By Beaven Tapureta
High-flying spoken word artist Ngonidzashe Paradza, popularly known as Mambo Guramatunhu, is proud of his humble beginning and the resilience that he has had to muster up to be where he is now.
The boy child who grew up poor and orphaned in rural Chiredzi under the care of a family guardian has now grown into an award-winning poet and storyteller illuminating events with his rich Shona poems and message of ubuntu.
The resplendence that his career today vibrates with is but the height of a process that the Muse initiated him into some time ago.
A student at Chikato Primary School in Zimuto, Masvingo, he had high dreams of a smooth academic ascension just like the rest of his peers. As a bright learner, he was endowed with supportive teachers and a word-spinning grandmother.
“At home my gogo was a good Shona speaker. Vaiisa nyaudzosingwi, tsumo uye vaitaura nemadimikira. So the combination of gogo, my love for reading and my passion for music sparked the desire to create my own stories, songs and plays. I started playing gallon guitars and ‘magaba’ as early as in Grade Four. My mom used to hate it but later loved it before she died,” remembers Mambo Guramatunhu.
All seemed well for the boy then, but life hid its own vicious dictates. His parents died before he could finish Grade 7. The future looked shadowy. Although later he did pass his final Grade 7 examination, the fees for him to proceed to secondary school could not be found. For three consecutive years, he repeated Grade 7, passing each final exam. Who knew this was the beginning of the poetical awakening in him! He fell in love with Shona novels at his disposal and started to write own poems.
“This is the time I started writing poems in the mountains, herding cattle while my peers were at school,” he says.
Luckily, it happened that his late father’s friend, a headmaster at Chimbwembwe Secondary School, came to his rescue, gave him more books and also invited him to attend school for free. But then, Mambo Guramatunhu, academically gifted as he was, skipped Form One to catch up with his stream in Form 2.
One day in Form 3, he performed a poem at school and mesmerized the audience with his natural word-play. From then on, his poetry attracted the attention of many, including a government minister who would present him with $20 whenever he performed.
“I performed for local councillors, MPs and ministers. Minister Stanley Mudenge used to give me $20 after performing. My teachers and the community kept encouraging me,” says the NAMA award-winning Mambo Guramatunhu.
The path he had chosen opened wider and led to opportunities almost predominant over academic ones.
Today he boasts of many artistic blessings, but also he knows the journey is yet to be finished. Through collaboration, mentorship and personal uniqueness, he has carved a niche in the spoken word realm.
Mambo says he initially wanted to create his own kind of poetry called poesic, given that he had learnt how to play musical instruments like ngoma, acoustic guitar, mbira and hosho.
“I wanted it to be a combination of poetry and music like what Albert Nyathi did with ‘Senzenina’. However, I am more of a stage poet. My goal is to capture emotions, attention and create the intended atmosphere. It’s not bad accompanying poetry with mbira or marimba to give it meaning and identity. However a poem can be powerful too without any background sounds. It depends on what the poet prefers,” says Mambo.
His recorded poetry, powered by sentimental musical background and collaborative voices of other local artists, gets deep to the soul of a listener. For example, productions such as ‘Teerera’, fusing Shona and Ndebele, has rich vocals, well-integrated instrumentals, and gives voice to a parent giving good advice to his/her child. And with different backgrounds, ‘Mhiri Kwatakaenda’ portrays the plight of migrants in foreign lands, ‘Economy Mandimba-ndimba’ envisions a better and corruption-free Zimbabwe and ‘Social Media’ bemoans the loss of ubuntu on social media as well as highlights its potential for positive change.
Mambo acknowledges the gains of collaborating with both the young and established Zimbabwean artists such as prominent producer Mono Mukundu.
“Working with Mono is a great experience; I learnt sound and understanding my own identity as a poet, professionalism and respect. I also have worked with artists Allicious and Equation. I have worked with Baba Harare. I have written songs for other artists, shared stage with a lot of celebrated artists including Jah Prayzah at private events. I have seen my work being promoted recently by Winky D at their Facebook page, the vigilance community.”
Not only from collaboration has the poet benefited, but also mentorship from the other experienced poets. As there are few arts colleges in Zimbabwe where artists can get formal training, Mambo believes mentorship provides the balance. He himself is currently pursuing a diploma in Performance in Arts at the Music Consultancy Society in Waterfalls, Harare, but still having mentors is valuable in any career development.
“Talent alone is not enough. I feel talent is 50% and other things 50%. You may not need formal training but having a mentor develops your talent. For instance, from Albert Nyathi you can learn it’s possible to go international with poetry; same as from Chirikure Chirikure, you can learn how Shona can open doors globally and that you can host international arts festivals rather than just being a poet. From Abel Mauchi one can learn you don’t need to be much educated to be a great writer. So l think mentorship in our field can somehow beat formal training,” says Mambo.
His themes are wide-ranging: xenophobia, rights of women and children, both the destructive and the positive impact of social media, and many others. For him, poetry has power to recover culture and identity.
“At some time I thought Africa had lost it all but now I see a new wave of young people coming back to their roots to love their traditional food, loving their mitupo (totems), loving their mitauro (indigenous languages). A lot of young people are now anxious to know their roots. Us as poets we exist as vanguards of tangible and intangible heritage,” he says.
Although he has been more popular on stage, Mambo has a published book Kumberi Takamirigwa (2021) that has done equally well and still selling more copies. Before this year ends, he will be launching another book of poetry titled Bvute.
“This year in October I am dropping Bvute another poetry book. It’s about heritage and culture,” he says, adding that he trusts reading culture is existent as long as people adapt to change.
“The future of books is bright. However, books must meet the day’s demands. People are now getting lazy to read, so let’s make audio books, adapt plays from books, and if one’s writings are good, books can still be read and bought.”
Mambo Guramatunhu urges fellow poets to claim their space.
“Poetry needs more publicized shows, media coverage; poets must create good videos and submit them to television. We should have poetry programmes like Top 10 on radio or television every Friday but unfortunately poets are not producing work, not doing videos, not submitting to radio and television. However, it might not be our problem but we don’t have capital since poetry is less paying in our country,” says Mambo, a degree-holder and secondary school teacher although he is not teaching at any school at the moment.
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