The Farm Compound Culture That System Tazvida Gifted Us

There is always this inner fascination that urban folk have when they visit the rural homesteads on a rare occasion that they do. A fascination with the change in scenery and behavioural pattens of their rural kin, and for those who get to visit farming community compounds the fascination is even more deep seated. This inner fascination was always the thread that the maestro System Tazvida exhausted on his way to the top of the then Zimbabwean music scene. (https://shorturl.at/wyuxB)

System sang of the lifestyle of the rural and farm compound folk whose way of life was so drastically different, it always struck awe in their urban counterparts. And the Zimbabwe of the late 1980s and throughout the 90s, when the farming communities were the bastions of our agricultural economy, few people cared to notice the culture and lifestyle of the farm workers and rural folk whose toil fed the nation and made the urban folk enjoy a certain level of existence that bordered on arrogance. Such a gulf in the different lifestyles made the two to seem as if they were crafted from two different nations instead of one Zimbabwe. And it was the job that System Tazvida and his Chazezesa Challengers involuntary undertook to popularize that very farm compound way of life.

Using the popular hard hitting sungura laced with jit rhythm of the day, System sang of love and leaned heavily on the social stratification of those days. His employment of humor in a cunning manner and the use of satire made the urban audience to view the otherwise shunned farm compound lifestyle seem a simple delight (https://shorturl.at/PGqkW). And for his farming, growth point and rural community based audiences; he created a following that made him the first Zimbabwean artist to have a stronger wider appeal in the community that was considered to have no buying power at all. His message of love and social inclusion in songs such as ‘Kaserura ndizvo’, (https://rb.gy/90ftw2) ‘Foromani’ and ‘Anodyiwa haataure’ which were some of his best made System to appeal to a nation that did not realize the deep seated social ills that were brewing in its underbelly, the very social ills that gave rise to the crises of our current time. His way of addressing these somewhat serious issues in an acceptable, funny and redeemable manner made System Tazvida to be the rare praised prophet of his day. His gifted mind seemed to understand fully the social barometer of Zimbabwe that was in a state of transition. A Zimbabwe whose government eventually took structural adjustment program as a response to the very social status of a society that a few of its inhabitants understood at the time.

System Tazvida’s discography always had something special in every album that he released (https://rb.gy/xjkr2h) There was always a hit somewhere in the release that endeared him to the top of the Zimbabwean music scene. His debut offer in those far off days of 1993 entitled ‘Rudo Tsika Nemagariro’ established that hunger for great music and quality sound, which was the hallmark of the music industry then. System gave us laughter and sadness through his music and hits that had the rural audiences dancing with wild abandon every time he held a live performance in their communities. They fully understood and associated clearly with his musical content. And as for the urban folk, they were always struck with fascination at the way System managed to beautifully exhibit the farm compound culture in his art.

His success was ensured in the way he chose his Chazezesa Challengers band mates, who were the A-list of the time and had vast experiences from previous engagements. The band included his bassist brother Peter Tazvida who was a veteran of the Nyami Nyami sounds, Guitarist LeeRoy Lunga had played with both the Super Sounds and the Kasongo Band, percussionist Lucky Mumiriki had experience with the Hurungwe Sounds and the Sungura Boys and is currently making the airwaves with the smash hitting Alick Macheso. Boysen ‘Wezhira’ Shoko was on drums with System himself a prodigy of the Sungura boys, the Khiyama boys and Mabhawuwa express. Such a choice of counterparts in the Chazezesa Challengers with such experience was eventually evident in the music they created.

System Tazvida had an eye for the social fabric of Zimbabwe then (https://rb.gy/j6h1x5) Through his music he managed to reach across the gulf that divided the two social classes that barely had an understanding of each other. And in the end found popularity in the rural and farming communities that no other Zimbabwean artist has done. He received admiration from the urban audience that loved his humor and appreciated his style of making them understand the society that lay just beyond the urban frontiers. System gave us the farm compound culture in his music and the audience fell in love with him for it.