Zimpapers Logo

interest. From 2008 onwards, 20 years later, his music has been conspicuous by its absence on the market.
It wasn’t until I got a ride in a friend’s car last week that I heard a Leonard Zhakata tune playing in his car that I was pleasantly surprised. I asked my friend what the title of the album was.
He didn’t know, as this was a pirated copy which had no writing on it and which he had paid a dollar for at a shop near Copacabana Restaurant in Harare.
The music itself was enough to convince anyone that this is talent at its best. I asked one CD street vendor if he had any Leonard Zhakata CDs and he told me that he had just sold the last copy of an album known as “Gotwe”.
One track in particular, which my friend played repeatedly, caught my ear. As mentioned earlier, this was a pirated copy of Zhakata’s music and it was difficult to tell what the title of this track was. However, it had the word ‘tsuri’ as part of its lyrics.
I asked my friend what it meant. He had no idea. We stopped the car and asked a few passers-by what “tsuri” meant. They didn’t know either except for one woman who said that it meant ‘A person who can sing’.
It wasn’t until I went home that night that I looked up the word in the famous dictionary “Dura Manzwi Guru ReChishona” by Herbert Chimhundu et al.
According to this dictionary, ‘tsuri’ is a shrill from a distance or a flute (musical instrument). I tried to call Leonard Zhakata to find out the title of this song and where I can obtain it.
Unfortunately his phone went unanswered. I left a message at Mushandira Pamwe Hotel where he is said to hang out a lot, but did not get a return call. I thought maybe it is because he is tired of journalists asking him silly questions all the time. I did not bother him again.
There has been a lot of mystery surrounding Leonard Zhakata’s music. He is undoubtedly a big star in the league of The Mtukudzis, The Chimbetus and The Machesos, but does not receive as much airplay on radio as these three.
In trying to get answers to this mystery, I asked three Radio Zimbabwe’s DJs to explain why Zhakata is not receiving sufficient airplay and whether they had been instructed by the authorities not to play his music.
The first one remarked that he had not received any instructions from anyone not to play his music, but that it just wasn’t readily available.
The second DJ answered me rather rudely and said, ‘My friend, you don’t want me to lose my job, do you?’ and the third one simply told me that I have not been listening to his programme sufficiently as he often plays a Zhakata song on every other programme.
The mystery goes further as ZMC and Gramma Records have got recordings done by Leonard Zhakata as far back as 2008 which they seem reluctant to release, yet there is a recording contract in place which was signed by both parties many years ago.
Leonard Karikoga Zhakata was born on the10th February 1968. He writes and performs sungura music. Zhakata, is well-known for adorning glittering outfits.
The first time I saw him on stage, my mind went straight to the old rock and roll days of Gary Glitter.
Zhakata was popularised by hits “Hupenyu Mutoro”, “Batai Mazwi” and “Gomba Remarara” in the early 1990’s. However, it was his 1994 smash hit “Mugove”, from the album “Maruva Enyika”, which propelled him to national stardom.
The album is said to have earned him
$50 000, money which at the time, could buy him a modest house.
In 1994 at the age of 26, he became the youngest Zimbabwean musician to sell more than 100 000 copies of an album, when his solo album “Maruva Enyika” sold more than 120 000 copies.
In 2006, Zhakata, perhaps on realising that he was not getting sufficient airplay, asked for the radio waves to be freed to allow more Zimbabweans to operate radio stations but he was unsuccessful in his bid.
Zhakata is a qualified Fitter and Turner and the only boy in a family of seven. Zhakata used to sneak from home and play music with his primary school mates. He did his primary education at Shiri Yedenga School in Glen Norah, Harare.
With his cousin, the late Thomas Makion, they formed the Maungwe Brothers Band. At the age of thirteen, he had his first music composition “Baba vaSamson”.
Pursuing school and later serving for an apprenticeship, it took Leonard sometime before he could record.
After, the frustration of being turned down by recording companies, he had his lucky break and recorded his first 12-inch single entitled “Moyo Muti” sometime in 1989, which was followed by an album “Yarira Mhere” in 1990.
Zhakata’s songwriting skills continued to rise with the releases of chart busting songs such as “Tungidza Gwenya” and “Shungu Dzemwoyo”.
He, however, seemed to remain in the mediocre periphery of “Who is Who” on the Zimbabwean music scene, until the release of his mega chartbusting album “Maruva Enyika” with the hit song “Mugove” in 1994.
Backed by a very tight musical outfit, The Zimbabwean All Stars Band and a well choreographed dance display which was shown on national TV, this album set Zimbabwe on fire during the festive season of the same year. No party was complete without “Mugove” being played.
Those who had doubted Zhakata’s music mastery had to think again. All albums that followed thereafter “Nzombe Huru”, “Vagoni Vebasa”, and three others, established Zhakata within the Zimbabwean music household.
In November, 1995, Zhakata and his band, The Famous Seven, were invited to perform in London, United Kingdom, but due to amateurish promotion, the shows were attended by only a handful of rhumba/sungura fans.
We got used to listening to Zhakata on a regular basis until 2008 when there was a sudden blackout in his music. What is going on Leonard?
l Fred Zindi is a Professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]