ZimDanceHall(ing) to a Changing National Consciousness

 By Takura Zhangazha*

I did not know that what is now referred to as Zimbabwe Dancehall (ZimDancehall)  music has captured a lot of young Zimbabweans’ cultural hearts and minds.  At least not to the reported extent that it appears to have now done.  

At the end of August 2024, there was a major event called Cup clash for the genre at the local City Sports Centre in Harare.  I watched snippets of the show and also asked some young comrades what the excitement was all about. 

The answers varied but all boiled down to almost the same thing.  Basically it is what is the new urban and peri-urban ghetto culture in Zimbabwe.  Some considered it spontaneous, others more of a reflection of economic and drug-abuse related existential frameworks for many youths in the country.   Others still saw it as just the transformation of our local music industry to keep up with global trends, social media platforms and the immediacy of the popular need for any form of radically different entertainment. 

What is relatively apparent is that it is more or less an emerging, entertaining, even if for now ephemeral, cultural lifestyle for many young Zimbabweans.

I laughed the other day when a young man was walking up and down my local neighbourhood apparently chanting his rhymes.  All the while with earphones straddling his head.  I was a little bit shocked and asked him if everything was ok.  He replied that he was practising his song for the latest ‘tune’ coming out of a Dzivaresekwa studio.  And moreso that if I could possibly help him with at least $US5 for a studio session in the same suburb.

Apart from asking him to give me a sample of his music, I did go on and help him with the required studio session amount. I have not really heard from him since.  Perhaps because he probably did not meet the required chanter standards.

What however is more interesting about this ZimDancehall genre has been what it associates itself with vis-a-vis its actual content and how government and older Zimbabweans view it.

I will start with its content.  It is highly creative and also generally mimics what comes out of its founding Jamaican counterpart genre of music. 

It has a global feel in relation to its instrumentation (dancehall reggae rhythms and chants).  It is also highly materialistic and individualistic. Wherein attendant to the ‘riddims’ are lyrics that either talk of a rags to riches story or alternatively how much more of an indefatigable ‘champion’ one is in either music, money, women or global travel. 

This also being a reflection of the general ‘dog-eat-dog’ status of Zimbabwean society where individualism, materialism in its neo-liberal capitalistic sense rides roughshod over a majority of both the urban and rural poor.  In this is is also linked, tragically so, with a serious drug abuse pandemic that ironically is not limited to Zimbabwe but wherever this type of music is popular.

Then there is the manner in which it is also viewed by government and the ruling Zanu Pf party.  Almost in similar fashion to how government  and Zanu Pf relate to religious organisations, this music trend is viewed as a party supporter and voter mobilization tool.  Young and popular ZimDancehall artists will be roped in to compose or perform music palatable to ruling party cultural and mobilization functionaries.  Especially toward national elections or  national events presided over by the President or his functionaries.

In this politicized role, ZimDancehall artistes are also well aware of their own financial and material interests and will openly defy urban opposition political expectations of either neutrality or support.

This has been the case with a number of the most popular of these artists including some who initially sang songs more sympathetic to the opposition and eventually changed tack.  Ostensibly for the financial benefits that were evident for those that do not cross the ruling party. 

Beyond the politicization of the ZimDancehall genre, it is clearly here to stay for a while.  Its almost both age based (generational) and urban lifestyle driven. With a very awkward over romanticizing of the ‘urban ghetto’ and how someone got out of it in relation to poverty.  Only to want to go back and flaunt their success in the same never changing urban ghetto poverty.  Be it in a Special Utility Vehicle (SUV) or with wads of money. 

This brings me to the perception that older generations of Zimbabweans’ have of this music and expanding cultural genre.  On the face of it, it is a popular with older Zimbabweans where it has either catchy or trendy gospel or family value related themes.  It is highly unpopular however where it concerns the drug abuse related lifestyles that it organically depicts.  This is because some of its best musicians and creators are reportedly associated with varying forms of drug abuse.   And in most cases are also still viewed by many young Zimbabweans as role models because of their musical and material success. 

So older generations of Zimbabweans understandably worry about this. But even as they worry, they would do well to remember that when they were younger there were phases of specific popular types of music that they listened to that also meant specific lifestyles.  From country music through to reggae and even sungura.  Every music genre has its own time and influence.  And it cannot always be harnessed to be moralistic if your society remains economically unjust. 

That’s why after the late 1980s, with the advent of Economic Structural Adjustment (ESAP) and a breakdown in the Zimbabwean social welfare state, the music genre that ruled the roost was Christian gospel music. 

And why now, in our own age of state neoliberalism ZimDancehall reflects high levels of individualism and materialism.  Or even borderline pretensive egotism. Even where it does not materially apply.  

ZimDancehall music as a genre and a cultural lifestyle is a product of its contemporary time.  It reflects  Zimbabwean economic reality and the sometimes convoluted aspirations of many urban and peri-urban youths.  And yes, it cannot be censored or wished away.  Especially not in the age of social media. 

If you ask, “Will it come to pass?” The quick answer is only with the passing of time/ and changing age of its ardent fans.  And for sure those that come after them will re-invent another genre that reflects their lived social and economic realities.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)