Zimbabwean nation has its own colossuses. On the political stage, for example, we can name President Robert Mugabe, who led the struggle for the country’s international sovereignty from the British colonialism and who, in his capacity as the head of state, is waging another war for Zimbabwe’a economic independence. He is a role-model for young generations of pan-African fighters. Furthermore, Zimbabwe is graced with another colossus on the modern music scene: Alick “Extrabasso” Macheso.
Born (in 1968) and raised in Shamva, Zimbabwe, Macheso rose to fame in the late 1990s as a solo artist backed by his newly formed Orchestra Mberikwazvo, thanks to the release of his album Simbaradzo. This opus is the highest ever sold album in Zimbabwe with 350 000 copies. Bringing the sungura, the Zimbabwean brand of rumba, to the new heights, Extrabasso has delighted music lovers even outside the country, in Africa, the UK, the USA and Australia, to name a few places. He is one of Africa’s most successful singers and best bass guitarists.
Furthermore, his avatar status resides in the fact that his success is epoch-making. Apart from his fecundity in spawning dances, he has brought a poetically-refined message down to the grassroots, in a way of striking the chord of a range of lower classes against the backdrop of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis. As Memory Chirere put it, “His lyrics elicit an easy-going camaraderie. He sings like the guy from next door, very familiar and liberating. That is why he is the favourite man of the ordinary mechanic, the assuming kombi…driver, the seller of ordinary wares and many more. If you look and listen, the Macheso’s lyrics (sic) appeal to the little and remote reserves of energy in the people of a country faced with economic challenges”. This interaction with the rabble is compounded by the addition of the ndombolo vibes and rapping, along with the spicing of melodies with evocative vocals (known as atalaku in the Congo music) in Shona, Chichewa, Sena, Venda and Lingala. He rightly is the “People’s choice”, a phenomenon.
Secondly, Macheso is a fighter. His rise to stardom was painful. He started his music career in small bands; then integrated the Khiama Boys (successors of the sungura-seminal band Sungura Boys) in mid 1980s, before founding Orchestra Mberikwazvo in late nineties. Even so, he struggled for his two first albums went almost unnoticed; which led to a hard work for the release of the records-smashing Simbaradzo. Besides, his private life got grilled by the media following his marriage with a second wife and the aborted one with his housemaid; he survived a “coup d’etat” orchestrated by his friend and teammate Zacharia Zacharia in the bid to empty the band of members and create a new one; and he withstood a resilient piracy to record hitmaking albums, including his seventh and last Zvinoda Kutendwa in on the 30th of October 2010.
Lastly, Alick Macheso is a noble. This springs from his humility and simplicity displayed, as abovementioned, in his dedicating his music to the poverty-stricken lower social layers, who in turn elevated him to the undisputed title of King of sungura. As Memory Chirere put it again, he “remains the ghetto, amongst those who ‘don’t know and are not known’”. Thus he has impacted the most on the present-day soul of the nation, changing the pattern of popular behaviors and engendering a new pop culture. It can be said, without objection, that the Zimbabweans of the new millennium are the sons of Mugabe and Macheso. We hope his nobility will be stretched to encompass social development works for the needy, the heightening of marketing towards preventing piracy and reaching global stardom, and the championing of the pan-African cause.
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