11. Oliver Mtukudzi‘Mukana’
I went to Zimbabwe for the first time this year around Easter weekend. I was invited there by a friend who was working on a reforestation project, it was just like a very surprise trip that I didn’t see coming. I went with my girlfriend, neither of us had been before, and I was exposed to a lot of Zimbabwean music – including this song. This guy, it turns out, is quite a legend. I think he died a few years ago. I heard this song when I was over there and then since I got back, I just found I was listening to this song so often.
As I mentioned with V.M Bhatt and Ry Cooder, there’s something about putting a song on when you wake up. I feel like you get an opportunity to change the trajectory of your day. Particularly if you wake up feeling not great or ill, one song can change your path. I don’t sleep particularly well so I often wake up feeling a bit shit for the first little bit and I find that after I make my tea, I put on a song that really lifts me, and this one does it in a way that very few others ever have. Then your interactions will be different with people, they will be positively affected. It ripples out in this beautiful way. I think that’s why music is so fucking important!
His voice is just so good, too – there’s a kind of richness and a husk in his voice because maybe he was a little older when he sang this. I actually looked up what the lyrics were about because I listened to it so many times; I don’t often do that. He’s singing about equal rights in his village – about people getting autonomy and freedom: it’s essentially a protest song. There’s such joy in the actual music of it, though. Maybe it doesn’t all have to be dark and angry sounding. Maybe whilst making the same points, you can use joy as a form of resistance. I have no idea what he was thinking when he was writing it, but it’s an amazing mixture of what sounds to me like very life affirming music whilst making a personal statement. Try listening to it in the morning one day and see where it takes you.
