R.U.N.N. family

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R.U.N.N. Family were a Zimbabwean musical group that had several hits in the 1980s, [1] whose songs combined mbira-inspired music with reggae and rhumba influences. [2]

Music of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean music includes folk and pop styles. Much of the folk music incorporates mbira, Ngoma drums and hosho. Music has played a significant role in the history of Zimbabwe, from a vital role in the traditional Bira ceremony used to call on ancestral spirits, to protest songs during the struggle for independence.

Mbira African musical instrument of the lamellophone family

The mbira is an African musical instrument consisting of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. The mbira is usually classified as part of the lamellaphone family and part of the idiophone family of musical instruments.

Reggae Music genre from Jamaica

Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the word "reggae", effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that was strongly influenced by traditional mento as well as American jazz and rhythm and blues, especially the New Orleans R&B practiced by Fats Domino and Allen Toussaint, and evolved out of the earlier genres ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political comment. Reggae spread into a commercialized jazz field, being known first as ‘Rudie Blues’, then ‘Ska’, later ‘Blue Beat’, and ‘Rock Steady’. It is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat, and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rocksteady; from the latter, reggae took over the use of the bass as a percussion instrument.

Contents

Background

The group was made up of siblings from the Muparutsa family, the best known of whom are the late Fortune and his brother, lead singer and bassist [Peter Muparutsa], who became a studio engineer at Harare's premier recording studio Shed Studios, and continues to work in the music industry. [1]

Shed Studios was responsible for the production of hundreds of band recordings and a large body of music used for various advertisements and films in Rhodesia, and later in Zimbabwe, from 1975 until 2000. The company "Shed Recording Studios (Pvt) Ltd" began as a collaboration between Steve Roskilly, Martin Norris and Neil Thain, all employees of Rhodesia Television, in 1975 in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

Hatichina Wekutamba Naye

One of the R.U.N.N. family's most successful songs was "Hatichina Wekutamba Naye", a lament for the recently deceased President of Mozambique Samora Machel. [2] The short description given to the song on album artwork states:

Mozambique country in Africa

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital of Mozambique is Maputo while Matola is the largest city, being a suburb of Maputo.

Samora Machel President of Mozambique

Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975. Machel died in office in 1986 when his presidential aircraft crashed near the Mozambique-South Africa border.

"Someone keeps stirring and heating the pot. Chitepo (sic), Biko and now Samora Machel. They kill our friends. We can only pray to God and remember the inheritance of Samora Machel. Our life is the struggle." [3]

Herbert Wiltshire Pfumaindini Chitepo led the Zimbabwe African National Union until he was assassinated on March 1975. Although his murderer remains unidentified, the Rhodesian author Peter Stiff says that a former British SAS soldier, Hugh Hind was responsible.

Steve Biko anti-apartheid activist in South Africa

Bantu Stephen Biko was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

This description refers to the controversy surrounding the aircrash in which Machel perished. Released in 1986 on the ZIM label (cat. # ZIM 410), [4] the song proved popular enough to feature alongside Paul Matavire & the Jairos Jiri Band and Jonah Moyo on a compilation of Zimbabwean hits produced by the DiscAfrique label, [3] [5] best known for bringing the Bhundu Boys to international attention.

1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash aviation accident

On 19 October 1986, a Mozambican government Tupolev Tu-134 jetliner carrying president Samora Machel and 43 others from Mbala, Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo crashed at Mbuzini, South Africa. Nine passengers and one crew member survived the crash, but President Machel and 33 others died, including ministers and officials of the Mozambican government.

Paul Matavire was a blind Zimbabwean musician and songwriter born in Maranda, Mwenezi District. He rose to prominence in the 1980s when he joined the Jairos Jiri Band based in Bulawayo at the Jairos Jiri Rehabilitation Centre. He was then elected to lead the Jairo Jiri Band, as one of Zimbabwe's finest musicians to emerge after the country gained independence from Britain in 1980. He died at the age 44, in 2005, at his farm in Rutenga, Masvingo. By the time of his death he is believed to have been an owner of a large herd of cattle, having spent the last days of his life as a farmer.

The Bhundu Boys were a Zimbabwean band that played a mixture of chimurenga music with American rock and roll, disco, country, and pop influences. Their style became known as jit, and is quite popular across Africa, with some international success, and has influenced later groups like Nehoreka and Mokoomba. British world music DJ Andy Kershaw said that at the height of their magical powers they were "...the single most natural, effortless, catchy pop band I've ever heard"; the BBC's John Peel famously broke down in tears the first time, when he saw the band perform live.

The late Charlie Gillett lauded the song as:

"One of the great soul records of the 1980s." [4]

See also

Media

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References

  1. 1 2 R.U.N.N. Family Zimbabwe Music Guide entry
  2. 1 2 R.U.N.N. Family AllMusic.com biography
  3. 1 2 Album sleeve of "Zimbabwe Hits Volume Three: Advance, Kusugar!" (DiscAfrique cat. # AFRI LP 006)
  4. 1 2 Charlie Gillett's official website
  5. ↑ "Zimbabwe Hits Volume Three: Advance, Kusugar!" Zimbabwe Music Guide entry


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