Tute Chigamba plays his original guitar song “Madzinza Ese Anondifarira”
I used to steal my uncle’s guitar. My father’s younger brother, he is the one who played. So, I would steal that guitar, and then play it. So, when I first started to play, I began with his favorite song. How it worked is that when he was out, I would enter the house, take the guitar, and play. When he came back, he would play his guitar as I listened. He played, and I listened. So now, when I got my chance, I would try to play what he had played.
One day, when he was away, his wife arrived at the house and heard that someone was playing guitar inside. She thought it was her husband, until she came inside and realized, “Oh, one of the children is playing guitar!” When she came in, she did whatever it was she had come to do, went back out, and left. She didn’t say anything, she just stayed quiet. Because oh, my uncle used to beat us. Yes, he used to beat us.
But after a week had passed, she realized that if she let me continue playing guitar and I was discovered, I would be soundly beaten. So, she decided to speak up. She told him, “Oh, there is one of the children who can play guitar.” He said, “One of the children plays guitar?” She replied, “Yes.”
Oh, then we were all summoned, all of us. There were three of us – an older brother, myself, and a younger brother. So, then we were called, and we had a seat. The three of us all sat together as a group. Because we were regularly beaten, all three of us. That old man used to beat us!
So, now, he said, “Do any of you play guitar?” But oh! No one answered. We were all afraid of being beaten if we were to say, “The others don’t play, it is I who plays.”
He said, “I’m not going to do anything to that person, I only want to know if any of you play guitar.” Then I replied, “It is I.” Then he gave me the guitar, and then I played that very song, his favorite one. Then he said, “You are the only one I give permission to play my guitar.”
So, it used to happen that when he played, sometimes the guitar would go out of tune. When I would arrive and play, and find it out of tune, I would tune it. Before, he used to travel, to go as far away as a distant neighborhood to have his guitar tuned. But when I found it was out of tune, I would simply tune it.
He started finding that his guitar was tuned. That’s when he asked me, “Do you know how to tune it?” I said, “Well, I try.” Already, he had suspected, and he wanted to prove to himself that it was me. So he left it out of tune – so many strings! I arrived, and played it. “Oh, this guitar is not in good shape!” Then I started to tune it, and then I played it. Now, when he returned, he saw immediately that his guitar had been tuned, and he said, “Now I must ask that child if he is the one tuning it!”
And that is when he asked me, “Do you know how to tune it?” And I replied, “Oh, I’m just trying my best.” He said, “Oh, alright.” Then he gave it to me. Then I played, and played, and said, “It’s not in tune.” Then I tuned it. He said, “Ah! I’ve been going so far away, to have my guitar tuned, yet you are here, and you can tune it. So I won’t go there any longer. They won’t see my any more. Here, I have someone to tune my guitar.”
And I played, until I left and ran away to go to school, because I had been instructed to herd the cattle. Then I ran away, and I went to go and learn. From there, I didn’t play guitar any longer.
But I also played while I was at school. There was one boy who had a guitar, and he used to bring it to school. So, during the break, we used to go into the forest, and play. When the bell rang, we would emerge, and go back to class. When the day ended, he would take his guitar, and go home with it.
So, from there, once I left school, I didn’t play guitar any more. And I stayed for some time without playing guitar. I left there, I came to town. I played guitar again in 1962; it belonged to someone who had brought it here. Then I played just for a short time, and then I abandoned it again. And from there, I didn’t play guitar again until 1998.