Thomas Mapfumo not using his real name?

Legendary Musician Thomas Mapfumo

A new biography on music icon Thomas Mapfumo (70) has claimed that his real name is Michael Munhumumwe.

The author Banning Eyre claims that Mapfumo only started using his current name at the age of nine, Daily News reported Wednesday.

The chimurenga music legend was born to Janet Chinhamo and Tapfumaneyi Mupariwa on July 2 1945 but was raised by his maternal grandparents Hamundidi and Kufera Munhumumwe who lived on a white man's farm in Marondera after Mupariwa failed to pay lobola.

"…Tapfumaneyi was a Korekore Shona man from Guruve in the remote rugged valleys of Dande. An itinerant musician and "one-man band," Tapfumaneyi made a scant living driving tractors at farms in Mashonaland.

He was too poor to pay Janet's lobola so no marriage could occur," claims the biography that has just been published by Duke University Press.

 Mapfumo's late mother, who is quoted in the 362-page biography, claims that Mupariwa suddenly disappeared from the scene after failing to fulfil the lobola requirements. "When I was pregnant Thomas' father paid a little lobola but not enough. And then he went for good," said Mapfumo's mother.

Mapfumo only managed to see his father for the first time when he was 17 years old. Dailynews