The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Friday, March 26, 1993 — Today I would like to begin by giving thanks to two people; the first to Thomas Mapfumo and his backing group, Blacks Unlimited, and the second to the promoters of the concert show at which he and Paris-based Cameroonian Afro-jazz super star Manu Di Bango appeared as co-stars.

My thanks to Thomas Mapfumo are for a very simple but profound reason. I say thank you, Thomas, for justifying the faith I have always maintained — and frequently professed — in local music being good enough, not only being able to stand its own (at WOMAD, for example) against any type of music from anywhere in the world but also being the music of the future.

Following his 45-minute non-stop performance at the Harare International Conference Centre, which was full to capacity with hundreds of fans being turned away at the door, Thomas Mapfumo was given a deafening two-minute standing ovation.

It must be appreciated that Manu Di Bango is not just an ordinary populist musician of Pepe Kalle genre, but is a very sophisticated musician. Ordinary fans in the country may find much difficult appreciating his music just as they would, for example, not find the music of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti or King Sunny Ade that much exciting.

The audience at last Saturday evening’s concert was most likely to be, therefore, on the elite side — those among whom are to be found the most antitraditionalists in our black society. The balance of the audience is likely to have been made up of white fans of Di Bango, mostly French Zimbabweans and expatriates from the French-speaking world.

The standing ovation, therefore means that the Zimbabwean Afro-beat superstar must have taken this assemblage of the elite by delightful surprise. What he gave them was probably beyond their wildest expectations from someone always referred to — often derogatory — as a “traditional” musician which to many means “backward” or “primitive” entertainers. Thank you Thomas, you did us proud!