Sabhuku (1995)
10 tracks, 70 minutes
YouTube
In this blog, we’ve looked and listened to some of Zimbabwe’s most joyous and danceable pop music in the forms of the jit of the Bhundu Boys and Biggie Tembo and the sungura of the Four Brothers. Those styles are guitar-based and heavily influenced by Cuban music (via the Congo and Kenya) and were – in their time – the music of the bars and beer halls of Harare. Today’s artist – a guitarist – had a great impact on those styles, but was also foundational in the creation of another most important Zimbabwean style.
We need to go back a little bit first, though. The mbira is the iconic instrument of Zimbabwe. A lamellophone, it is constructed from tongues of metal attached to a wooden frame, which are plucked with the thumbs and fingers in an interlocking pattern – first plucking a note with one hand and then the other. This way, the mbira creates wonderful rolling tunes that can go on indefinitely. When played acoustically, it is usually covered in cowrie shells (or bottle caps) whch shimmer and resonate to create a buzz when the tongues are plucked. It is very easy to ‘fall into’ the sound of the mbira, and its main historical purpose for the Shona people of Zimbabwe was to induce trance; mbira is said to talk to the ancestors and bring their spirits to commune with the living. As such, it is an incredibly important and powerful instrument.
During the colonial period, the music and esoteric powers of the mbira were seen as Satanic by British and later Rhodesian rulers, who banned its use. While the practice of mbira in spirit ceremonies persisted in an underground fashion, far fewer people learnt to play the instrument – especially for non-religious reasons – and the tradition began to die out.
That’s where Jonah Sithole comes in. Based in Harare, Sithole was a guitarist in soukous bands including the famous Lipopo Jazz Band, where he styled his playing on the great Congolese guitarist Franco. During his time with the Lipopo Jazz Band, however, he also began experimenting with his own style. He would translate traditional mbira pieces onto guitar, using the strings in the same interlocking manner as the tongues on the mbira. By playing in this manner in the context of the soukous band, Sithole became one of the main pioneers of mbira guitar. In doing so, the ancient and culturally iconic sounds of the mbira became a popular sound once again, and the (secular) tradition was carried on in the open, on the medium of guitar.
Sithole’s most famous work was made alongside the singer Thomas Mapfumo. Mapfumo’s music was a radical new genre called chimurenga – struggle music – and Sithole’s guitar-work was key to the sound. Chimurenga was music of protest, against minority rule and for black liberation. The lyrics were obviously all important, but the music was different too. It was still heavily influenced by the Latin sound, but unlike jit and sungura, had much more rock’n’roll to it and often used mysterious minor keys rather than the sunny-sounding majors. But it was also deeply Zimbabwean. By incorporating Sithole’s mbira guitar and replicating the distinctive 6/8 rhythms of the hosho gourd shakers on the hi-hat, Mapfumo and Sithole invoked these powerful symbols of Zimbabwean resistance alongside the political lyrics. It’s a potent sound even today.
He worked with Thomas Mapfumo and his band the Blacks Unlimited for stints of varying lengths from 1975 until his death in 1997. He also worked with other bands and, as is presented here, recorded solo material too. Although the chimurenga music of the Blacks Unlimited is probably the definitive context for mbira guitar, I chose this compilation of Sithole’s solo music because it has elements from all across his career. The mbira guitar is the main element, of course, but here you can hear it across different styles from soukous to jit to chimurenga, and even alongside real mbiras too. Jonah Sithole isn’t as well-known as some of the bigger names in Zimbabwean music such as Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi or Biggie Tembo, especially abroad, so it’s only right that he gets his own recognition. In creating a unique way of playing the guitar, he helped to save the music of a very different instrument, and an incredibly important symbol of Zimbabwean and Shona heritage.
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