Wasted Vinyl; Interview with Thomas Mapfumo on African Music and Culture

You It's deep in the yellow blood

It's deep in the blood It's deep, deep, deep It's deep in the blood It's right out of the jungle It's deep in the blood It's deep in the blood I don't tell-me-tell-me, tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell-me-tell!. That's what I want to show you. Oh, that's a lot. Yeah, I'm not going to make it.

I'm not going to make it. Yeah. Oh, that's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. . . . . . .

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And then in Madagascar, first of Mahaleo, a group in the late 70s, early 80s, and now Tureka Sammy have inspired young people to re-examine their roots by mixing traditional and modern elements in their music. Well, if you look at Zimbabwe in Southern Africa,

the man most responsible for popularizing the use of traditional elements in popular music is Thomas Mopsumo. Like many of his peers in Zimbabwe growing up in the 60s, starting his career in the 60s and 70s, he started his career playing in cover bands. Actually, they're known as copyright bands in Zimbabwe, and we'll hear him say that a couple times later on in this interview. However, his emergence as a performer in the mid 70s coincided with Zimbabwe's emergence as an independent black majority-governed nation. The 1970s was a decade of civil war in Zimbabwe, which was then known as Pradija, and with the white minority governing the country at that time, and the black minority, paddling the white minority in civil war until a settlement in the late 70s, finally 1980, led to black majority rule. So it's in this context that Thomas Mopsumo turned to traditional music and culture, and eventually with his bands, the acid band, and the blacks unlimited, Thomas Mopsumo

became a cultural leader in Zimbabwe's revolution. I think what we'll do first before going to the interview is play one of the songs that he did before the revolution, one of his Kimoranga songs, Kimoranga means liberation, and he causes music, Kimoranga music. And a lot of these early songs had sort of oblique references. He couldn't be as direct in his political message as he is now, for obvious reasons, when the white minority was in power. And for a while, particularly in the early 70s, a greater sense of risk of repression. Later on, things loosened up a bit, even during the last years of the white minority government in Zimbabwe. But Mopsumo had songs banded, he was thrown in jail, and all sorts of weird things happened to him. Anyway, this is one of the songs we used oblique references to sort of rally people on. It's called Shumba, or Lion. And the lyrics are, the bush has a lion that eats people. And I'm carried away like an object on a train.

Businesses never discussed in public for people to record the words into news. And that's actually sort of a revolutionary song, somewhat apocryphal, or oblique, from Thomas Mopsumo and Black's Unlimited Shumba. And now that we can say a few things, One, one, one...

We did it right away. Yeah. Okay, I stand there. Let go, let go, let go. Get going? Get go, let go, let go, let go. Okay, go, let go. I'm

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I'm Shumba Her Lose She That's That's That's Thomas Muffumo is of the Shona ethnic group, or tribe, if you will, the Shona comprise 70 to 80% of Timbabwe's black population. The most famous Shona traditional instrument is the Umbira. The Umbira is a wooden percussion instrument. It's a pitched percussion instrument with pitched metal slats and a big gourd resonator. It's sometimes been called a thumb piano, but musicologist somehow rejects that name.

But you can call it what you want if you get a picture of it in your little head. Anyway, Muffumo's breakthrough was to incorporate, or to get his guitarist, to incorporate traditional rhythms from the Umbira, by getting his guitarist to transpose Umbira lines onto the guitar, as well as sometimes actually using Umbira's in the group. In fact, more recently, he's more and more often using Umbira's in the group. He also transposed traditional percussion to the cymbals and on the drum kit, there's a traditional instrument that he transposed to the cymbals in the drum kit. Incorporating the Umbira into an electric band was done at some risk. For instance, in Simbabwe, some traditionalists might have seen this as a frivolous use of the Umbira. The Umbira is an instrument traditionally used for specific purposes as are many instruments in Africa. It's purely for entertainment, and it's also invested with certain spiritual powers. And kids in Zimbabwe in 1975 were not interested in traditional music, so that by playing this

music, he was taking a bit of a commercial risk, as well. In fact, he ran the risk of challenges from both sides, from the traditionalists, and from the kids who were more interested in Western modern stuff. Earlier today, I had a chance to interview Thomas Muffumo at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City. I asked him why, considering these risks, he took the plunge into playing neo-traditional music. Well, as you know, the time the country was not free, and our people were actually fighting for freedom. We were looking for our own identity, and I decided to identify myself with our own culture. This inspired me to write a lot of songs about this struggle itself. Well, I did write a lot of music that time, and I got the support from the public. A lot

of people went out to buy my records. The message was very strong within the music. They understood the message. They got it loud and clear. Most of the young men left the country to go and take up arms, come back fighting. It was because of that type of music. It actually inspired them to do what they did. Well, I was one of them, not that I was going out there to kill people, but I had something a weapon that I used during the Liberation Struggle, which was my music, and through my music, I liberated a lot of our people.

