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 Fred Zindi Music
The formation of a new musicians’ association, called the Zimbabwe Musicians’ Union (ZIMU), in July this year came as a breath of fresh air to many musicians. ZIMU replaces the old Zimbabwe Union of Musicians which had a chequered history of both success and lack of activity. The old executive which consisted of the late Michael Sekerani, Robson Nyanzira and Samaita Zindi was criticised over the past 10 years for their rather anachronistic and inflexible approach to the rapidly changing nature of the music business.

Before Independence in 1980, Jordan Chataika was the chairman of the Union of Musicians.

At Independence Greenford Jangano, who has now retired as a musician and now lives in Victoria Falls, took over as chairman. Then it was Friday Mbirimi’s turn. After that the Sekerani team came into play, but not much was achieved.

We now hope that ZIMU will usher in new ideas which all musicians will benefit from.

The new ZIMU interim committee is chaired by bass guitarist and singer, Edith “WeUtonga” Katiji.

Lloyd Chidikano is the vice chairperson, while Rute Mbangwais the secretary and Book Café director Thomas Brickhill is the treasurer.

Other members of the committee are Pablo Master Nakapa (co-ordinator), Dzikamayi Machingura (legal advisor), Brian Nhanhanga (committee member), Terrence Mapurisana (advisor), Hector Mugani (committee member) and Daniel Ngwira (spokesperson).

Speaking to Ngwira, who is also the treasury manager at Interfin Bank, last Wednesday, I was informed that the idea of forming a new Musicians’ Union of Zimbabwe was mooted by one Simba Ndova, who unfortunately is no longer in the committee due to absence from meetings.

“According to our draft constitution, if a member is absent for three consecutive meetings, he/she is excluded from the committee,” Ngwira said.

“We are still in the middle of setting up a properly constituted union. We want to be different from past unions which were controlled, if not owned, by a handful of people. When we are set up, we shall ask musicians for membership fees which will be just one dollar per month or 12 dollars per year. We have submitted registration papers to the National Arts Council and are still waiting for registration. Musicians need a representative body since ZIMURA deals with composers only while the rest of the musicians are not represented by anyone. We want to be able to capacitate them to earn real money instead of depending on handouts,” Ngwira added.

In the past, the union of musicians such as ZUM made very little attempts to attract young musicians to its membership and they did not hold any meetings or set up any regular seminars and workshops aimed specifically at young bands. If ZIMU can substantially increase the number of musicians they represent at this level, they will be more effectively able to campaign for better pay and conditions for musicians on the concert, club and pub circuit. In the past, especially before Independence, all musicians had regular work.

City of Harare (then called Salisbury), employed musicians and bands such as Groovy Union, Blacks Unlimited, Whitstones, Four Aces, Aces Wild Flower, Ngwaru Mapundu, The All Saints Band, St Paul’s Musami Band The Cosmic Four Dots and The Springfields to entertain patrons in almost all the beer gardens owned by the city. The union had a strong input in this, but this power has apparently diminished in recent years as many musicians remain unemployed.

Negotiations with City of Harare need to be resuscitated in order to once again give employment to Zimbabwean musicians. Besides, this entertainment will liven up our city again.

I am sure that if ZUM had taken an active role within the first 10 years of independent Zimbabwe, our music would have reached dizzier heights by now. Instead it was the record companies which dictated terms to the musicians. The urban grooves musicians tried to penetrate the industry but in vain as the record companies were only interested in sungura music. Even the gospel musicians ended up playing sungura. That alone stopped the growth of music in this country.

The record companies were not interested in individual creativity, but were only interested in music which would give them sales. Thus the Devera Ngwenas, the John Chibaduras, the Simon Chimbetus and the Leonard Dembos became their cash cows. This, at the same time killed Zimbabwean music as only one genre was being promoted. If ZUM controlled and gave service to the artistes, all music genres would have found an escape route and control by record companies of what people should hear could not have happened.

It is my understanding that ZIMU aims to represent musicians, negotiate on their behalf and improve their standing within the music industry, and help individual members. They should be committed to trying to improve the “status and remuneration of musicians both absolutely and relatively”.

Services to their members should include general benevolent assistance, sickness or accident benefit, legal advice (contracts advisory service), instrument insurance, assistance in recovering unpaid fees from music promoters, a media rights collection and distribution service, and regular seminars, clinics and workshops on the music business.

Any musician who is playing for money and is prepared to pay the yearly subscription rate should be eligible for membership. In my opinion, an ideal musicians’ union should aim at protecting its members’ employment rights, give free advice on matters such as copyright, recording contracts, international associations and sources of funding, assist in establishing royalties agreements with recording companies, make sure that concert promoters deliver what they promise, assist with the funding of viable projects and organise an affordable pension scheme for all its members.

If pension schemes had been organised through past musicians’ unions, people like Jackson Phiri, who are well into their seventies, would not need to work anymore. I attended Phiri’s gig at the Book Café last week. It was patronised by five people only and he collected US$5 at the door. How can one survive on that?

Members elected to serve on the union’s board should be competent people preferably people with skills in administration, financial and legal issues. This way, musicians will for a change have a real industry. The union should have more power in deciding which of its members’ music should be played on radio and television. The union must be in a position to declare that if a musician wants to appear on television, or wants his/her video or music to be broadcast,he/she must be a member of ZIMU.

The union should therefore negotiate with radio stations about their playlists. This way DJs will be instructed to play only the music coming from ZIMU members. Not only will the union be able to recruit more members this way, but will have a stronger say about the industry which they represent.

We wonder what has happened to the equipment which was donated through a grant from the Culture Fund in 2010 to ZUM. A PA system was purchased together with backline equipment. This was meant to alleviate the pressure on the poor musicians who are always on the hunt for musical instruments, but I have not been able to establish the extent to which this equipment has been accessed by the ordinary musician.

It must be noted that musicians in Zimbabwe are still yet to form a strong union and our hope now is in ZIMU. Big musical acts such as Oliver Mtukudzi, Alick Macheso, Sulumani Chimbetu and Jah Prayzah have done it on their own without assistance from the union. This is a shame as these musicians have struggled as lone voices to get where they are today.

If a strong and united union of musicians had been formed earlier, a lot of musicians who have now passed on such as Biggie Tembo, Leonard Dembo, John Chibadura, Marshall Munhumumwe, Ephat Mujuru, Fanyana Dube, Jethro Shasha, Don Gumbo, Manu Kambani, Tinei Chikupo, Safirio Madzikatire, Jonah Sithole and Solomon Skuza would have received the recognition which they deserved in comparison to the haphazard way in which they were sent off.

In Britain, the Musicians’ Union (MU) represents over 30 000 musicians working in all sectors of the UK music business.

The MU stages regular campaigns in relation to relevant musical and industrial issues. At one point the MU worked to bar US musicians from playing in British clubs.

Today, any foreigner who wishes to perform in Britain must join the MU first at a fee which ranges from £30 per person upwards. In short, the MU is a very strong organisation which ZIMU must emulate. We wish them luck.

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