In the groove with Fred Zindi
The last time I heard about the Censorship Board (tasked with controlling and regulating the media and film industry and examining any article or public entertainment submitted to it), was in May 2017.
The 12-member board was headed by former Cabinet minister, educationist and historian, Aeneas Chigwedere and deputised by Konzani Ncube.
Other members were Bona Chikore (nee Mugabe), Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, Runyararo Magadzire, Chief Nyamukoho, Samson Katsande, Regis Chikowore, Shingai Rukwata Ndoro, Chenjerai Daitai, Tungamirai Muganhiri and Catholic priest Father Fidelis Mukonori.
I am not sure whether this board is still in existence or not, but from the look of things, the board is not very active.
Some of today’s music artistes are distributing music with explicit lyrical content which defies Zimbabwe’s cultural and moral values. The music is recorded in the morning. By mid-day it is being sold on the streets. Only the artiste and the producer know the content of the lyrics at the time of its distribution. The public only gets to know after buying it or hearing it being played on the radio or in kombis.
Take a look at 2018’s biggest songs which include Enzo Ishall’s Kanjiva and 50 Magate, Sweetie (Stonyeni) by Jah Signal and Baba Harare’s The Reason Why (which has the line ‘Nzimbe Inobvira Kumusoro Ichinaka’ in its lyrics) and many more. These songs expose the growing penchant for aphrodisiac and explicit sexual language across the music sphere.
For their efforts, the artistes have achieved greatly, dominating the annual chart lists both on television as well as radio and will possibly receive National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) for their work on April 13.
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Their effort to present parallel meaning of the songs is, however, a far cry from how the message has been decrypted in the streets, where it matters the most.
A few years ago, Jacob Moyana of the Munotidako fame was barred from radio and television for his controversial hit. He was also stopped from performing during a family show because of his expletively profane lyrics.
We do not hear him being played on the radio anymore.
Moyana had gained immense popularity after penning one of the most controversial albums characterised by striking profanity that many found to be distasteful and offensive. However, it is, ironically, this frequent use of profanity or explicit language that had many people wanting to listen to his music. Despite this, the majority of the people in Zimbabwe’s conservative society decided that Moyana’s music was vulgar and therefore offensive.
With most people criticising what Moyana calls creativity, he stood tall for a while in the midst of all criticism and further assured his relatively small fan-base that for as long as his ancestors inspire him to pen songs like these, he was not going to stop. “People should desist from labelling my lyrics and music as dirty because it’s oppressing other people’s language. Where I come from, what I sing is acceptable,” said Moyana.
However, lack of airplay stopped him. Today very few people know Moyana or his music.
A few years ago, Maskiri aka Alicious Musimbe made his proclamation on the music scene with the album Blue Movie, which was banned and denied airplay for being vulgar. He came back a reformed artiste a few years later with new songs which had clean lyrics such as Hona and NaMwari in his Recovery album. But Maskiri fans were still yearning for his profanity lyrics. With the new music very few people care about Maskiri now as this is not what he is known for.
I am not sure whether it is the profanity or the clean music that killed Maskiri but there are several artistes whose careers have collapsed due to specialising in vulgar lyrics or images.
Female artistes like Lady Squanda and Brenda Bechani (popularly known as Lady B), have not been very successful in their music careers due to specialising in the production of vulgar images.
Dancehall chanter, Soul Jah Love once wrote the lyrically explicit tune, Ndongosimudza Musoro, which received massive play in kombis despite the fact that his compilation was unfit for public consumption.
I must confess that I do not use Kombis, but several friends of mine who use combis to commute to and from work, were talking about this song and some of them were disgusted. One of them commented, “That kind of music should not be played in public transport which everyone including school children use. Each time we tell the hwindis to stop playing it, they tell us to get out of their kombis. So we just end up keeping quiet. But where is the Censorship Board? Does it still exist?”
Another commentator said, “Profanity was degrading the image of many artistes. Despite giving them short-lived fame, many artists are deliberately using vulgar language and expletives as a means to get attention and a quick way to enter into the music business. Look at people like Enzo Ishall’s sudden rise. Where did he come from? He had been trying for long until he decided sex will sell. But this will ultimately degrade his image and brand. Most guys are of the idea that controversy sells music. So they pen their lyrics in the name of creativity yet plotting their own downfall.”
The Censorship Board should not only worry about the unacceptable songs coming to the public. It should also begin to worry about the personalities and characters of the artistes being promoted through radio and television. It should begin to question whether the images being portrayed by these personalities will benefit the Zimbabwean society or not. It should also monitor local radio and television stations although it has no control over what is shown on channels like Trace Africa or Channel O. For instance, should Zimbabwe’s Censorship Board be active in the playing of the music of alleged child abusers such as Michael Jackson or R Kelly’s on our stations?
When I asked Monica Mushore, a known feminist and spokesperson of children’s rights whether child abusers like Michael Jackson and R Kelly should continue to enjoy airplay on our radio and television stations, given their child abuse allegations, this is what she had to say:
“One element that heavily favours removal of these abusers’ music from our stations, for me, is the fact that none of the types of allegations made against Jackson in Leaving Neverland, or against Kelly in Surviving R Kelly, are new. Both have faced criminal trials over similar allegations before and rumours and victims’ testimonies have overshadowed them for years.
I think what haunts me is that we have been deciding for so long to ignore the voices of these victims, deciding that we would rather prioritize our relatively trivial enjoyment of these men’s music over the much more important issue of these young people’s suffering, their claims to dignity.”
“But wouldn’t that be censorship against good music? What constitutes censorship?” I continued to ask.
“I disagree with your stance that no-platforming on services like these amounts to censorship. I might just have a higher standard for what constitutes censorship here, which I view as punitive repression of speech by a government as appears to be the case in politics when freedom of speech is denied. In these cases, with these artistes, on these private platforms such as radio stations and television, I don’t think there is a credible claim that these artistes have a right to have their music hosted there. That seems to me more of a privilege.
When you consider that having their music on these services materially benefits these alleged abusers — that it puts money in R Kelly’s pocket — I think there’s a solid case to be made that removing these men’s music from our stations is the right thing to do.”
So should we also remove from airplay the music of local artistes who are known villains in our society? That is the debate for another day.
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