The Double Standard Nation

Yesterday one of my favorite artists Dereck Mpofu dropped a new track; Chimbozvizunza featuring Baba Harare, Master Shekko and Bev. The track is outside his normal sound, he went the house route and he also left his usual socially conscious lyrics for some shallow playful, naughty lyrics and that got many people enraged in the YouTube comments section. This re-ignited an argument I had with a couple of friends some time back; Why do us Zimbos love and celebrate shallow tracks and lyrics from foreign artists but crucify our own for doing the same???

This has baffled me for so long, when a local artist releases one of those shallow, playful, naughty, explicit, crazy tracks they are castrated for it but those same people condemning the artist have countless similar songs by foreign artists in their phone!!!. It makes no sense to me, why are our local artists subjected to tougher restrictions and satndards as compared to their foreign counterparts?? is it an issue of language?, is it an issue of tradition???.

Is it the "we are a learned nation" attitude that makes us expect our artists to always sing tracks that make sense?? Art cannot be contained, it's an expression hence it goes either way, why then do we fail to accept that when it comes to local music. 

I remember some of my colleagues saying these guys are lost and will not make it whilst singing such tracks but then had to ask them to translate some of their favorite SA House, Hip Hop, Trap and Dancehall tracks into their mother language and identify if there are any differences. It turns out the foreign artists are actually worse. Vybz Cartel has been the biggest dancehall artist in the past 10years and his trademark is explicit sex themes in his music, you cannot even translate his lyrics and say them out loud in Shona with a straight face. Nigerian artists sometimes sing the most gibberish lyrics but we gobble up their music knowingly that the song is meaningless, hiding behind the guise that it sounds nice. Is the problem because the songs are in Shona/Ndebele, some say certain words and themes have more gravity or sound more stupid when said in Shona/Ndebele??  Maybe, but even if so how come we fail to move past it. Quite a number of hit house tracks from SA do not make any sense at all but South Africans supports their music to the fullest, why can't we do the same???.

One may argue that because other nationals are supporting such we should do the same. It's a valid point, but then we say there is freedom of expression (outside politics of course if you in Zim) but we continue to crucify our artists. Some even go far to saying local artists are not serious whilst comparing their tracks to explicit, meaningless, wierd tracks from foreign artists, how can they compete!.

If we need our artists to dominate Africa and the world we need to create a favourable environment where they are comfortable to express their creativity to the maximum. We need to judge them using the same measure we use for foreign artists, there should be no double standards. A good example of what is needed is the Zimdancehall genre, they have created their own culture which is independent from the norms and rules that other genres are subjected to by their fan-bases. The new crop of dancehall artists have pushed the boundary further, coupled with open minded fans the genre has become even more powerful and expressive. One can get songs about various themes in dancehall, from explicit, weird, meaningless, socially conscious, educative, political, religious..etc. This I feel should serve as a template that the whole nation must follow if we are to push the arts sector to the next stage. One may argue that the (behavior and characters of the) ghetto youths (majority of Zimdancehall fans) is not the appropriate example to use but regardless one will be very foolish to ignore the amazing culture and environment that they have created. 

I cannot wait for the moment when Zimbabwean arts start dominating the continental scene, I know we have the talent to match what is now needed is for us the fans to make the noise. As Dr Thomas Mapfumo said on Vanhu Vatema;

 " ...tikataura nezwi rimwe chete iweee 

yahondeee yahondeee 

nyika dziri kure dzinotinzwa...".

  

If we speak with one voice, far away countries will hear us. To conclude, I am not saying artists should all sing meaningless, explicit, crazy music but their creativity should not be restricted and also us as the fans should stop using double standards and lets create an environment where artists can be at their most creative.

Proud_Zimbo