Remembering top musician Green Jangano

DEATH is the least we should have to fear as it is inevitable. Believe it or not, all of us will die someday. However, when the living lose people close to their hearts, the sadness is always unbearable. These are the dynamics of life. Today, we unveil the tombstone in loving memory of one of Zimbabwe’s greatest musicians, Greenford Jangano, at Warren Hills Cemetery. The musician died on November 27, 2015, aged 79.

Jangano was a music icon, guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and singer/songwriter. He was born on January 13, 1935 at Old Umtali Mission in Manicaland where his parents worked.

He had four siblings, Booker, Lovemore, Christian and Shepherd who also formed the Tornadoes Band in Mutare. Green attended primary school at Old Umtali Mission (now known as Old Mutare or Hartzell) where he was taught to drive by his cousin, Kawadza. The driving skills would earn him employment at a farm in Chipinge but left when the white farmer doubled his duties to include looking after pigs. Jangano quit the job and relocated to then Salisbury in pursuit of employment.

He worked for Glens Transport and later relocated to Lusaka, Zambia.

In 1958, Jangano began his musical career with a band he had met while in Zambia called the AfroCuban band whose leader was George Mlongoti.

Jangano was lead guitarist in the band and their main music genre was known as cha-cha-cha.

While working at Portland Cement, he met William Chiguma, another musician who joined his band.

Jangano would meet West Nkosi, a South African music producer, at Cyril Jennings Hall, Highfield in 1959 where the producer was scouting for musicians to sign on. There was stiff competition among the musicians present, but Jangano’s band whose imagination and innovation put them on top of their game, won the contest and thus became known as the Harare Mambo Band.

The band soon became famous for churning out music and dance songs. The song Tamba Suzana or Zvanhasi Ngezveduwo sometimes known as Tenderera Tendera came immediately after.

After that, Jangano began to take music seriously and assumed the reins as manager of Afro-Cuban Band which had failed to make an impact in Harare (known at the time as Salisbury). He took the Harare Mambos to places like The Federal Hotel and Queen Elizabeth Hotel where he secured contracts to play for patrons in pubs.

He later worked for British American Tobacco, a company which also gave him the opportunity to advertise their product, Players Gold Leaf cigarettes, and later Lever Brothers where he took the band around the country to advertise Sunlight soap from a mobile van.

This is the first time I met Jangano in person. I was introduced to him by his brother, Shepherd. I also met William Kashiri and Elisha Jasamu for the first time. They had an amazing act. Tamba Suzana left a big impression on me especially when they sang the part that said tenderera tenderera.

The Harare Mambos were involved in the promotion of many products for private companies in Zimbabwe. Companies such as British American Tobacco and Lever Brothers, have got the Harare Mambos to thank for the promotion and publicity of their products and the profits they made during the early sixties before television and most people could afford radios. The band used to travel nationwide on publicity campaigns with Jangano at the forefront. They were also the first local band to appear on a white-dominated television.

Because they were so good, on local television, Martin Locke the then television anchor on Rhodesian TV, presented them as a Black American band to stop the White Rhodesians from protesting against the showing of Africans on “their” television.