Progress Chipfumo is an enigma. Those who attend his live performances talk about a man who does not walk in from the backstage, but uses the venue’s main entrance and greets revellers before starting his performance.
He interacts with fans intimately, freely shares his contacts and interfaces with them, like he is one of them.But why does he do this; “I always try to maintain a personal relationship with my fans because I believe these are the people I sing for and it is through talking to them that I can get to know how I can improve my music.”
He blatantly crosses the line between his professional and personal life when he feels like it and sometimes uses his recess to join other revellers in the main bar area.
A resident of the middle-class Southerton suburb, he frequents places like Highfield, Mbare and other high-density suburbs, and sometimes visits dingy bars, and streets to meet and chat with the ghetto folk.
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| The enigma that Progress Chipfumo is |
Yet for the same fans, interacting face-to-face off the stage with such an icon is intriguing as they get to know his other side.
“I do not want to alienate myself from vanhu ve kwandinobva [people of where I come from], so I strive to spend as much time where I belong, ” he said.
Interestingly, Chipfumo is an introverted man who, despite spending time in public places off the stage, has parts of his life he never reveals, like his upbringing, family issues and future plans.
Instead, he prefers to laugh the day off and exchange jokes and pleasantries with people who know him only through his music.
“I had a tough upbringing so I don’t want to talk about those issues all the time,” is all he said when asked about his childhood.
Immense talent
No doubt, Chipfumo has immense talent and every time he strums his guitar and leads his band through a song, he produces nothing short of a musical masterpiece.
His last album, Hold My Hand, like four others before it, received positive reviews from music analysts.
In a country where many musicians are now using backyard or unprofessional studios to produce half-baked and poorly mastered albums, Chipfumo’s Hold My Hand, produced at Clive Mono Mukundu’s Monolio Studios in 2013 takes its place among some of the few best quality productions the country has had recently.
“What is music if it is of poor quality; despite the difficult times we are going through as musicians, we have to strive to make the best productions that can even compete internationally.”
When it comes to stage performances, the dreadlocked musician is known for well-polished acts that can last for up to more than five hours.
With debate often being sparked regarding who is better, Chipfumo or Jah Prayzah, the tables seem to always favour the former Hohodza man, who is credited for his original and well-thought out quality productions that some say exhibit maturity, skill and depth.
Ordinary life
Yet, with all this greatness and talent, Chipfumo lives and acts the life of an ordinary person and appears to shun attempts to follow the path of his colleagues who create walls between them and ordinary people, or choose to surround themselves with professional brand managers and marketers in line with the current trends of music.
For him, his face is more familiar in the ghetto than it is in the newspapers or on television.
He is a puzzle, a mystery.
Chipfumo was born in Chiredzi and spent a better part of his life at a child probation centre in Highfield before being taken into the hands of foster parents who supported his music talent by buying him his first guitar.
He entered the professional music industry after joining Hohodza band in the 1990s, but later formed his own band, the Sounds of the Motherland after parting ways with Hohodza.
His talent earned him a name, and after a few years of making hit songs, he was counted among Zimbabwe’s best musicians of the 2000s.
But the puzzle remained. Chipfumo, like many other musicians of the 80s and 90s such as the late Andy Brown, remained a closed box, preferring to shy away from the media spotlight.
Perhaps it was the fear of being misquoted or misinterpreted that Chipfumo, Brown and several other musicians pointed to during separate interviews with this writer.
Brown was a talented vocalist and guitarist who also lived an ordinary life that many felt was not befitting for his status.
Music talks
Perhaps, for such artistes, music is supposed to talk on their behalf, which is yet another puzzle.
Could this be the reason why Chipfumo penned songs like Varombo Kuvarombo, Tariro, Dendere, Kwatinobva and Ngwena, among many others in which he associates himself with the poor, the unfairly treated and victims of the powerful?
Perhaps, as they say, artistes sing their life stories. Chipfumo, who said he grew up in the care of his now late mother and claims he was ridiculed during his time at the probation centre, pens musical pieces with messages full of self-vindication and are in favour of victims of situations.
Interestingly, as shown on his Facebook page Progress Chipfumo Music and various WhatsApp groups created by his fans, there is no doubt the message in his music speaks to the lives of his many fans.
His are not different to Zhakata’s messages, which have been termed overly lugubrious but ironically resonate with many who play the same mournful songs at all occasions including parties.
Chipfumo is therefore one of the musicians you may not find in the news pages very much, but is content with his music and style of life which some call reckless while others see humility.
According to him, he speaks to his fans through his compositions, and values what he feels is a relationship with fans more than anything else.
“I am nothing without my fans and that is why when I write a song, I would have spoken to people to understand some of the issues they could be going through, like when I did Kwatinobva, it was as a dedication to what the people of where I come from go through.”
With such a close association with fans, often the line between professional and personal life becomes so thin, something that professionals say is unhealthy and reckless.
But sensitive to judgement as he is, Chipfumo insists, “ this is what works for me.”
He counts himself as one of the poor, forgotten and condemned and prefers to live like them.
After being jailed for domestic violence in 2008 and falling seriously sick in 2010, Chipfumo counts himself as a victim of circumstances and claims he is now leading a new life, especially after being reported dead during his sickness.
Hold my Hand album, which carries several songs with ecclesiastical messages, is perhaps his testimony of what he terms a second life.
With his Facebook page and Whatsapp groups continuing to be hives of activity and his shows attracting capacity crowds, and his productions maintaining the high musical standards, perhaps the game is on for Progress.
With his fans, producers and other analysts saying he is one of Zimbabwe’s most talented, the sun is shining in his backyard.
