On April 28 the Big Bira Concert which featured legendary musicians Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo and Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi took place at Glamis Arena in Harare. It was a big event, which attracted close to 30 000 fans from all walks of life. Some were young, others middle-aged while the rest were from the older generation.
with Fred Zindi
Pickpockets were out and about at Glamis Arena on that Saturday evening where the crowds had gathered to hear their idols performing hits like Chauya Chauya, Pidigori Waenda, Nyoka Musango, Mutserendende and Dzoka Uyamwe.
At the concert I bumped into 28-year-old musician Brian Kadengu of Heavy Machine fame who was excited to see Mapfumo for the first time in his life. He was only 13 and going to school in 2004 when Mukanya last performed in this country.
“Prof,” he said, “can you please take me closer to the stage where Mukanya is? I would like you to introduce me to him and I would like to meet him. Boy! His music is rich.”
I was sitting in the so-called VIP enclosure and the thought of moving past the crowd, which was in the common area in order to reach the stage where Mukanya was daunted me. The fear of crowds (or enochlophobia) has haunted me since my last experience at a similar concert where I lost my belongings. As the name indicates, this phobia consists of an irrational fear of large crowds and gatherings of people and the desire to avoid situations wherein one believes he may be subjected to incapacitation or humiliation.
At the Davido show, I lost a cellphone and $300 to some unscrupulous thieves despite being in the VIP section of the auditorium. The VIP section had been invaded by people from all walks of life and the security in that section had been compromised. I felt my personal space had been violated. From there, I learnt not to carry any cash or expensive phones in future.
I told Kadengu that I could not help him. He needed to venture on his own until he reached the stage. I later discovered that I was right in making that decision because the next day, talking to Banning Eyre (pictured left), who was performing on stage with Mukanya and The Blacks Unlimited, I found out that his expensive camera had been stolen. “It’s not so much of the camera I am worried about,” he said.
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“It’s the footage I had recorded in the camera, which is of great importance to me and the person who has stolen the camera probably has no business with what’s in it.
“I can always replace the camera. In that camera, I had recorded Oliver Mtukudzi who performed before us, but now I have lost it. It’s so unfair.”
I asked him if he had reported the crime to the police and he said that he would do it before leaving Zimbabwe, although he had very little hope of recovering the camera.
After the Big Bira Concert, it was reported that the police had recovered an incredible 43 mobile phones, which were stolen from targeted fans and other gig-goers attending the show.
They arrested a 27-year-old man in Mbare who had the 43 phones on him and were looking to reunite the mobiles with their rightful owners.
It is unfortunately a reality that large crowds at concerts such as this make rich pickings for career criminals. You do not have to be a target like I was at the Davido show in order to become smart when attending concerts of this magnitude. You can also reduce your chances of falling victim to such crimes by remaining extra vigilant when attending busy events.
It was unfortunate, however, that Banning Eyre fell victim to such crime.
But who is this Banning Eyre?
If you were at the Big Bira show, you would have noticed a tall blonde white man who was playing the rhythm guitar with the Blacks Unlimited during Mukanya’s performance. That was Banning Eyre.
Banning Eyre is a writer, guitarist, photographer and producer. He has written about international music, especially African music, since 1988. During all that time, he has been a lead producer for the syndicated Peabody Award-winning public radio programme known as Afropop Worldwide. Only last month, he was interviewing Zimbabwean band, Mokoomba, on his radio show which propelled organisers at Harrison House in California to make Trust Semende the lead guitarist Artiste In Residence on June 16 this month. Banning Eyre is the author of Mapfumo’s biography Lion Songs:Thomas Mapfumo and The Songs That Made Zimbabwe. He also comments and reports on music for National Public Radios All Things Considered and has contributed over the years to many publications such as The Boston Phoenix, Guitar Player, Global Rhythm (Folk Roots), Songlines, The Beat, CD Now, Music Alive, New Music Monthly, Music Hound and All Music Guides and other publications. He has travelled to and done music research in 16 African countries, as well as in the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1995, Eyre co-authored AfroPop: An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music with Sean Barlow. Eyre’s acclaimed book, which focused on Malian guitar styles, In Griot Time, An American Guitarist in Mali, was released by Temple University Press (2000) and in the UK on Serpent’s Tail (2002). The companion CD Eyre compiled, In Griot Time, String Music from Mali, was released on Stern’s Africa, a record label specialising in African and World Music..
Eyre spent a month in Zimbabwe in 2001 — his fourth visit — and wrote a report on music censorship for the Danish human rights organisation, Freemuse. The report, Playing With Fire, Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music, was also banned in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, Eyre has done especially deep research on Mapfumo — a figure of historic dimensions. All of this comes together in the book Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe. Eyre has also produced a companion CD for the book —Thomas Mapfumo, Lion Songs: Essential Tracks in the Making of Zimbabwe.
Eyre has also applied what he learned in Zimbabwe, largely with Mapfumo and the guitarists of The Blacks Unlimited.
The Glamour Boys was a New York-based acoustic ensemble that combined traditional mbira music from Zimbabwe with guitar. In 2000, that act evolved into what is now Eyre’s principal group, Timbila, a one-of-a-kind fusion of roots music from Zimbabwe and Mozambique with a New York sensibility.
Eyre also continues to perform solo concerts blending original compositions and adaptations of traditional and popular music from all over Africa. He calls this show, in all its various forms, A Guitar Tour of Africa. For Eyre, coming to Zimbabwe with Mukanya was a historical event.
Now you can imagine how it feels for a man of that stature to lose essential recordings of Mtukudzi’s performance, which he had planned before making this trip. Someone somewhere here in Harare must know who stole Banning Eyre’s camera. If it still has the footage he recorded, please be kind and let me know so that we can send it back to him. l Feedback: [email protected].
