Actress Anne Nhira’s death transforms brothers Nhira Brothers on stage.

Acting Entertainment Editor

Theirs is both a calling from above and hereditary, to say the least.

Born with the natural talent, this quintet had to hone their skills after the great tutelage of artistically “anointed” parents.

It’s also a rarity many would always yearn to happen in their families.

They simply call themselves the Nhira Brothers.

Going by such monikers as John Nhira The Legend, Limon Nhira, Mambo Fletcher, Yaggah and Swagger Trombone, this gang makes up the Nhira Brothers.

After years of working solo on the so-called secular music, the brothers have just decided to team up for a gospel album.

“Show business has always been our family business,” said John. “It was passed on from our parents Charles — a famous drum player, dancer and comedian — and Yananisai, a talented vocalist, dancer and actress.

“We learnt a couple of dances from Yananisai our mother — foxtrot, waltz and lambada. Every weekend we would dance with our mother! She raised boys (now men) who know how to take good care of a woman.

“Our parents also got these talents from their own parents. We can safely say we are third generation entertainers.”

John, who is the eldest brother, reckons music has always been part of their DNA from birth.

“Music has always been in our blood and genes,” he said. “We were born with the gift of entertainment and crowd pulling with our stage presence.

“Although we always knew we were chosen and called by God, for something greater, like Jonah from the bible, we ran, we ran away from God’s call. So we wrote “Zvenyika”, we sang, we performed, we drank, we had carefree childish fun (Zvemunyika) we did it all.”

John vividly recalled what made him realise their new calling.

“The turning point or the eye opener for us was the death in the family, first Yananisai (mother) 2019, then Anne Vimbai Nhira (2021),” he said. “We always heard that life is too short from others, but it never made sense to us.

“Not until death visited our household, our soft spot, death hit us where it hurts the most, losing a beloved mother and a sister really made us realise that we don’t have time, we were never promised tomorrow.

“We had been wasting our God given talents and in a way, death saved our lives. We should have been praising the Almighty God with our voices, our music, our talents, our choreography.”

John said the family was still being hurt after losing two family members — Anne and their mother Yananisai.

“The agonising pain of losing not “one but two (queen and princess) female pillars in our lives echoed like hail during thunderstorm, the pain was drastic, painfully painful,” he said.

“The overwhelming emotions steered up a war inside us like no other, violence like non other, depression, stress, sadness, regret, self sabotage all these emotions we were never ready to deal with mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. The effect broke us into tiny pieces, it almost broke us as a family.

“We fought each other for no reason because we couldn’t get answers for our questions from God. We then put our emotions in song.”

John believes it’s never too late to start afresh.

“So, what is repentance? It means that the sinner has abandoned his sin, removed them from his thoughts and resolved never to let them repeat again,” he said. “So can you change your life? Can you choose God this time?”

John said they had left everything to God, the healer.

He saluted some clergymen who stood by them.

“When the human mind stops, only then can God truly begin and take shape in life,” said John. “Overseer Reverend W. Zuze of the AFM Revelations Assembly Manyame Park Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, saw our pain,” he said.

“The man of God Rev W. Zuze and the AFM Revelations Assembly gave us comfort, showered us with love during our hour of need.”

John said Rev Zuze told them of how people always wanted to see the brothers sing in Church, perform live in front of over 50 000 people, with over a million live streaming audience worldwide at the 2022 AFM general conference at Gotekwa in Masvingo..

“This was by far the most thrilling experience of our lives, we were honoured to step on that blessed  pulpit at the grandest of AFM stages in the whole of Zimbabwe in front of the president of AFM Zimbabwe, overseers, reverends, pastors and ministers,” he said.

“This was a life changing experience for the Nhira brothers. Thanks to the Overseer Reverend W. Zuze, the AFM Revelations Assembly and AFM ministry as a whole. I salute you president of AFM, the choir master and others.

“So, we gave ourselves to God! We cleaned up, shaved our dreadlocked heads and recommitted ourselves to the Almighty God. We became dependable to our God, and we asked Him to take over, feel us with the holy spirit. We said ‘God guide us, teach us how to minister to your people, in your churches all over the world’.”

John still has a fertile memory of how their journey started.

“We started writing gospel music for the first time in our lives, we have a music studio at home in Manyame Park, so we recorded ourselves,” he said.

“Brighton AkA Limonhits is our main producer, he made beats, we wrote songs, we recorded, mixed and mastered our first track then another, now we are on four gospel tracks (Kutenda, Tofamba Nenyasha, Mwenje and Dzinde Rangu) .”

John said he appreciated the love the brothers got from online radio stations.

“Online Radio 54 African panorama owned by The General Erick Night and Radio Zimbabwe are already playing our gospel music and StarFM, Power FM, Zifm, Yafm and Hevoi FM are lined up to start playing this week.”

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