May 25, 2005
GROOVING WITH THE RIOT POLICE UNDER A FULL MOON
I just came from one of the most surreal and awesome nights ever. Ranks close up there with being at all-night drum/dance/religious festival back in Ghana…but slightly different. I haven't slept yet and haven't thought fully about the whole night so it will spew out…excuse run-on sentences (I'm fond of them anyhow) and grammatical errors.
Pungwe….allnight/daybreak in Shona, and that's what it was. The King of Sungura music here in Zim, Alick "Razor Wire" Macheso, was performing at the local soccer field in Dzivaresekwa (his old stomping and teething ground), the first time since his ascension to the top. I went with Medicine's son Lovemore and the former tutor to Macheso, Sheppard Chinyani. Walking to the field around 9pm you could feel a buzz in the air, like a king had come home to his subjects really….he is HUGE around here. The full moon lit our way and in the distance through exhaust fumes and headlights we could see more and more people gathering and milling about. Something was afoot. Strains of rhumba from the opening acts were in the air adding to the thrill….much like being outside a major rock concert back home. Reaching the stadium we see a cue about 400 meters long…..moving slow. Luckily our connection with Chinyani gets us at the front of the line (I don't mind at all in this case) and in we go. Energy…..lots of it brewing in fact, I could only imagine what was coming later. The sound system was much too small for the amount of volume the group was trying to project but people didn't seem to mind as half of them were boozing…the vocals sounded like a distorted guitar. But the dancers on the stage took the attention away from any auditory defects. More on them later.
So we arrived and joined the other 1500 or so people while another 1500 or more were slowly filing in and make our way to an aurally/visually pleasing spot, past the riot police, prostitutes and scattered drunk dude. The opening acts are okay but EVERYONE is there for Macheso. A car pulls up next to the stage and a crowd rushes to see if it's him. I've never been this close to Beatlemania before. Strange. Even stranger when someone gets out of line and you see him being whipped back into form (or out of form) by baton wielding cop with a large shield and two or three others following him. Standing for hours through the three openers. Rhumba, some sungura/rhumba and a gospel act (note: gospel here is NOTHING musically like that in the West). Interesting mix, esp. the gospel act considering the audience. But the singer himself smokes lots of weed and likes to drink….good ole' Christianity. By this time we've moved to the side of the stage where the sound is more pleasing and you get a better view of the dancers. Yes the dancers. Of course, there are random acts of dancing all over the field. A few guys here and there, a couple grinding together or intermittent spottings of "The Borrowdale" ….the trademark dance of sungura…named after a horse track here in Harare and the dancing is something akin to a racing horse with the feet almost not touching the ground and the legs going a mile a minute. Kind of hard to explain….very fitting for the music though.
But on stage is a whole other level of dancing. Groups of 2-8 with choreography to fit the music. I've never seen hips move like this before. Pure sensuality. You can't help but smile at it. In my travels in Africa, I do believe I have seen some of the funkiest, hippest (pardon the pun), most erotic, original, unbelievable and joyous movements that the human body can express. Pure life. Tonight added to that. And then Macheso arrives. A down to earth kind of guy to talk to but on-stage he lets it out. Of course the usual amount of ego and gimmickry one would expect from a superstar ( playing with his elbow, tongue, feet, making his bass sound like a machine gun, canon, airplane and a landing helicopter in addition to some of the hottest bass playing I heard this side of Victor Wooten) and an awesome band that didn't let up for the whole three hours until sunrise. The crowd was in his hands and he knew it and they loved his every move…and move he could. I honestly can't describe the movements he and his guys we coming up with, perfectly suited to his music. Totally modern of course but the sentiment was deeply rooted in ancient Africa…the interplay between the musicians and the dancers was magic. Time indeed flew by.
Add up the full moon shrouded and illuminated by clouds, riot police beating people over the head here and there, a guy handcuffed to a fence and guarded a lady cop and her attack dog who wants a piece of him, crowds swaying to and fro in front of the stage leaving you wondering when they'd rush it, prostitutes grinding themselves against their men, drunk guys dancing with each other, sleep deprivation, the stage actually rocking from the 8 dancers and the band that are groovin hard, a guy coming on stage (twice!!) and handing out handfuls of cash to the band leaving the crowd getting more frenzied (extremely bad economy) and the fact that I'm the only non-African amongst about 3000 and you have one surreal time.
That's what I've been up to lately in addition to a full day drinking session (from 11:30am to 11:30pm). Didn't mean for it to happen ….really!!! Mainly consuming locally brewed chibuku (made from sorghum…..looks kind of like vomit but tastes much better). It was at Medicine's brother house as the lobola (bride price) was being delivered so I was invited. MANY litres of beer later I get home amazed at my level of functioning.
Next week I hope to go to some very, very, very, very, very tall waterfalls.
