There's no question that the man Zimbabwe and the global stage has known as Thomas "Mukanya" Mapfumo — never mind his official name — is a musical legend with not just a rich discography but also a liberation struggle legacy.
The man has been known as a voice of reason. One that speaks truth to power.
His strong stance against corruption, dictatorship and repression has made him a revered icon in Zimbabwe and beyond.
That he broke ranks with the ruling Zanu PF when it wasn't fashionable to do so, within a decade or so after independence, going against the tide and speaking truth to power elevated his legacy as a human rights icon.
The voice of the voiceless. A symbol of the quest for equality and justice for the poor and downtrodden.
But if there was a time that the stature of Mukanya was put to the test, it was when he was offered a gift by controversial entrepreneur Wicknell Chivhayo.
To put things into context, the flamboyant Chivhayo — who has never hidden his support for the ruling party and President Emmerson Mnangagwa — has been distributing gifts like confetti at a wedding.
There has definitely been some method to his madness.
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Prominent and influential individuals have been among the recipients of these gifts.
Across all fields. Religious leaders, corporates, sports personalities, musicians and politicians among other prominent Zimbabweans have been beneficiaries of this philanthropy.
Only that these acts of generosity are not without controversy.
Not necessarily on who is awarded and the criteria thereof, but in the person awarding them.
Chivhayo has been convicted on criminal charges and has been at the center of controversial abuse of public funds through misappropriation of government tenders.
There's registered dissent against the Zimbabwean government by at least 44% of the voting population, according to the figures released by the Electoral Commission in the 2023 elections.
There's a bit more on online spaces where Chivhayo and Mnangagwa are portrayed to represent what has gone wrong with the country: partisanship, patronage and downright corruption.
Mukanya has been a key voice against these practices.
In one of his viral videos with the podcasting online channel Nehanda TV - Mukanya, unequivocally once said that "ndoda Mwari kwete mari", inferring that he held his Godly principles stronger than the offer of material things.
That was vintage Mukanya!
The Mukanya that resonates with the poor. A revolutionary who would always want to question power and challenge the status quo.
Things were to soon take a dramatic turn and Mukanya gave in and decided to take up a much-improved offer to receive a gift, wrapped as performance fees.
A gift that seems to have gone against itself, judging by how things have come to a head. And with it, a critical test.
Yet the test was never just about the gift. It was about what happens when legacy meets noise.
Two podcast interviews, again with Nehanda TV have been held since Mukanya's acceptance of the now controversial gift packaged as performance fees.
In these podcasts, Mukanya has found himself not only answering questions about patronage, but there have somehow turned into public spats with his own nephew, Kurai Makore, and former publicist Blessing Vava.
What should have been a national conversation about principle quickly dissolved into family squabbles and old grudges aired on social media.
Mukanya accused, Vava countered, and the comment sections feasted.
Instead of debating whether a symbol of resistance can take from a symbol of patronage without losing meaning, the debate has sadly become about personalities. Mukanya and his hard-hitting manager, Cuthbert Chiromo have chosen pettiness over principle.
And that, perhaps, is the real distortion of "Chimurenga music", which ordinarily was born out of the liberation struggle.
Attention has shifted from the ethical challenge that came with accepting the gift, which ironically the nephew and former publicist had urged the veteran musician to accept this gesture.
A gift is never just a gift when it comes from power. It is a signal. It suggests that "come closer, be quiet, we are all friends now."
For more than 40 years Mukanya taught us to hear that signal and reject it. His hits like Corruption, Hokoyo, Wari Wari to mention but a few, were not just music. They were warnings.
To now be seen in the orbit of the very patronage he once condemned creates cognitive dissonance.
It doesn’t erase his catalog. It doesn’t erase the exile, the courage, the cost. But it does complicate the legacy. And legacies are complicated by what we do at the end, not just what we did at the beginning.
One would have hoped the interviews, which were unnecessary in my view - would have framed the context and defined a narrative.
Alas. The interviews provided a platform for self-glorification, including big claims by the manager to have united Mukanya and another Zimbabwean musical hero, the late Oliver Mtukudzi who sadly cannot verify the claims.
Beyond the over justification of the manager's impartiality in the matter, including how he will not claim any fees from the million dollars gift wrapped as performance fees - nevermind his confirmation of receiving his own share of the philanthropic generosity from the same source - the interviews were just but a series of attacks on Kurai and Vava.
Anyone questioning the sincerity of Mukanya - a public figure subject to scrutiny - was either labelled as ignorant or in the pockets of Vava.
I may not know of Vava and Kurai 's response outside of the former's intention to institute a legal challenge as outlined in a statement he made, but I am certain of the right of any journalist or citizen to question Mukanya's wisdom on the matter.
More so as someone who is not only a public figure but lived on the principle of questioning power.
Mukanya taught us to question. Today we must ask the hard question of Mukanya himself. That is not disrespectful. That is honoring the very Chimurenga he sang into our ears.
The very same that Mukanya claimed that the heroes did not die so that their names could be used to shield new forms of patronage.
This is Zimbabwe’s story in miniature. The tools of liberation becoming the tools of control. The war the country won turning into the war we fight against ourselves.
Until we can separate the gift from the giver, until we can separate history from its hijackers, we remain stuck.
The greatest honor we can give Mukanya is by doing what he once asked of us: speaking truth to power.
Even when the power is wearing a familiar face. Even when some dodgy sources of income are reinvested in one form or the other. Or as gifts wrapped in generosity that seems to be turning against our Chimurenga icon.
Because if Chimurenga means anything, it means we refuse to be bought. And by the same measure we should refuse to be silent.
— Nigel Nyamutumbu is a Harare-based media development practitioner. He can be contacted on [email protected] or +263 772 501 557
