Unsung, ignored or underrated? A look at Solomon Skuza's songs in the context of contemporary Zimbabwe's socio-political and economic environment

Abstract

All good art transcends the limitations of time. In other words, good art is timeless and not mediated by the shifty circumstances of the period in which it is produced. This research sets out to analyze the timelessness, visionary and futuristic nature of Solomon Skuza’s selected songs. The research is spurred by the realization that long after his death, an analysis of his music album “Love and Scandal” shows the relevance that his words still have on the problematic nature of Zimbabwe’s socio-political and economic life. As one of the founding fathers of the ‘irabi’ (the equivalence of ‘sungura’ in the Shona language in Zimbabwe) and later Reggae music in Matebeleland both before and after independence, the research concludes by arguing that Solomon Skuza as an artist was a victim of political circumstances that prevailed in the 1980s and was therefore ignored and marginalized musically. It takes the view that the Gukurahundi disturbances contributed to this marginalization by the only broadcasting station in the country then, a broadcasting station driven by the political imperatives of a hegemonic and monolithic ZANU-PF party that called the shots after independence to date. This research argues that at a thematic level Solomon Skuza’s music had and still has a lot to contribute to the wrong turn that the post independence Zimbabwean ruling oligarchy took. Key words: Corruption, ESAP, ZANU PF, Scandal, Sandura Commission, Raggae, Sleaze, Gukurahundi, ZAPU, Ndebele, Shona.