. Serenje Kalindula band

By Lazarous Chibuye –
After listening to a piece of music by the Mashabe band, I was left with indescribable grief to learn that all members of the band are no more.
The Mashabe band, the Serenje Kalindula band, the Oliya band and the Majoza band produced wonderful music which truly can be identified with our culture.
The effort, creativity, organisation, enthusiasm and harmony with which members of these bands played their music cannot be matched by the current crop of young musicians. To appreciate profoundly the point I am trying to drive across, visit the national broadcaster, ZNBC and ask to be availed with music of the afore-mentioned bands from the archives and listen intently to the guitar works, drum beats, vocals and other improvised pieces of musical instrument which these guys used.
You will be astounded by the harmony of the musical instruments. The sweet sounds of each musical instrument tingles your ears and you are left with no choice but to nod in agreement with the richness of this music.
One thing for sure which stands out is that these fallen heroes  worked hard under very prohibitive circumstances to come up with  such fantastic sounds. They did not have access to modern technology such as computers, but they produced music which was and still is appreciated by many people locally and abroad.
Those days each band would walk into the studio, record a single which would rock the air waves of the national broadcaster for some years before coming up with  another piece of music. Take for example the song done by the Mashabe band called ‘kamalule’. It is one block buster which enjoyed air play by many DJs on radio 4 in the late 1980s and and 1990s during what the DJs called local drive-time.
I remember listening to Victor Kanguya ( who popularly was known as the Emperor by his fans-MHSRP) and the late Harriet (the Sweet) Nene who during their broadcast played this kind of music.
Such DJs (even others not mentioned here) championed music produced by our fallen heroes largely because the effort they put in was noticeable.
It’s sad, indeed, very sad to say that there were very few organisations which promoted the music of those bands apart from some journalists mentioned who worked for ZNBC.
The question which lingers in many enthusiastic followers of Zambian music is this: why has the cold hand of death taken the entire members of these band? One accounting factor to this tragedy is the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
This unfortunate situation developed at the time when Rhumba music from the Democratic Republic of Congo had gained ground and popularity in the southern part of Africa. Congolese musicians benefited from the passing on of Zambian Musicians as there was no band left in Zambia to give them a challenge. Solo artists like legendary Pitchen Kazembe, Peter Tsotsi Juma, Ackim Simukonda, Paul Ngozi, Alfred Chisala Kalwisha Jr and Mike Nyoni did not live long enough to see Zambian music thrive.
Some of them died from the same cause that claimed other musicians.
They may be gone, but as we always say their music still lives on to be enjoyed by many generations to come. They are forever going to be missed by most of us who listened to their music and it is with a heavy heart that I say, they are gone with their music with a Zambian touch.
The current crop of young artists have a lot to learn from the fallen heroes by reflecting on what they are doing because we really expect them to give us music which can identify us as Zambian. They need to do a lot of research so that they understand why their predecessors have left a big mark on the Zambian music scene.
It feels bad because we have very few old artists to mentor the so called upcoming musicians. The few surviving ones in the name of the Sakala Brothers ( though have parted company), Maureen Lilanda and Ballad Zulu can do a lot to tutor those who are willing to be trained. Young artists humble yourselves before these experienced artists.
Don’t be big headed because of a few modern musical instruments at your disposal, seek knowledge, learn from these guys when they are still around with you. If you do there is no doubt that you will excel and make our staggering industry soar to great highest.
I will not do justice to this article by not recognising the great contributions made by pioneers of the modern Zambian  music such as JK, Danny kaya, MC Wabwino, Izreal, Michael Zulu and Matthew Tembo. To you people we thank God for still being with us, but you also have a lot to do in as far as protecting the image of our industry is concerned.
The author is a teacher based in Kitwe.