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Steve Makoni

Tawanda Marwizi Recently in Rusape
A man who rocked the music industry some years ago, Steve “Dhongi” Makoni, walks down a dusty street in Vhengere, Rusape, with almost everyone greeting their celebrity.

To show that they are familiar with one of their best celebrities in the town, people greet him by his totem, Nyati.

But others prefer to call him Dhongi after his yesteryear hit “Chaenda Nechimwe Chii” that was popular and based on a story about how a donkey tormented an old headman when it sped away with a sack of mealie-meal that was meant for family consumption.

In the song, Makoni makes a comic suggestion of how the old man would explain the uncommon occurrence to his wife.

The song took the industry by storm while the other hit, “Handiende”, went on to steal the heart of superstar Oliver Mtukudzi, who later did a rendition of the hit.

Such was the popularity of the man who last week met The Herald crew as he went down the street in Vhengere.

“That’s my life, some people are used to the name ‘Dhongi’ but my first hit songs was ‘Handiende’,” he said.

He narrated how he managed to come up with the songs in 1993.

Makoni went down memory lane to the time when he was in Kwekwe to work together with Oliver Mtukudzi, but sponsors failed to come on board to support his project.

With so many stories in his mind, he decided to narrate them with the aid of a solo guitar.

“I loved folk music because it was unique and because I was not sure if my voice was smooth enough for challenging songs, so I decided to take that route,” he said.

He penned his first single “Maidei” in 1993 but some of his friends, including Mtukudzi, encouraged him to have another track so that he could release at least two singles.

“It took me a few days to come up with another song, ‘Handiende’, that became an instant hit. I was even surprised because I did not expect it to make such an impact,” he said.

Two years later he released an album that had the song “Chii Chaenda Nechimwe”, populary known as “Dhongi”.

Interestingly, he does not like donkeys.

“That is my worst animal in life but the song made me a household name,” he said.

The album yielded results for him and to date he is happy with the fame he got from the songs.

“Since then I started having live performances across the country and to be honest my career was lovely,” he said.

After a few other albums, Makoni went off the radar as his music began losing popularity. He was a regular at big shows in Harare, but decided to retreat to Rusape when fortunes changed.

However, the musician said he is still performing at private functions.

“I am working on new album that will be released this August and I am happy that people will get yet another exiting product that has several collaborations with other musicians,” he said.