by ERIN MACLEOD

It’s tough to encapsulate the career of one of the world’s most passionate and political musicians. Thomas Mapfumo has been on the forefront of politically charged music for almost half a century. In the 1970s, he christened his musical style chimurenga—it means “struggle” in his native Shona language. Protesting colonialism, dictatorship and the unfair foreign policies of the West, among other things, Mapfumo is a voice that even one of the world’s most infamous governments cannot silence. The Mirror talked with the Lion of Zimbabwe about all this and more.

Mirror: Being a politically conscious musician, do you sense that there is a lack of politically and socially conscious popular music in the world today?

Thomas Mapfumo: Yes, there is. Look at the situation we are in today. A lot of poor people are getting killed. Places like Lebanon, Israel, where we hear about people getting killed because of some arrogant world leaders. So, for me to sing a love song, it would be a sheer waste of time, because I see a lot of suffering, I can hear people screaming out there—some people are being tortured right now while we are celebrating here. This is no time to celebrate.

M: Do you think that your political consciousness is fueled by your experience, and that those, say, in North America are too distanced from the reality of political and social turmoil as experienced in a country like Zimbabwe?

TM: Today people sing about making a lot of money out of music. That’s not the idea—not my idea. Music is there to help the poor people. For people who cannot speak for themselves, music is there to speak for them. When things are alright and things are okay, people can celebrate, when the world is at peace. But people don’t care. They have the money, they are driving flash cars, wearing the fashion, and they don’t care about who is dying out there. We need to recognize this situation and address it because we are all going to die.

M: Do you think the Internet is a valuable tool for artists to distribute music and messages internationally, perhaps to places it would otherwise not reach?

TM: It’s trying to promote African culture here in the West. The problem today is how we speak of division. Some people think that everything from Africa is no good. Everyone who is making music today, some of it was stolen from Africa. We know about that. They think we are not very clever, but we know what is happening. People are making money out of the African culture. And we don’t talk about it. When our music comes here [to North America], we are underestimated.

M: Apart from revealing this cultural heritage, what do you think music can do?

TM: Music has a very important role to play. The government in my own country is not a government by the people. The leader does not want to get out of power, he wants to be there forever and ever. Where are we headed for? Every musician needs to try to write music with a good message. Tell the people that no one is above the other. All these useless wars should be stopped. Leaders need to listen to the people, because we are the people.

With his Blacks Unlimited band at Kola Note
on Thursday, Aug. 17, 9 p.m., $21

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