On September 13, 2015, little known Kwekwe Polytechnic transport and logistics student Silas Muchemwa made a surprise appearance on Starbrite, a talent competition aired on local television.
By Brian Nkiwane
Taking into consideration his musical background, no one gave him a chance as followers of the programme had tipped artistes from Harare and Bulawayo to win the competition. However, it was the outsider, Muchemwa, born and bred in Murewa, who stole the show and was voted the overall best.
The talent competition gave participants the chance to sing two songs, one that the artiste would have composed and on the second song, the artiste would be allowed to sing a song from any of his favourite musicians.
Muchemwa rocked the audience with his own song Maria, while he sang Nhemamusasa fused with Samatenga from two great mbira icons Chiwoniso Maraire and Hope Masike respectively. This gave him belief and confidence to take music as a career and life was breathed into a seven-member Afro-jazz outfit, Afro Switch Band.
“My performance during the Starbrite music competition gave me belief and confidence that everything else that I was trying was not meant for me, but music was the way to go,” he said.
“Together with my other band members Manasseh Mapfumo, Tino Muzhange, Amimo Dabi, Jezzy, Brave Matumbu and Tinashe, we started practicing to make sure we would make something out of music.”
The group was formed in 2013 in the high-density suburb of Mbizo’s Section 12. However, the Starbrite success came on the backdrop of two years of unsuccessful attempts at the Chibuku Road to Fame competitions.
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However, after impressing on the teen television show, Muchemwa and his friends thought of having another go at the Chibuku Road to Fame competition where they surprisingly became perennial winners for the next three years that followed, that was in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
“This achievement showed us that we were heading somewhere. We really needed to put our act together just for us to become a recognised music outfit,” Muchemwa said.
Having gained a bit of mileage and a growing fan base from the Chibuku Road to Fame competitions, Muchemwa started working on their first album titled Gogogoi, which was launched last year in December in Kwekwe. Zimdancehall sensation Freeman was among the supporting acts.
As this was not enough, Afro Switch recently launched three singles titled Dzoka, Maziva Ndadzoka and Karingido, which features Tryson Chimbetu.
The group is holding a number of shows, including sharing the stage with the “big league” boys like Jah Prayzah, Freeman and “home boy” Peter Moyo.
“To us, it’s still a learning curve. I can say we have learnt a lot from the big boys who have been there for us. We hope they will keep on embracing us until such a time when we will be able to do things on our own,” Muchemwa said.
Like any other artiste, Muchemwa bemoaned lack of political will in dealing with piracy, which he said had killed the music industry.
“We used to hear about piracy, but now we can feel it. I hope and trust something will be done very soon to try and protect us from this scourge. For sure, you will not earn anything from your music works, but by grace we remain optimistic,” he said.
Muchemwa was born and bred in Murewa in Chaitezvi village and started singing at the tender age of seven where he stood out during traditional dance ceremonies.
He went to Chemhondoro Primary School before proceeding to Mucheke High School and later Chemhondoro High School for his Advanced Level. He then enrolled at Kwekwe Polytechnic to study towards a transport management and logistics diploma.
He recorded his first project, a single titled Zimbabwe while at high school. The single featured prolific music producer and songwriter Macdonald “Macdee” Chidavaenzi.
“I can see a great future ahead of us, what we need to do is to keep believing, one day we will be there with the greats,” he added.
