'No plans to come to Zimbabwe under current situation' - Thomas Mapfumo

Thomas Mapfumo

HARARE – Chimurenga music legend Thomas Mapfumo says he will not perform in Zimbabwe anytime soon due to the worsening political situation.

Mapfumo (70), who has not set foot in Zimbabwe for over a decade, told the Daily News yesterday from his base in the United States of America that returning to his homeland under the current circumstances would be suicidal.

“I really don’t know when I will return home. I would love to go back and play music in Zimbabwe but Zimbabwe’s situation is very tricky; politically we are not stable. We have a lot of problems in our country,” said the music legend.

The Nyoka Musango singer added that there were influential people in Zimbabwe who feel threatened by the message in his music.

“Yes we have friends (in Zimbabwe) but don’t forget we also have enemies; people who don’t wanna actually hear what we say or what we are singing about.

“We are always singing about freedom. That is where we stand. We stand with the poor people. We don’t belong to any political party. We are just a band, a group of musicians and we enjoy our music. But really we know very well that there are some people out there who don’t like us for what we do,” he said.

Mapfumo, who conceded that he was frustrated by his continued inability to perform for his Zimbabwean music fans, said those opposed to the “message of freedom in his music” will eventually lose the battle.

“As you know good will always overcome evil. You can never go wrong about it; good will always overcome evil. If you are doing evil things you will never succeed (because) love will always conquer. In anything we do we should show love. Love is the best remedy,” said music legend.

Mapfumo said his decade-plus absence from Zimbabwe will not frustrate him from releasing a follow-up to his 50th studio album “Danger Zone” that he dropped last year.

“We are in the studio working on a new CD. We are almost finished. We have four more songs to record to complete the CD. It’s gonna be a very exciting CD and we are looking forward to it. We want it to be better than Danger Zone,” he said.

The music star, who recently performed in South Africa and Mozambique, will headline a pre-Independence Day gig scheduled for Leicester, United Kingdom on April 16.

Mapfumo will share the stage with labour activist and musician Raymond Majongwe, a self-confessed fan of the chimurenga music legend and solo guitarist Steve ‘Dhongi’ Makoni in the concert being promoted by Vee Jay Entertainment.

Source-Daily News