Jah Prayzah’s crowning moment
If it was not the hit —Kutonga Kwaro — which turned out to be the de facto anthem of the march that celebrated the ZDF’s seizure of power last Tuesday — then it was the old favourite Mudhara Achauya or the party song Ndini Ndamubata.
Harare was turned into one big party anchored on Jah Prayzah’s music. No artiste in the recent past has had his music played by such a huge concentration of people. It was clearly the Jerusarema hit-maker’s crowning achievement.
Jah Prayzah’s purple patch spilled into Zanu PF’s central committee yesterday. Soon after Emmerson Mnangagwa was readmitted into the party and Mugabe deposed as party leader, supporters of the former Zimbabwe vice president gleefully sang the hit Kutonga Kwaro as they celebrated at Zanu PF headquarters.
The fact that Jah Prayzah’s music dominated the solidarity march and the Zanu PF central committee meeting was not accidental.
The Uzumba-born artiste has long been associated with Mnangagwa whose expulsion early this month by Mugabe precipitated the military intervention.
For over a year, the former vice president’s supporters have incessantly claimed that Mudhara Achauya is a song that prophesises Mnangagwa’s ascension to power.
The song praises a powerful father figure — Shumba inoruma (a vicious lion). Interestingly, Mnangagwa is of the Shumba totem.
Interestingly, the pro-Mugabe G40 faction also adopted Mudhara Achauya as the “theme song” at Mugabe’s presidential youth interface rallies that took place across the country.
Jah Prayzah’s latest hit Kutonga kwaro has also been associated with Mnangagwa. The song was audaciously renamed Kutonga Kwaro Garwe by Mnangagwa’s backers. Garwe is Mnangagwa’s nickname.
Listening to Jah Prayzah’s music blaring from thousands of car radios in Harare; it was difficult to understand that just a couple of weeks ago the Watora Mari hit-maker had been a butt of social media jokes after he was assaulted at the burial of his former chief of security Chris Nyemba at Glen Forest Cemetery at the beginning of this month by people with leanings to the pro-Mugabe G40 faction.
In September, the Children of National Liberation War Veterans Association, in a statement posted on Facebook by one of its leaders- Munyaradzi Shoko- sensationally accused Jah Prayzah of meddling in Zanu PF party factional politics. Daily News
