Tosh, Mapfumo: Uncompromising social critics

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Born around the same year, both Zimbabwean Thomas Mapfumo and Jamaican Peter Tosh set out a revolutionary struggle through music in their respective countries. This is what is termed a life political and a life musical as they used their creative musical geniuses to influence events on the ground by sending messages that dealt with […]

Born around the same year, both Zimbabwean Thomas Mapfumo and Jamaican Peter Tosh set out a revolutionary struggle through music in their respective countries. This is what is termed a life political and a life musical as they used their creative musical geniuses to influence events on the ground by sending messages that dealt with political and social issues from the 1960s. They championed the plight of the masses through singing protest songs which criticised the things which they deemed wrong in society.

in the groove

with Fred Zindi

Tosh died in 1987, but Mapfumo is still alive though retired from music now.

Mapfumo released protest songs which sent shock waves to government leaders in Zimbabwe. In 1977 his political song, Pfumvu Paruzevha, which depicted the deplorable plight of the rural people at a time when freedom fighters were in battle with Ian Smith’s soldiers became very popular with the masses throughout the country. This music was considered subversive by the Smith regime. As a result, Mapfumo was arrested and jailed for three months without trial. His music was also banned from airplay.

One would think that Mapfumo, after enduring prison, would compromise himself and sing only what the Smith regime would be happy to hear. Instead, he went on to do another political album titled Hokoyo which was meant to warn the regime that they’d better watch out as the guerillas were coming to Zimbabwe. More tunes depicting revolutionary struggle came in the names of Hondo and Chimurenga singles.

After independence in 1980, Mapfumo was beginning to enjoy recognition from the new black government led by Robert Mugabe. They even invited him to come and sing for the party’s first annual conference after which he released an album with the title Congress. However, that recognition was shortlived as he soon became critical of the Mugabe government too. When corruption permeated the Mugabe government after independence, he released the song Corruption. This song was subjected to a Cabinet debate and was eventually banned from airplay.

As political events got worse in the country, Mapfumo became more and more radical as he released more politically-charged albums such as Chimurenga Volumes 1 and 2, Chimurenga Explosion and Chimurenga Rebel between 1990 and 2001. Singles from Chimurenga Explosion included Mamvemve and Disaster. These did not go down well with the Zanu PF government. The general rhetoric in these two songs was the argument that the government had become corrupt, self-serving and intolerant of dissension. Thus the view was that the country had gone to the dogs since the government had now abandoned the interests of ordinary people.

In the 1980s and 1990s Mapfumo’s international profile grew along with his opposition to Mugabe’s dictatorship. Mugabe had been a hero of the revolution, but Mapfumo’s criticism of his regime led authorities and loyalists to turn on the singer with threats and intimidation. In 2000 after voicing these concerns, Mapfumo became a marked man and he decided to take his family to Eugene, Oregon in the United States, where he chose to live in exile up to this day. In 2001, Mapfumo was conferred with an honorary degree by the University of Ohio in respect of his music and humanitarian work, hence the title Dr Thomas Mapfumo. While Mapfumo was doing his thing in Zimbabwe, another revolutionary and social critic, Peter Tosh, was also active in Jamaica.

In his time Tosh faced police brutality and was arrested numerous times, but his fight for justice was an everyday thing as evidenced by his favourite tune, Get Up, Stand Up For Your Rights which he co-wrote with Bob Marley while he was still a member of the Wailers. Among some of his popular songs there is Legalise It. This song is committed to the legalisation of marijuana. It is about the education of the people on all aspects of the plant… not just for its recreational use. I remember the man declaring: “Marijuana makes one wiser and it is the only cure for asthma.”

Equal Rights & Justice is also another song and is perhaps what Tosh is mostly famous for. Other tunes, Stepping Razor (I’m Like A Stepping Razor, Don’t You Watch My Size Coz I am Dangerous) and Bush Doctor also show how much of a revolutionary Tosh was.

If he had not died earlier, Tosh would have been 76 years old this year (born on October, 1944). He was one of the Wailers who started in the same group as Marley and Bunny Wailer. Bunny Wailer, although not very well after recently suffering two strokes, is still alive today.

The best way to remember Tosh is through some of his radical and revolutionary quotes most of which come from his music. Here are some of his greatest quotes: “Everybody is crying out for peace, no one is crying out for justice. I don’t want no peace, I want equal rights and justice.” “Everbody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”

“If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones. And if you can’t take blows, don’t throw blows.”

“I’m not a politician, I only suffer the consequences.”

“Don’t underestimate my ability, Don’t definite my character, Don’t belittle my authority, It’s time you recognised my quality.”

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations, neither are you here to live up to mine. I don’t owe no one no obligation, no one owe me none, so everything is fine.”

“To have the truth in your possession you can be found guilty and sentenced to death.”

“Don’t care where you come from As long as you’re a black man, you’re an African.”

“Don’t mind your nationality, You have got the identity of an African.”

“Give me back my land, my language and my culture.”

“My songs is hard stuff which politicians don’t want on their radio station because they still want people to live in ignorance.” “Reggae music isn’t something you hear, it’s something that you feel.”

“Music is a science, it heals depression, it awakens, most people don’t know, they just take music for an entertainment, something to dance to, and enjoy yourself and you go to bed and forget it tomorrow. Music must never be forgotten, it’s like a fountain that keeps on flowing.” “If I wasn’t a singer, I would be a bloodclaat revolutionary.”

“My philosophy is: If you don’t bear a cross, you can’t wear a crown, so you gotta go through some form of humiliation to reach tribulation.” “You never miss the water till the well runs dry.”

“Birds unite, fishes unite, animals unite And Mankind still fight.”

“I hear about Thanksgiving. Who do one give thanks to? … And who is giving thanks? What are they giving thanks for? For lots of poverty that’s on the earth and lots of war that is a-rumouring all over the earth? For lots of people who die daily and the crime that multiply?”

“It’s only the truth that can make a man free. It’s only the truth that can make a man live.”

“Nobody can give you peace. Peace is the diploma you get in the cemetery, it’s the certificate you get after you die and it’s written on your tombstone: ‘Rest in Power’.

In Jamaica, the government conferred Tosh with the Order of Merit in 2012 which is the highest recognition one can get from the government.

In the same year Tosh’s family, through the Peter Tosh Foundation, decided to construct a Peter Tosh Museum located at the Pulse Complex in St Andrew. This is similar to The Bob Marley Museum at 56 Hope Road in Kingston. Most of the effort to keep the Peter Tosh name alive is being done by Niambe MacIntosh, his youngest daughter who was aged only five when her father was shot and killed in Kingston in 1987.

Continue to rest your soul in peace and power, Peter.

It must be noted that even though both Tosh and Mapfumo used their creative geniuses to come up with words that were full of uncompromising social criticisms, they were not violent people. We never heard of them physically assaulting anyone. Today’s young and upcoming artistes such as Jah Master should learn to take a leaf from their books.

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