New album for Tshigomboza

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Legendary African folklore and Rhumba musician Peter Tshirolwe, known in the music industry as Tshigomboza, has finished recording his latest offering, called “Tshamapundu”.

Listening to the finished album at his home on Sunday morning (21 January), one could very clearly hear that this is one of his best albums to date.

The shy-looking musician, who hails from Masvingo in Zimbabwe, started his music career in the mid-1980s when he was still a student in the Masvingo Province. After graduating from high school, he joined a band called Ndindingwe, a backing group for the late Zimbabwean music icon Leopard Dembo. He played for the group for about three years before Dembo relocated to another town. He said the group continued to perform without him, but Dembo refused them permission to use the name Ndindingwe, so Tshigomboza joined a reggae group called The Suffering Souls.

“I played the bass guitar for the group. We only played reggae music and that’s where I was baptised as a Rastafarian. Even today, my favourite music is reggae,” he said.

In 1991, he was recruited by the late Freddy Moyo to join him in South Africa. When he arrived in South Africa, he played for Moyo’s group, called the Mashaka Band. Tshigomboza went solo after Moyo passed away.

Asked about his most famous song, “Tshinwanakadzi”, which is believed to be a cash cow for witches among Africans, he said that being known for his African folklore music, he enjoyed telling people about the African way of living.

Some people buy magical muti, which they believe will help them make a lot of money while sitting at home doing nothing. When Tshigomboza was asked whether he believed in his heart that people did make money through some African spells, he said, “It is real. It happens. But the problem is that some people are suffering because of mysterious things that they buy to get rich. As musicians, we sing about things that are happening in life and the experiences we go through in our daily lives,” he said.

Tshigomboza is also famous for dancing on top of a wire when performing and said doing so required a very strong man. “When rehearsing, you fall many times, but you have to continue practising until you master it.”

By: Victor Mukwevho

Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani joined the Mirror during it's inception in 1990. He joined the SABC newsroom in 1995, and was known by  listeners as "A u fhedzisela ari". He was a news editor for The Tembisan Newspaper from 2007 to 2015. He rejoined the Limpopo Mirror newspaper in June 2022 as a freelance journalist.