Rhumba Dreams

The year I moved to Harare was 1962. I was working in the farms, and I found out the income in the farms was very, very little. And you worked hard. In Harare the income was also very little, but it was worth it.

I was working a farm in Trelone where we were stumping trees, preparing a field of thirty acres. We had a mattok, a hoe, and an axe. So you dig out the stumps of the trees, and then cut them up into pieces. When they come, they collect the pieces. We were ten people, and for thirty acres of fields, we took only two weeks. And I remember in those days, after a month of work, you were paid one pound, ten shillings. One pound ten for the whole month, and you work hard!  So, I decided to move to town. And when we were paid in Trelone, that was the money I used to come to Harare.

When I came to Harare, I was staying with my brother Fryson. Well, Fryson wanted me to learn how life is. He was so strict. Let’s say I was going to look for work, and I needed some pocket money. He didn’t even want to give me something. He said, “You must learn about life, how it is.” And I tried, and I suffered, and at last I realized, “No, my brother was right.” He was right. If you have a job, you earn money. Keep the money, don’t spend it. There, he was right.

Fryson tried to take me to Harare when he was still in the village, but I didn’t want to go. So now, when I found out that I was working for nothing in the farms, I decided to go. My plan was to go from to the DRC to learn to play guitar, because I like rhumba. I wanted to cross through the Zambezi valley into Zambia, and then the DRC.

The rhumba we first heard here was kanindo, from Kenya. Then rhumba, from the DRC. The rhumba they were playing had a slow beat. Yeah, it’s soft, it’s not very fast. There was Franco Luambo, and Orchestra Limpopo International, and Afro-Cubans. Afro-Cubans, you know, they were the best. And Sam Mangwana was also from DRC. Those were the best rhumba musicians.

Now there is kwasa kwasa, it’s a little bit faster. Well, they keep on modifying it, trying to make the best sound. But if you come back, you find the original rhumba is the best.

Now, I wanted to go to DRC before anyone else brought rhumba to Zimbabwe. I wanted to bring it back myself. I was planning to come back, and try form a band with my brothers. I wanted to work together, and to start the first rhumba band here in Zimbabwe. Because they were not playing rhumba. So I wanted to play guitar, and play it myself.

But Fryson found a job for me the very day before I was supposed to leave. He was working in a wholesale, and he took me to where he was working and said, “Come and try.” He had to find a job for me quickly. Otherwise, he was afraid I wouldn’t come back. And then I had a job, so I didn’t go anywhere. And I worked there for fourteen years and a half.