Did Tinei Chikupo possess supernatural powers?
IONCE wrote an article on one unsung music hero who made an impact in the 1970’s and who could easily be accredited with being the pioneer of the genre known as Jiti music. His name is Tinei Chikupo.
Since the 1990’s, I have been trying to document Chikupo’s history without much success. I thought that I would get enough information on him from people who worked with him. Many of these people have now died.
Tymon Mabaleka once said to me: “Chikupo was very distant. He would come into the studio, do his recording, sing very emotionally and talk to no one, then he was gone.”
Chikupo still remains a mystery to me. The information I received from some of these people is insu cient to do a full biography on him. I traced Tinei back to his roots in Murehwa thinking that I would get his full story from his children, but was told that he had no children.
Before Oliver Mtukudzi died on January 23, 2019, I am told that he had promised to instal a tombstone on Chikupo’s gravesite at Churu Farm, but, unfortunately, they could not nd his grave at the cemetery.
Last year, I spoke to Edmond Mtetwa, one of Chikupo’s adoring fans who are equally disgruntled that not enough accolades and publicity were given to this superstar.
Mtetwa said that he had enough information on his idol to even write a book, but when I interviewed him, I discovered that he barely knew more than I did on this iconic star. Up to now, Chikupo remains a mystery.
However, some of those people who read my article on Chikupo last year have come up with more refreshing information.
From one reliable source, who was very close to him but wishes to remain anonymous as she fears retribution from her relatives, I got extra information.
Although she sounded fearful and was a bit hesitant to reveal names, this is what she had to say: “Tinei Chikupo, after selling his house to get enough money to buy booze, became destitute again and moved in with (name given) from 1984 until his death. That was his third wife. He was not buried at Churu Farm as many would like to believe, but his body was taken to Murehwa which became his nal resting place. There is a lot of superstition around him as many in his village believe that he had supernatural powers and are not keen to talk about him.”
You will recall in my previous article, I mentioned that we could not trace any of Chikupo’s children and were told by the villagers in Murehwa that he had no children.
This source disputed that information. She told me that Chikupo had four children, the oldest being a now 38-year-old man called Takavadii Chikupo.
Takavadii, now based in Namibia, does not like the idea of the media enquiring about his father for reasons best known to himself.
This, according to the informant, would bring bad luck to him. So we left him alone.
Chikupo’s other children are three daughters named Acqueline, Dambudzo and Brenda. One of them is now based in South Africa. I have been in touch with one of his daughters who says she is brave enough to talk about her mysterious father, but she keeps postponing our interview as she promises to get more information on her dad from the rest of her family.
She said that she would call me but since February 21, she still hasn’t called me. Instead, I have spoken to Chikupo's stepdaughter from his third marriage who said the she lived with her stepfather from 1984 until his death.
She also spoke about his beliefs and supernatural powers.
He had no explanations for any of the weird things that he got up to. “Even my mother, who was dearly in love with him, found that some of the things he got up to were mysterious. For instance, one evening, Chikupo came home with this dried horse meat which he called biltong and forced all of us to eat it claiming that it would strengthen the family and no evil powers from outside would dare come close. I was ba ed,” she said.
Chikupo was the pioneer of Jiti music. He won many competitions. He had fame, creative prowess and adoring fans. He dominated the charts year after year in the 1970s — yet hardly anything is written about him.
According to many people I have spoken to, he had supernatural powers which gave him the edge over other musicians but just like his contemporary, Leonard Dembo, did not like publicity.
He was seen pouring beer on the earth to appease the ancestors and asking them to give him more luck in his musical career.
He had massive stage presence which was boosted by his mesmerising dance moves. He was a well-respected musician of the time and he made a name for himself especially on the farms in rural Zimbabwe. He sold hundreds of thousands of records to the extent that Gramma Records decided to buy him a house in one of Harare’s suburbs. This decision was arrived at by Tony Hagelthorn and John Grant of Gramma Records who noticed that Chikupo was making a lot of money but did not have a proper place to live.
He spent most his royalties on booze and women. Instead of giving him the royalties that he had earned in 1978, they bought him a house. To show that he did not appreciate owning a house, rumour has it that when he was down and out, he began to spend a lot of his time in beer halls instead of composing more songs. In his last days, he had become an alcoholic to the extent that he even decided to sell his house in order to make ends meet.
According to Mtetwa, Chikupo’s ancestors did not want him to live a luxurious life, hence the sale of his house. It was easy to move in with someone who already had a house. His children were left abandoned in Murehwa with some relatives.
Unfortunately, I only attended one of Chikupo’s shows at Mushandirapamwe Hotel in High eld after an invitation from Charles Tawengwa, the owner of the hotel, shortly after Independence.
He was a gifted and amazing performer and from the way he moved, people in the audience thought that he was a possessed man.
I overheard one fan shouting: “Aakus
vikirwa manje!” (“He is now possessed!”). At the time people thought that Chikupo had supernatural powers that made him do unnatural and inexplicable things on stage.
Dressed in traditional black and white attire, he would go into a trance in the middle of a song. Chikupo pronounced who he was without having to speak. His style of dressing spoke for itself. His father was said to be a spirit medium and the rainmaker of Murehwa.
Even his own band, the Sungura Boys, regarded him as a madman.
They thought that he was too wild for their liking.
At MushandiraPamwe, I listened very attentively to his rendition of jiti music. With his wild gyrations on stage, the crowd was ecstatic. All his compositions were focused on the war of liberation in Zimbabwe as it was at the peak of the armed struggle that he started his career.
Therefore, his music was bound to be revolutionary. With songs such as Tine Nzara, Kudzapasi, Kapfumo Kandibaya, Mhuka Ine Mavara, Sirivia Hande Kumagobo or Chamunorwa
( Rega KurovaAmai) which he had recorded with the Mother Band, Vhuka Boys or Mawonera Superstars, one could tell that he was very bitter about what was going on during the war. All these compositions carried revolutionary messages.
They peaked at number one on the then Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) charts and were chanted by both the guerillas and collaborators during the war.
Delivered with passion, the shrieking and emotionally-charged voice of Chikupo, who was behind these songs, had the power to stir anger within the youths in the war-ravaged Rhodesia.
It is said that he was inspired by his own father, who was a spirit medium and would talk to the ancestors regarding the direction the guerillas should take in their ght against the Smith regime.
Mtetwa tells me that during his time, Chikupo was a regular winner in the best musician of the month competitions that were held at Rufaro Stadium where groups performed and then at the end the best group was chosen.
According to Mtetwa, "On three occasions, Chikupo was number one ahead of Oliver Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo and even Zexie Manatsa.”
So why is this icon with so much musical prowess and who sold hundreds of thousands of records not as wellknown as his contemporaries such as Tuku, Mapfumo and Manatsa? I wonder. Some just dismissed him as an irresponsible drunkard when they compared him with his contemporaries. Chikupo, despite his so-called supernatural powers, later fell into heavy drinking and died a sad man.