On the road, a colleague played what young people today call "old school". For us, it was just music. Specifically, it was Leonard ‘Musorowenyoka’ Dembo. The post Why Leonard Dembo still sounds like gold appeared first on newsday .
WE listened to music as we travelled back from Nyanga to Harare.
On the road, a colleague played what young people today call “old school”. For us, it was just music. Specifically, it was Leonard ‘Musorowenyoka’ Dembo.
Track after track filled the car. Kuziva Mbuya Huudzwa, Janet, Madhiri.
Sitting next to me, Francis Chikadaya, a Hwedza boy, made a comment that kept looping in my head.
“Vairidza vakafa.”
Literally: “The dead ones used to play good music.” What he meant was simple. Dembo’s era was when music was still music.
Listening, I was pulled back to being a small boy in Hwedza. To Mukamba township, just by my mother’s village “kwaChadzamira”. To the home of Chief Mbavha, “kwaSekuru Makuvaza”. That was the soundtrack of those days. Radios, community gatherings, voices that carried stories, warnings and laughter all at once.
And I agree with Francis. Dembo and the other old timers — James Chimombe, Patrick Mukwamba and the rest of that generation — produced something timeless. It was not just beats and melody. It was message. It was culture. It was life set to guitar, mbira and drums.
But here is the painful truth we don’t talk about enough: while most of us agree this music is classic, the promotion of it is almost non-existent. If nothing changes, this gold will die with us.
Look at the struggle of some of our legends today. One name that comes to mind is Patrick Mukwamba. A man who gave us music that still moves people 30 years later, yet he is barely in the conversation when it comes to royalties, bookings or airplay. He is not alone. Many of these architects of Zimbabwean music are being left behind.
And yet the potential is still there. These catalogues are assets. The songs still have value. With proper promotion, repackaging and digital distribution, Dembo, Mukwamba, Chimombe and others could still be earning. They could still be performing. They could still be feeding families from the work they did decades ago.
I know culture changes. I know we have Zimdancehall, amapiano and other new trends. The youth have their sound, and that’s fine. But promoting yesteryear classics does not cancel today’s music. It complements it.
Play Dembo on radio and TV again. Put Mukwamba on streaming platforms with proper liner notes. Do tribute concerts. Teach the songs in schools. Let the new generation hear what real instrumentation, real lyrics, and real storytelling sound like. When we expose young people to the old and better music, we don’t just preserve heritage — we create new fans, new markets, and new income for the legends who are still with us.
To let this music die is to let part of ourselves die. To promote it is to keep the legends in the game and to remind all of us where our sound was born.
Vairidza vakafa may sound like a joke. But as Madhiri played and we made our way back to Harare, it felt like the truth. That music was and still is, gold. Classic. And it deserves to stay alive.
Sani Mbofana
The post Why Leonard Dembo still sounds like gold appeared first on newsday.
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