Nicholas Zakaria

Musician

Born in 1956 to parents of Malawian extraction in the Mazowe area, Nicholas Zakaria was endowed with innate musical skills that manifested at an early age hitherto. Nicholas’ father, Maluva Chekani, was a musician and it was he who influenced Nicholas to become an accomplished musician.

By the age of eight, Nicholas could already play the guitar with the aplomb of a veteran. At age 14, he formed his band christened the Green Mangoes and cut short his pursuit of secondary education. Consumed with the passion for music, he left his place of birth Mazowe for Harare, initially settling in Dzivaresekwa, where he soon found himself in the company of other musicians such as Shepherd Chinyani.

Together they formed Vhuka Boys, just before independence. Versatile and oozing with dexterity, Nicholas Zakaria aka Senior Lecturer currently fronts a sungura outfit Khiama Boys.

The moniker Senior Lecturer emanates from his coaching and mentorship of equally renowned musicians Alick Macheso and the late System Tazvida. Displaying selflessness, Madzibaba Nicholas as he is also affectionately known owing to his apostolic religious beliefs strongly believes in nurturing talented and upcoming sungura musicians.

The phenomenal growth of sungura as a musical genre in Zimbabwe is credited to a certain degree to his mentorship and nurturing initiatives. Nicholas remains as the man behind the rise of sungura musicians in the mould of Alick Macheso and System Tazvida including an avalanche of other young ones. He has 27 complete music albums to his credit to date.

His perseverance in music witnessed his latest music album Inzwa Unzwe being nominated in the Best Sungura Album 2020 under the Zimbabwe Music Awards. Held in high esteem for creating one of the most distinct and celebrated sungura sounds in Zimbabwe, Nicholas remains a doyen of local arts, music in particular.

He has been in the music industry for many decades and his influence in sungura as a genre reverberates across this music subsector. As evidenced by the nomination of his 27^th album for best sungura album, Nicholas is still soldiering on in the highly competitive music industry, proving that he is still a force to reckon with. — NACZ.