Reflections on the life, death of Soul Jah Love
Listening to Saul Musaka’s “Ndimi Makauraya” made me realize that there is so much more to documenting and objective reporting than meets the eye.
Not only is it a thrust on the information dissemination goals; journalism and publicity stunts do have a powerful role to shape, name, blame and paint the overall image of an individual and society. These loose ends typically transcend general discourse.
In its richest forms, true publicity is that which seeks truths, bring healing and point towards ills in a bid to bring reform. As always, we focus on the half-baked and then never turn back to see what becomes of the oven which we did not turn off in our haste to show and tell.
The following line from the song spoke to me “Hapana akandibvunza ndikaramba kupindura, ndini ndakunge ndakan’ora, nyangwe muchiti ndini ndakatadza, ndimi makauraya, kubasa kwenyu ndimi makauraya.”
Translating loosely to mean that I never refused to answer yet no one bothered to ask, you might blame me but in truth you are the killers, through your works, you have destroyed.
It is a sad reality that as the Shona say, “munhu akanaka afa” which can be translated into how a person’s goodness is only seen when they die. We go on to say “Musamirira kundipa maruva angu ndafa” meaning, do celebrate my life while I’m still alive. I feel these sentiments ring true as I was going through the footage of the life and history of Soul Jah Love.
As I read through Soul Jah Love’s stories, I saw a real paradox in his life, his lyrics and the image we all got to know as “mwana waStembeni.” Is it possible that we might have gone overboard a bit in our aims to sell a story?
What if there is another angle that could still have made a worthy read for many out there. Who, indeed, was Soul Jah Love?
Born Saul Musaka In November the 21st in 1989, he lost his mother at a very young age. He sings of the pain he went through at the hands of his step mother in the years to follow.
As if that wasn’t enough, disaster was soon to strike through the loss of his father. This ultimatum of fate was so dire it sent him right to the doldrums as he became what he would proudly call a “chigunduru” though the term is a painful depiction of the homeless we find on the streets, the equivalent of ‘street urchin’.
He sings, “Ndakanga ndisina bhutsu kwangu kumusha handitoziva.” Sadly, when he tried building a house for himself, it was demolished, his current project at rebuilding has suffered a death as untimely and unprecedented as his own.
His rise through to a successful musical career was one spectacular one. He became entwined with dancehall queen Bounty Lisa and their on-off relationship made headlines throughout its tenure. He lost the love of his life, some would say due to infertility.
He bemoans this fact when he says “munoti ndichavigwa negonzo asi mbereko yaramba” in his track Mbereko, a true testament of lamentation.
Several times in interviews on air he would express his pain and frustrations due to how people seemed to ignore that there was more to his life’s story than just being a ghetto youth of uncouth behaviour always in a drunken stupor even when going for shows-his professed life occupation.
He explained that he was diabetic and would at times collapse just before a show and still get back up and onto the stage and still leave fans clamouring for more.
No-one seemed to take note, his pains and sufferings were not the kind of stuff that would make headlines, as it would seem.
On different occasions he sought help through the PHD Ministries led by Prophet Walter Magaya in seemingly futile attempts to get rehabilitation. He believed in his life as a son of God and explains, “Kunamata hakusi kupfeka garments, zvinoda uchitenda munaIshe Tenzi.”
It is evident the man had more than just drugs and substance abuse to fight and still believed he would be saved.
It is also clear as the daylight, his abuse was a cry for help, an escape route from the pain, struggles and frustrations assailing his very existence on a daily basis. In one of his tracks he sings, “vakatumira mamhepo” and resoundingly berates those who sought to bring his life down, it seemed he had many demons that he was in constant combat with.
Chigunduru, Makuruwane, Mhofu, Soul Jah Love; he was a man of many faces, it’s possible we missed the most important one. Blatantly, he would always sing that he was “Mwana waStembeni” a son of Stembeni, a man like any other; capricious but resolute in his quest to be a great man in society.
There are many things about his life that were a real cause for concern and half the said controversies were a result of misinformed and misguided publicity. I realise, now, how much we add on to the pain and frustrations of those we write about; all in the name of getting a killer headline.
How much more richer would our stories and articles be if we were to write the real life struggles of people from an objective perspective rather than focusing on what we deem saleable?
Are our communities that far gone to the dogs that we can only find a story newsworthy if it criticises, exposes evil and shows the negatives about a person?
Indeed, can social