Robson Sharuko-Editor
HOLY Ten and Michael Magz evoked the Bhundu Boys spirit when they released their album ‘The New Bhundu Boys.’
In a way, it was a compliment to Biggie Tembo and the Bhundu Boys who blazed a trail for the local musical industry and took Jit into the homes and bars of Europe.
At their peak, notably in ’87, they were good enough to be handed a supporting role during Madonna’s ‘Who Is That Girl’ three-night concerts at Wembley in London.
They shared the stage with legendary reggae group Aswad, before 80 000 fans, and by the end of the three nights, Madonna had entertained more than 216 000 fans.
But while Madonna and Aswad are still active on the international musical scene, the Bhundu Boys have long disappeared from the radar.
The death of founding member Rise Kagona in Scotland on Wednesday means that only one member of the original Bhundu Boys, Kenny Chitsvatsva, is still alive.
Kagona, who had been based in Scotland for years, was 62 when he died.
David Mankaba, Shepherd Munyama and Shakespeare Kangwena died of AIDS-related complications between ’91 and ’93 during a very dark period for the Bhundu Boys.
Ironically, Munyama had replaced Mankaba as the bass guitarist only for him to die a year later from the same complications.
It completed a circle, which had seen Mankaba being recruited to replace Munyama, a founding member of the group, after he left the Bhundu Boys in ’84.
He rejoined the group after Mankaba’s death.
Bhundu Boys
Kangwena’s last gig for the Bhundu Boys was in November ’92 at the Half Moon, in Putney, England, where he was so sick he performed while sitting on a chair.
His colleagues persuaded him to go back home, concerned that the winter in the UK will only make his condition worse, and a few months later he was dead.
Tembo took his life on July 30, ’95, after years of the depression that followed his acrimonious split from the band where he made his name as its charismatic frontman.
Washington Kavhai, who replaced Munyama, was convicted of rape in the UK and spent years in jail before fighting an extradition back home after he was released.
In the new millennium, Kagona had been the face and voice of the Bhundu Boys, the man everyone seemingly turned to when going down memory lane to a place and time when this super group was on top of the world.
He became the voice which now chronicled their powerful story – from their first arrival at Gatwick, in May ’86, in what was going to be a game-changer for this group – to the new millennium audience.
The British media were swept away by this energetic group of boys from Zimbabwe.
“For a short spell they were welcomed with open arms, the infectious, virile joy of their music seducing all-comers and earning them a support slot for Madonna at Wembley and a record deal with Warner Brothers,” wrote Graeme Thomson in The Guardian newspaper.
“The Bhundu Boys were by no means the first stars of what we now understand as world music – that accolade could go to anyone from Ravi Shankar to Bob Marley.
“But they were the first African band to make an appreciable impact upon the archetypal NME-reading, gig-going, Peel-listening Eighties music fan.”
What was supposed to be just a six-date tour turned into something special as the Bhundu Boys stayed in the UK for years.
“Ten seconds into the first number you knew,” Doug Veitch, a Scotsman who was part of the promotional team, remarked after their first gig in Scotland.
“They played for three hours and were absolutely f*****g sensational.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
It wasn’t an easy ride, though, the manager who had accompanied them to the UK disappeared, with the bulk of their money and, when Veitch also left, it opened the door for Gordon Muir.
He took the band into his house in the Scottish small border town of Hawick where, at one stage, all the five members of the band were sharing two small rooms.
“When we lived in Hawick, we were the only five black people in the whole town,” Kagona told The Guardian.
“Children would cry, old ladies would shout.”
But, things would soon change and the Bhundu Boys would start feeling the love and money started rolling in.
They received an £80,000 advance payment from Warner Records for their deal.
“I remember buying a 14-inch colour TV in 1987,” Kagona told The Guardian.
“We were the first young guys (in Zimbabwe) to buy a colour television. How privileged we were.”
But, like everything to do with the Bhundu Boys, the financial windfall also turned out to be something of a curse.
They spent the money buying a house in Kensal Rise, London.
It was a decision which divided the group and Kagona told The Guardian he wanted to keep the money to invest it in Zimbabwe but he was outvoted by the other members.
The house was later sold by Muir to “settle” some