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Tendai Maduwa and wife

Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
When seasoned gospel artists Mechanic Manyeruke and Pax Gomo assisted new musician Nobuhle Dube Maduwa to recently produce her debut worship single titled “Yahwe”, they in reality were supporting a couple who love art and each other. They were also promoting the whole arts industry.

Nobuhle is married to performance poet, published writer and evangelist Tendai Humbasha Maduwa whose latest inspirational book is titled “Chains of Credit: Manual on Divine Strategies out of Debt” (2017, Roots Press and Studios).

In the song “Yahwe”, the voices of the two famous Manyeruke and Gomo smoothly feature with maturity in Shona, and naturally follow Nobuhle’s leading powerful voice which sings in Ndebele. The mixing of two different languages in one song also gives great spiritual listening pleasure. The song, produced by music producer Jonathan Mugazi, is six and half minutes long.

It all started on a certain Sunday in a new church in South Africa. Nobuhle had been called there to help grow the church’s new branch while Tendai had simply visited the country for a different reason. She had been singing worship music since the days she was at Robert Tredgold Primary School in Bulawayo.

On this Sunday, the church’s Pastor Gumbo, also an author, had invited his friend Tendai. “In his introduction, the pastor was extremely happy to have Tendai in the church. He called him a celebrity,” said Nobuhle when asked in an interview with Bookshelf how she met the writer Tendai.

Sitting with other members of the worship team somewhere in the church, Nobuhle could not relate the high ‘celebrity status’ attributed to the young man and his meekness. “I looked away. I was not after celebrities,” she said.

And yet true love, as one renowned artist sang, the only thing for free that we must take it where it is found, lodged in the hearts of the two artists and few years later, they wedded.

The couple now manages each other in their projects. Asked how it was like working with Mechanic Manyeruke, a man with a blessed voice, Nobuhle said it was indeed a great experience.

“He is one of the humble elders in our music industry. When I went to him to show him the book of my songs, he was patient. He looked at it, asked me to sing for him, and when I did, he said, ‘You have a powerful voice’. Immediately, he agreed to be part of my project. I love the advice he gave me and I am grateful,” said Nobuhle.

As for Gomo, another renowned gospel artist, he has been a close family friend whose advice and contribution in the project Nobuhle says was also humbling. Her husband’s latest book handles debt, a subject which haunts every human being in a desperate financial situation. According to Tendai Maduwa in his book “Chains of Credit”, exiting debt needs spiritual willingness to follow God’s process of dealing with this stressful habit.

Seven chapters, backed up by personal experiences, look at different aspects of debt such as its physical and emotional effects, and its impact on marriage. Shame and embarrassment which debtors suffer is also dealt with in the book.

However, the author proposes what he calls the “Christian Debt Relief”, a process which starts with “removing stress which is usually a stumbling block to audibly hear God’s advice” on what he wants us to do.

This process, Maduwa writes, is a permanent solution unlike temporary relief which comes with “loan consolidation, refinancing, re-mortgaging, etc”. One may ask, where then does the money to repay debt relief come from? Surely, the almost 100 pages that make up the book are imbued with a timely message for anyone who wants to handle debt the best way using resources available.

Maduwa and wife, Nobuhle, are a testimony of how much respect the local arts industry gives to new married artists. In some countries, much of their latest news is about disgracing the married artists and looking down upon their gifts. While Nobuhle had the support of elders such as Baba Mechanic Manyeruke and Pax Gomo, her husband Maduwa has been a brother and best friend to established authors such as Phillip Kundeni Chidavaenzi, Tinashe Muchuri, Rabison Shumba and many others.