Info
- Artist:: Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited
- Album:: Chamunorwa
- Year:: 1988
- Label:: Chimurenga Music
- Catalog:: TML 102
Track Ratings
| # | Title | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Hwahwa | ★★ |
| A2 | Murambadoro | |
| A3 | Chitima Nditakure | ★★★★ |
| B1 | Chamunorwa | ★ |
| B2 | Hurukuro | ★ |
| B3 | Nyama Yekugocha |
Log
2019-04-20
★★ hwa hwa. those syncopated bells! this texture!
★★ chitima ndikature. this is so nice.
★ chamunorwa. although sometimes this becomes actually melodically cacophonous.
★ hurokuro. those horns are so silly. really there’s an underlying 80sness to the production which doesn’t shine through as much as on the bhundu boys but it’s still present.
Notes
interpretation of chitima nditakure from youtube [video now deleted]
Benedict Kunaka 10 months ago
Chitima Nditakure (Train Carry Me) by Thomas Mapfumo in the words of young black Zimbabwean man.
Chitima Nditakure is a traditional Shona hymn by legendary Chimurenga artist Thomas Mapfumo. It is a bitter-sad exploration of the dilemma of a man in colonial Rhodesia at the height of the war. It’s a melancholic reflection of the reality for many a young black native at this time in the country. The dilemma of having to go to war and fight for a better country which you might ironically die for and never get to see. Leaving your wife your lover to join the others who have gone before you. A certain kind of insecurity and dread is expressed, “Hona kwedu kure handingakusvike” (Home is so far I might not make it). It’s a man’s quest to find the fate of his brothers and sisters who have left their lives to join the struggle…thus he personifies the train to be a human carrying him (Ho Chitima Nditakurewo…which translates train please carry me) to some place where those who have gone ahead if him are. The train could perhaps not be as literal though it was the most iconic and dominant means of transport at the time for the masses. Perhaps it’s a story after all of a man embracing that death will grant him safe passage to the after life to those who lost their lives in the war. And death becomes a vehicle to get him to this place.
It puts into perspective how high the stakes are..the call to go to war overrides everything. “Hona yarira Mai veMwana hona yarira ndisina kudya” (It’s time my wife. Though I haven’t prepared for it it’s time.) Though it is quite a hard call to make it must be done. His mind is a chaotic convolution of memories, uncertainty, regret, horror, fear and sentimentality. Memories of his those who have gone ahead of him to the war, uncertain if they are at all still alive, regret that an unknown fate will befall him, horrors of war, fear of the unknown and what awaits him on this journey thus he resorts to traditional frightening imagery of witch craft, snakes and owls: “Hona ndakumbire Mai vanofuta hona vane zizi mutswanda vane mhungu inoita sadza hona nyamapfingu ichi vhenekera” (I’ve broken up with you because your mother is a witch she has an owl in her basket she has a mysterious black mamba and a two headed snake) and a fear of what will become to his family in his absence “Hona bhrukwa remwana rabvaruka”(The child’s clothes are now torn), sentimality towards a lover that he has to part with “Hona musikana ndangandichikuda” (I was willing to love you). Sentimentality with his family “Hona rune guru rinoshereketa hona roti bwai bwai me so ane vana” (A grown daring man blinks his eyes with tearful eyes as he looks at his children) The song is quite rich in instrumentation with the key instrument being the traditional mbira being this spiritual lead instrument from beginning to start and bass guitar…and an accompanying electric guitar. With backing female vocals quite the contrast with Mapfumo’s natural male voice. The chorus cements the traditional religious aspect to the song. “Ah hoye oh vakuru woye” (A religious chant, a call to the (vakuru) ancestors or maybe just the patriarchy of the elderly figures in his life).
this song has become haunting to me, and i can hear that forlornness in there too.