Musicians feel sting of poor rains
ERRATIC rains received throughout the country are giving some local musicians sleepless nights.
Yes, some are farmers and worried just like their counterparts, but there is more to their concerns.
There is a group of singers that is hardly visible in big towns and cities yet popular on the outskirts — farms, mines and growth points.
Names that quickly come to mind include Simon Mutambi, Sugar Sugar, Ronnie Mudhindo, Tatenda Pinjisi, Nicholas Zacharia, First Farai, Kapfupi and Somandla Ndebele.
These musicians attract multitudes of fans whenever they perform in the peri-urban, rural and mining areas.
Apart from their animated live acts, pulsating and thirst-quenching compositions, the artistes are also adored for being “flexible” on admission charges.
In towns and cities, when a reveller does not have the required admission fee or anyone to pay for them, the next easy route is to stay home.
Well, that is not the case on the outskirts, where several options are made available to pleasure seekers.
Farm produce — a bucket of soya beans, maize, live chickens or goats, among other things — are a form of currency that can guarantee one a good outing.
Many artistes who frequent the areas are comfortable with this arrangement, which has been in existence for years.
However, a good number of them fear the looming poor harvest is going to leave them high and dry — talk of dry fields and silent stages.
“Farming and mining communities are our rich hunting grounds. However, we are worried that we will not be getting the usual numbers this time around due to the poor rains we received this farming season,” Simon Mutambi’s manager, Darlington Kachere, told The Sunday Mail Society.
“Signs have already started showing. Unlike in past years, farmers are hesitant to offload their grains for pleasure.”
It is said the musicians later sell the “harvested” farm produce — grains, chickens, goats et cetera — in big cities at higher prices, while in some instances they keep the produce for personal use.