Do you feel like when you first started out that your band and stuff, the guys in the band didn't really know the traditional music and traditional things that, well, do you feel like through your influence and in general that today, young people, 15-year-old, 20-year-old know the traditional music and the traditional ideals a bit better? Oh yeah, that is exactly what is happening today. When I started composing the music that we are playing today, we were the only band that was playing that type of music. A lot of youngsters were into a lot of corporate music. They realized that the direction that I had taken was the right direction because I had a lot of following, and they were losing support. A lot of them were losing support because they were playing corporate music,

and the people tend to support, I mean, the blacks are limited in Thomas Mufungo because of forming the authenticity in our movement within the music. Well, to us, I mean, it made us feel very, very proud because we made everybody realize that, you know, the age, I mean, there was an identity as a black people or as a people who were, I mean, oppressed people who had lost their culture, and we were able, I mean, to make them realize that the headache culture, the headache actually lost their culture. The culture was still there. It was only the thing that we needed was to sort of revive it, make people know that we still have,

I mean, a culture to look after. The legendary Zimbabwean singer Thomas Mufungo is our guest on Wasted Vinyl, an interview recorded earlier. Today he'll be appearing at SOB along with the Reggae Group culture to our night, and now let's play a traditional song that Thomas Mufungo has adapted for electric band. The song is called Dangurangu, and it's taken off Shumba, which is a compilation album of some of his earlier recordings that was put out by Earthworks Records in 1990. Thomas Mufungo, with a traditional song, brought up to date with his electric band The Blacks Unlimited. The Blacks Unlimited, the Blacks Unlimited. The Blacks Unlimited. The Blacks Unlimited.

UP Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

That's Dango Rongo, a traditional Shona Mbira song from Zimbabwe. We worked for Electric Band by Thomas Mabfumo and the Black Sun Limited, among the traditional musical elements you heard there were his yodeling style of vocals, then you heard guitars

playing the melodic lines normally associated with the Mbira, and you also heard the symbols replacing the traditional shaker known as a host show in Shona Society. Now Thomas Mabfumo doesn't just play traditional songs as we heard there, in other words he doesn't just do versions of traditional songs, but mostly he plays original songs that address traditional as well as modern issues in the lyrics. He has an out new album out in the US called Wondo, that's H-O-N-D-O, and several songs on this album address the role of traditional African culture in modern society. Thomas has a sense that people in Zimbabwe and in other parts of Africa are perhaps allowing too much European influence in their lifestyles and in their way of life. I asked him about this, what he considers to be a problem. Yeah, you did write when you're sick. There are still people, some of our people who are associated with the foreign culture.

And we talk about that where we talk in terms of the radio, the TV, and the media itself. These three things, they play a very, very important role where it concerns cultural exchange. And when Chris is Zimbabwe, he expects us to identify ourselves with our own culture. But then, well, some of us, I mean, haven't seen the light, they're still living in colonial days, and they think, I mean, the foreign culture is the right thing to identify themselves with.

But that's not the right thing. We have to teach our children that we have got a culture to look after. We are, I mean, different people. When we say different people, we are Africans. So as we are Africans, there are some certain customs within our society, those are African customs. Culturally, we associate ourselves with that. That is Africanism. So that's where we come from. So automatically, we must identify ourselves with our own culture. And this, I mean, this makes us, I mean, a people, or a nation. Here's a Thomas Fumot song from his new album that addresses Zimbabwe's loss of traditional values.

The song is called Shaco, Unda Shaco, and the title means what's yours is yours. And in the song Thomas says, we cry, shame, for those who've lost their African way of life. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

Our music. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited.

We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. We cry in the blacks unlimited. If all these countries could come together and form a unification and speak with one strong voice and try and rebuild their economy, they would be able to feed everyone of us.

Because there are some leaders who are greedy who don't want to be associated with other countries and they think originally they belong to a region. That's not the way we should look at this issue. When everyone of us is going to be free if Africa is united. Do you think that some of that sense of urgency is lost and that's part of the problem?

We had a lot of people running around us. When you look back to those days and then come back to what is happening today, you find there is that vast difference where by the last time people were united. There is not that kind of unity that we expect our people to have. When we were together in that war, we all came together and we fought together side by side. Thomas Mopfumar, I guess today on wasted vinyl, his new album is Wondo that's on Zimbabr records out of Champagne, Illinois.

It's on a major label, but if you like a copy of it, I have a number you can call and actually this place has a lot of his old stuff including some albums that have never been in print in the states. Thomas Mopfumar's new album and some of his other stuff, or you can see him live and in person at SOB's along with the Blacks Unlimited that's tomorrow night at SOB's which is on Varic Street near the Holland Tunnel and also near the number one local train in Manhattan. We'll play one more song from Thomas Mopfumar and then we'll join Manny Mensa for our monthly African pop special. This is one of the songs that he wrote right after the victory of the Black majority over the white minority in Zimbabwe around 1980. It's a song of celebration and also a song urging people in the country to work for reconstruction. It's called Rita.

And I'll just read you some of the lyrics to this song. It goes Rita. Suffering is over. The war is over. Let's go into the land. We have taken, we have retaken Zimbabwe. We've been given field, we've been given fields, the plow we have, the oxen, we have, let's go till the land. Take the baby on your back. Let's go. The war is over in Zimbabwe Rita from Thomas Mopfumar and the Blacks Unlimited. Music .

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