By Dr. Tony M. Monda
An album launch featuring the sons of John Chibadura, Tongai Moyo, Simon Chimbetu and Leonard Dembo will take place at the Tanza Centre in Chitungwiza on 5 December, 2025 – the original nest of the sound of Sungura, where it was hatched.
Sungura is the mainstay of popular music in Zimbabwe.
The sound of sungura continues to resonate in the DNA of the sons and siblings of the alpha Sungura musicians – many of whom have passed away.
The heirloom sound of Sungura music has been reinvented and re-contextualised to suit the times and milieu.
Since the early township day’s sungura remains a source of entertainment for the working class after a hard day of toil.
Its plebiscitary roots, the vernacular idiosyncrasies in the lyrics and its multi-ethnic African qualities make it accessible and appealing to the common man.
Zimbabwean Sungura music retains its definitive pedigree in its youthful generation of purveyors – The sons of Sungura. Today the sound resonates in most high-density suburbs in Zimbabwe.
The music is an expression concerning the ideal way that society and its people should live. It is a reminder and reinforcement of socio-cultural norms.
An Intangible quality of sungura is its moral compass for the plebeian working class that explicates the dos and don’ts of society.
The music and lyrics embody a holistic and explicative collection of social narratives; contemporary truths, inquiring verses and traditional orature which make up the content of Sungura today.
Its cathartic effects echo in the minds of many workers as they go about their daily chores, downloading Sungura on smart phones.
People commuting to work on buses, others on bicycles; even bricklayers discuss Sungura musicians’ personal lives and riches; women doing laundry raise their volumes above the splashes of water, suds and clothes; field workers sling blaring radio to nearby trees whilst weeding or tilling their fields – Sungura is a companion to work.
A uniquely Zimbabwean sound, though not confined to the regional borders. Sungura has a musical urban identity with inventive guitar riffs and is rich in poly rhythms and syncopation;
it is a hybrid of musical influences, an amalgamation of many sounds in the region from Angola, Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi – of migrant labour.
This hybrid music that has its roots in the farmlands, mines and factories became an ideal anchor for the various cultures of the migrant people.
Sungura is an amalgamation of traditional instruments and sounds that have a diversity of poly rhythms. Rich in variety and range Sungura musicians usually hark back to their mother language, musical roots and folkloric patterns of music from their auditory memory and traditions.
The genetic memory of sound becomes part of Sungura’s signatory style. The Sungura lexis is out reaching and ever mutating. In its typical cyclical fashion, Sungura easily and readily absorbs new ideas and sounds to enrich its depths and extend its definition.
The guitar is the main instrument that drives the sound of sungura, unlike mbira and gospel.
Sounds of nature, the melodious chirping of birds, the shrill of evening cicadas and the metrological sounds of their locality become part of Sungura’s musical vocabulary.
Sungura music traverses every facet of society; from the social criticism of our idealistic Shona and pan African morals to the wrong doings of our fore fathers- to the celebration of our unions – i.e. ‘Chpoi Chipo Chi Rorwa’ by Zacks Manatsa, to ‘Tumirayi Vana Kuhondo’ and the ubiquitous ‘Hokoyo’ by Thomas Mapfumo – the musical trajectory was based on the voice and concerns of the people in their urban and peri-urban milieu – Its settings were important .
Its rapid rise in popularity in the late 1960s to the present time is testimony to its popular mainstay appeal.
The meritorious unifying qualities of this music are still apparent in the broad appeal of different tribal groups and different generations in the now liberated (post-1980), working class of Zimbabwe.
The consumer of this music during the Liberation War knows how the music served as a “call-to-arms”. Sungura’s deep seated motivational lyrics with danceable music, served to motivate the liberation cadres.
Simon chimbetu’s “Ndarangarira Gamba” and Tineyi Chikupo’s “(Sylvia),Siriviya Hende ku Magobo” and Oliver Mtukudzi’s-Nyika ino ye Zimbabwe are examples of Sungura songs that inspired the fighters.
One of the endearing qualities of Sungura is that it is original, home-grown organic music, performed by live musicians without synthesizers, digital loops and new age computerised technology. This allows training and gainful employment for musicians.
The second generation progeny have acquired the musical pre-potency of their fathers.
They are now taking the music a notch higher and reinventing the sound, perhaps with better instruments and more body in the sound.
The current new young sungura artistes are creating music with the relevant lyrical form and content that appeals to both the new and old generations.
Now a totally urbanised music, played in clubs and sung on stages and stadiums, Sungura has undoubtedly become one of the most commercially successful genres of music in Zimbabwe -drawing large crowds at new outdoor venues, where audiences await the launch of new albums with bated breath.
Although very few women perform Sungura, it should be considered a Zimbabwean musical heirloom. Sungura lives on in the sons and daughters of Sungura.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He was a Music consultant for the New Zimbabwe curriculum. Contact him on 0773 805 700 or email on
tonymichelmonda93@gmail.com or tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
About Author
