IN a tiny changing room at the back of the Large City Hall stage in Bulawayo, timeless Chimurenga music icon, Thomas Mapfumo,was a calm and collected fellow before stunning all and sundry with a non-
stop four-hour show last Saturday.
He was in a jovial mood as he was happy to be back in Bulawayo after nearly two decades.
Perhaps at the back of Mukanya’s head, he was nervous to be met by a paltry crowd as was the case at one of his last shows at the Large City Hall in 1999, but he covered that
with a wry smile.
In the packed changing room, Mukanya was surrounded by male members of his Blacks Unlimited group and the setting was like a
traditional idale/dare where male elders would converge to deliberate on serious issues. The three female singers had left the room to prepare to take to the stage.
The changing room was hot, stuffy and it was engulfed in a cloud of smoke that came from a “special cigarette” that was lodged nearly
at the tip between Mukanya’s index and middle finger of his left hand. Slumped on a chair wearing his trademark straw hat, his thumb, small and index fingers were holding
the rest of the bunch of his “special
cigarettes” in a small rectangular transparent plastic sealed bag.
The mood backstage in the dressing room was jovial and Mukanya was prepping his band, cracking one or two jokes and giving a word of advice here and there.Chronicle