Morgan Heritage ooze about Mugabe, Tuku
By Silence Charumbira
Showbiz Editor
Reggae royalty has finally descended on Harare and apart from the euphoria associated with the coming in of a foreign act of their caliber; the Jamaicans are also excited to be “home”.
Speaking at a press conference at the Harare International Conference Centre Thursday in the run to their gig on Saturday, brothers Mojo, Peter and Gramps said Africa was home and Zimbabwe was special.
In response to questions at the conference, Gramps had the auditorium laughing their guts out when he said audiences were not supposed to expect fireworks.
“Fireworks? I though we came here to play music!” he said.
He however said it has been a long time since Zimbabweans have been expecting them to come and perform while they too longed to come to Zimbabwe.
Gramps acknowledged the effort by several promoters to bring different Jamaican artistes but said the costs were too high.
Asked how they felt finally coming to Zimbabwe when every other Jamaican feels they were finally at home, Peter unlocked a mystery that had remained unknown to many: the Bob Marley effect.
Peter oozed about President Robert Mugabe, and at one moment the audience was uneasy before they realised it was all about the Zimbabwean independence where Bob Marley performed and composed a track dedicated to Zimbabwe.
“It’s a pleasure coming to Africa. We have heard about Zimbabwe. Big up to the President who is still in the chair since the time of independence…Remember when Bob Marley came here…to see that there was a Jamaican to welcome the independence of a country in Africa and now we are here; it’s almost a dream not only Africa; because many people think that Africa is just one country but it’s a continent of many countries,” he said.
“So to see that we have arrived in Zimbabwe, which Bob Marley wrote a song about it,…so to see that we have arrived, Zimbabwe is a very special to us. We have been to Nigeria, we have been to Kenya, we have been to Malawi, we have been to Ethiopia, we have been to South Africa which is our dream but Zimbabwe is every musician’s dream in Jamaica,” he said inviting a wild applause from the audience that included members of the Nyabingi that had come to invite the group to one of their shrines.
He paid gratitude to business people, politicians and “elders” that he has had managed to hold people together while the country was on its path to progress. He urged the people to be patient saying it would take time as the country had just been liberated in 1980.
Then he oozed again: “This weekend will be something to talk about. I am looking forward to seeing Oliver (Mtukudzi). I have seen him in America perform, I love his voice, the angel of God. Winky D, I have heard a lot about him, I am looking forward to seeing him as well.
Responding to a question on repatriation he said it was important for people to liberate themselves in their respective countries of residence before they could think of permanently moving to Africa.
He said there would come a time that they would be touring other countries and still come back to Africa.
“We have been to Kenya spending a lot of time in Kenya, we have been to Kenya spending a lot of time in Kenya and now we are looking to coming to Zimbabwe and plat some food and with our youths education…some simple things in life can fix a lot of our problems so we are really looking forward to making a home here in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The bulky singer also spoke about religion and said they were kept together as a family by God by their continued faith in the God of Abraham.
The brothers also said their sister Una would not be touring as she was still recovering from a heart attack and would only be ready to tour after at least six months to a year.
Asked whether they had researched about the hard to please Zimbabwean audiences to avoid upsets, the trio said audiences had to understand that creators of music were human just like everyone else.
“It’s not every night that you are going to have a perfect night. The other time we performed with the great Mariah Care; everybody knows her, multi-platinum, multi Grammy recording artiste and that day we performed with her, she didn’t have a good night. Who knows what stress her ex-husband Nick Cannon was giving her,” he said drawing more laughter from the crowd.
The group will perform alongside Tuku, Winky D and Freeman at the HICC on Saturday.
Zimbabwe Mojo Peter and Gramps
