SaMukoko will on the 30th of April release his second album titled Keeper Nemukati at East Point (formerly Jazz 105) in Harare.
Going by the list of supporting acts, the launch promises to be a musical explosion.
ZORA King and master of song Leonard Zhakata, Gary Tight, Pauline Mai Sky, Audinence, Vedu, Jesa, Yulesis and Sir Arthur have already committed to adding to the flare to the launch. What many musicians might find curious is how SaMukoko is pulling this off.
It appears SaMukoko tapped into the philosophical wisdom of Keeper Nemukati to come up with an album and launch it under a very unfriendly economic climate in Zimbabwe. But what does keeper nemukati mean?
Keeper nemukati, nzvenga pagedhe, game deya, mini soccer, sticken, over bar and numerous other rules and variations of street soccer are probably foreign to most digital natives. But they shaped the infancy and perhaps teenagerhood of most people including this writer. There was so much wisdom to be learnt from these games.
The album title Keeper Nemukati is derived from a variation of street soccer where a goalie can play as an infield player as and when its necessary. The simple but all-important lesson from Keeper Nemukati is that one ought to look beyond social status, education and any other classifier if they are to get things done. The thinking behind Keeper Nemukati is that we can be who ever the situation demands us to be.
Our personalities should morph accordingly, and our competencies should be varied, in Shona tinoita yese yese to get things done. In the context of Zimbabwe’s music industry where sponsors and effective managers are hard to come by, a musician who self-promotes is a keeper nemukati.
Besides performing, the Gweru bred artist forged very good relationships with fellow musicians, young and old. These relationships subsidized the costs he was meant to incur from production, releasing and launching the album.
That there is the wisdom of keeper nemukati. A realization that when you hustle you should also pray or in this case hustle and play. It is important for music industry players in Zimbabwe to also draw the lesson that social capital is good for under-girding specific reciprocity and mobilising solidarity and constitutes sociological superglue which can lead to economic prosperity.
SaMukoko’s previous effort was his debut, released in 2015. It took him a little under four years to come up with a follow up album. From the time he released his first album to date, he has put most of his effort towards performance.
As a result, he is easily one of the most exciting acts on the circuit today. His sets have a healthy mix of animal energy and lazily elegance associated with the ghettos and affluent suburbs respectively. Well done SaMukoko on creating both profitable and useful relations as well as your album. East Point (formerly Jazz 105) is definitely the place to be on April 30.
