Deliberately Forgetting Cultural Changes in Zimbabwe

On a recent trip to Bikita, Masvingo we did not have the now ubiquitous flash drive for uninterrupted journey music.  What was interesting was that we could purchase one without music and then get someone else to transfer music to it. The person who was to transfer the music to it was of the apostolic faith movement and he said so.  He also advised us that most of his music would be gospel related.

We just told him to give us what he had so that in between cities where there is limited radio coverage we would at least listen to some Zimbabwean music.  We did not ask him about where he got the music. But at the back of our minds, we knew that the music had been probably acquired since the early 200s when Gramma and Teal Records employees realized that the long-playing (LP)record and the compact disc (CD) were on their way out due to an emergent digitalization of music era.

So we got this flash drive and its gospel-laden music. What we did not know is that even a member of the apostolic sect does not only listen to gospel music.  He had a mix of gospel (as expected) but also Sungura and Chimurenga music that he had sold to us for US$1.

As our journey progressed we had to ask ourselves significant cultural questions. The most obvious being that the the cost of the flash drive and the addition of music to it had been about at most US$3.  And what that meant for the evolution of music in Zimbabwe vis-à-vis copyright laws and the income of musicians.

My colleague and I couldn’t agree on this particular issue because as I argued for artists to get their due for their amazing music and talents, he simply brushed it off by saying that the issue is the new technologies that we now use to consume what would be creative cultural products.

He continued that musical artists now make money off of their marketing and social media presence.  And the more a song or songs are played via a flash drive the more likely a live show will be well attended.

I couldn’t argue with this as we listened to Madzibaba Nicholas Zacharia between Gutu and the Roy turnoff along the Masvingo- Mutare highway.

Mainly because he had a very significant point about how we now consume our cultural entertainment, what we value, and its end products.

This was also before a dancehall artist called Silent Killer popped up on the playlist singing about whatever is called ‘Kuf Kaf’.  It turns out it meant ‘kufa kana kufenda’.  Or something close to that.

By the time we reached Nyika Growth point (they should probably make it a town given its expansion), we had listened to legendary music from Dembo, Mapfumo, Chimbetu, Chimombe, Chibadura, and many others.

What we could not explain was the contradiction in what music meant in the contemporary. At our ages (forties) we could not quite get the Zimbabwe Dancehall music that was on the given playlist.

We however agreed that new music in Zimbabwe is increasingly forgettable. Especially when we consider our past cultural experiences of what ‘songs’ meant.  Culturally, historically and politically.

We are now in an age/era in which we live for the moment and are easy to forget.  It’s almost a generational trait.  One in which younger Zimbabweans are very keen on the immediate but not the past or the future.

So we have a real ‘clash of cultures’ in Zimbabwe. One which appears to be characterized by contestations about authenticity over what is past, what is present, and what can be the future.

By the time we got to the Chikuku Business Centre, we were now discussing why young Zimbabweans are enamored with an ephemeral music culture.  And we realized that it’s linked to a now-existent urban and rural lifestyle where what makes you happy for one day simply makes you happy.  Tomorrow will most likely solve itself.

This is a sign of a society in a specific decadence.  And we were only discussing this about music and its impact on Zimbabwean society.

We realized our current music consumption reflects the possibility that we are not as culturally smart as we assume we are.  We are now in a phase of what makes us happy is what makes us wake up tomorrow.  Individually.

There were many more arguments to be had beyond the music on the flash drive but we had arrived at our destination.  We had to deal with dying cattle because of the drought.