Curtis
GROOVING WITH THE RIOT POLICE UNDER A FULL MOON
I just came from one of the most surreal and awesome nights ever. Ranks close up there with being at all-night drum/dance/religious festival back in Ghana…but slightly different. I haven't slept yet and haven't thought fully about the whole night so it will spew out…excuse run-on sentences (I'm fond of them anyhow) and grammatical errors.
Pungwe….allnight/daybreak in Shona, and that's what it was. The King of Sungura music here in Zim, Alick "Razor Wire" Macheso, was performing at the local soccer field in Dzivaresekwa (his old stomping and teething ground), the first time since his ascension to the top. I went with Medicine's son Lovemore and the former tutor to Macheso, Sheppard Chinyani. Walking to the field around 9pm you could feel a buzz in the air, like a king had come home to his subjects really….he is HUGE around here. The full moon lit our way and in the distance through exhaust fumes and headlights we could see more and more people gathering and milling about. Something was afoot. Strains of rhumba from the opening acts were in the air adding to the thrill….much like being outside a major rock concert back home. Reaching the stadium we see a cue about 400 meters long…..moving slow. Luckily our connection with Chinyani gets us at the front of the line (I don't mind at all in this case) and in we go. Energy…..lots of it brewing in fact, I could only imagine what was coming later. The sound system was much too small for the amount of volume the group was trying to project but people didn't seem to mind as half of them were boozing…the vocals sounded like a distorted guitar. But the dancers on the stage took the attention away from any auditory defects. More on them later.
So we arrived and joined the other 1500 or so people while another 1500 or more were slowly filing in and make our way to an aurally/visually pleasing spot, past the riot police, prostitutes and scattered drunk dude. The opening acts are okay but EVERYONE is there for Macheso. A car pulls up next to the stage and a crowd rushes to see if it's him. I've never been this close to Beatlemania before. Strange. Even stranger when someone gets out of line and you see him being whipped back into form (or out of form) by baton wielding cop with a large shield and two or three others following him. Standing for hours through the three openers. Rhumba, some sungura/rhumba and a gospel act (note: gospel here is NOTHING musically like that in the West). Interesting mix, esp. the gospel act considering the audience. But the singer himself smokes lots of weed and likes to drink….good ole' Christianity. By this time we've moved to the side of the stage where the sound is more pleasing and you get a better view of the dancers. Yes the dancers. Of course, there are random acts of dancing all over the field. A few guys here and there, a couple grinding together or intermittent spottings of "The Borrowdale" ….the trademark dance of sungura…named after a horse track here in Harare and the dancing is something akin to a racing horse with the feet almost not touching the ground and the legs going a mile a minute. Kind of hard to explain….very fitting for the music though.
But on stage is a whole other level of dancing. Groups of 2-8 with choreography to fit the music. I've never seen hips move like this before. Pure sensuality. You can't help but smile at it. In my travels in Africa, I do believe I have seen some of the funkiest, hippest (pardon the pun), most erotic, original, unbelievable and joyous movements that the human body can express. Pure life. Tonight added to that. And then Macheso arrives. A down to earth kind of guy to talk to but on-stage he lets it out. Of course the usual amount of ego and gimmickry one would expect from a superstar ( playing with his elbow, tongue, feet, making his bass sound like a machine gun, canon, airplane and a landing helicopter in addition to some of the hottest bass playing I heard this side of Victor Wooten) and an awesome band that didn't let up for the whole three hours until sunrise. The crowd was in his hands and he knew it and they loved his every move…and move he could. I honestly can't describe the movements he and his guys we coming up with, perfectly suited to his music. Totally modern of course but the sentiment was deeply rooted in ancient Africa…the interplay between the musicians and the dancers was magic. Time indeed flew by.
Add up the full moon shrouded and illuminated by clouds, riot police beating people over the head here and there, a guy handcuffed to a fence and guarded a lady cop and her attack dog who wants a piece of him, crowds swaying to and fro in front of the stage leaving you wondering when they'd rush it, prostitutes grinding themselves against their men, drunk guys dancing with each other, sleep deprivation, the stage actually rocking from the 8 dancers and the band that are groovin hard, a guy coming on stage (twice!!) and handing out handfuls of cash to the band leaving the crowd getting more frenzied (extremely bad economy) and the fact that I'm the only non-African amongst about 3000 and you have one surreal time.
That's what I've been up to lately in addition to a full day drinking session (from 11:30am to 11:30pm). Didn't mean for it to happen ….really!!! Mainly consuming locally brewed chibuku (made from sorghum…..looks kind of like vomit but tastes much better). It was at Medicine's brother house as the lobola (bride price) was being delivered so I was invited. MANY litres of beer later I get home amazed at my level of functioning.
Next week I hope to go to some very, very, very, very, very tall waterfalls.
Curtis