who are struggling to leave that life. Ask us who now live positive and productive lives instead of bobbing your heads up and down and loafing around fooled to think you are wise. Let the useless weed-smoking ghetto idiots be offended. The message is positive,” he said.
Well, there is nothing positive about drugs, period.
- Fred Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician, a music producer and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]
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