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MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

P. BAG 9055 Gweru, Zimbabwe
Telephone: (263) 254 260404/260337/260667/260450
Fax: (263) 254 260233/260311
Fax: (263) 254 260233/260311

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC BUSINESS, MUSICOLOGY AND

TECHNOLOGY

MBMT 432:POPULAR MUSIC

LEVEL 4.1 HARARE WEEKEND CLASS

R201625C TAPIWA CHENJERAI

LECTURER: Dr MAGURAWUSHE

Assignment:2. “In a number of African countries, the musical open letter has emerged as
a new genre of popular music since 2000, in the context of democratization and a certain
post-democratization disillusionment” (Künzler and Reuster-Jahn, 2012). Discuss this
assertion basing your answer on ONE popular musician of your choice. Length-4 000
words. Due on 10.11.2022.

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Introduction

This essay is going to focus on the use of open letter music genre. When it emerged, what
triggered its conception and how it has changed the life of the people in Zimbabwe.

Definition of terms

Musical Open letter According to Merriam Webster Online dictionary an Open letter is "a
published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual but intended for the
general public." When the open letter is written and then made to be a song, it is now called a
musical open letter.

Democratization A process through which a political regime becomes democratic (

Kauffman, 2021). Democracy is a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership,
and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the
“people,”( Dahl et al,2022)

Post democratization disillusionment, According to Online Cambridge dictionary '

Disillusionment' can mean a feeling of being disappointed and unhappy because of
discovering the truth about something or someone that you liked or respected', hence in this
essay this disappointment is caused by the belief that the people (both the musicians and the
general public) thought that indeed there was/is democracy but to their amazement the better
life promised before the era seem to be in vain. Those in power seem to ignore their promise
to the people. This is not necessarily according to the writer but the people.

Just like other African countries, Zimbabwe saw the emerging of Open letter musicians in the
2000s. The young and old musicians spoke directly and without fear to the politicians. Just as
Künzler and Reuster-Jahn, (2012) puts it "Through those letters, young urban musicians
publicly and directly address political leaders, protesting against a lack of accountability, and
demanding a fair dialogue about the representation of voters’ interests." These musicians
spoke through their music of the evil things happening around them yet the political figures
who are supposed to leader the people remain silent and seem to forget them. The musicians
do that knowing that they might be negative consequences to them because of these open
letters but most importantly, they want to notify the leader/s of their grievances. They believe
that these direct imposing, impolite ways of delivering their message are the only options
despite the consequences. They might end up in jail for undermining the authorities or even
worse, be abducted and/or killed for such music. Of course there are some musicians who

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seem to have matured and try to be polite when creating (writing lyrics) and singing their
songs which are directed to the President and/or other political figures.

Songs are being produced with the aim to reach the president so that the president can attend
to the grievances in the songs but unfortunately most of the time responses seem to be
unfavorable to the musicians or the general public.

Researches show that disillusionment is the main cause of the emergency of these open letter
songs. Political figures through out the whole world tend to promise one thing before the
election and give the opposite after winning the election. Morrison and Love, (1996) quoted a
letter written Worried Chinhoyi, "Are we still the government?" which said that

In the early 80s we were being told by our political leaders that we the people are the
government. Whatever that means the leaders don't want to listen to us the supposed
government; rather they want us to listen to them. They earn big money while we live
in poverty. Are we still the government or are they (the leaders) the government (Moto,
November 1990: 3).

It is clear from the above statement that people were not happy and much disappointed by the
leadership. Because of such unpleasing disillusionment by the government after
independence people started to write open letters in the newspaper articles and other platform
including music.

Currently, in the second republic many musicians have did some open letter projects in the
attempt to address the president. One of the prominent Zimdancehall artists in Zimbabwe Seh
Calaz biological name Tawanda Mumanyi created a song namely , “Letter To The President".
This song was wrote as a dedication to the leader of the nation (Zimbabwe). He noted down
and sang a lot of problems that citizens of Zimbabwe are facing (Zimbamusic.com, 2021).
The author of the article then said "Hopefully the letter will reach its destination", which is
the President of Zimbabwe Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa.

This song by Seh Calaz is found on the internet ( https://zimbamusic.co.zw/seh-calaz-letter-

to-the-president/#) but the question is 'did it really meant something to the President? The
lyrical content of the song is not offensive compared to other Open letters such as the one
from Taffy Theman (https://gambakwe.com/2020/08/27/watch-open-letter-to-mnangagwa-
taffy-the-man/#). Both songs address the grievances to the President but Seh Calaz used
polite words in his song yet Taffy Theman used offensive words. Maybe this is because of

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the location of the two. Seh Calaz is locally based in Zimbabwe and Taffy Theman is a
comedian based in the UK hence has no fear for any negative consequences up on his life
compared to Seh Calaz.

It should be noted that most of the musical open letters are unapologetic, offensive though
they carry the true reality of the things on the ground. On the other hand, some musicians
write songs of praise to the government and the President blaming the people for not
supporting the President for instance, a song by Hosiah Chipanga (VaMugabe vane munyama
kupiwa mhosva isiri yavo) literally meaning President Mugabe is unlucky for being blamed
for an offense he did not commit. The song was an open letter of praise to the former/late
President Robert Mugabe after he introduced Black empowerment.

In conclusion, there seem to be a negative impact of these musical open letters. Before
independence black musicians who sang against the White minority rule were considered the
enemy of the states and were arrested. Today there are Black musicians singing against Black
majority rule government and they are receiving death threats, less or no air play on the radio
platforms, abductions and so on. It seems like if one is now in power, he/she start to ignore
there people just as Kunzler and Rauster-Janh (2012) puts it in the situation of Ghana,

....where hiplife artist A-Plus, released a musical open “Letter to Parliament” (2007), in
Twi and English, which was about a candidate who promised a multitude of things
during the parliamentary election campaign in 2004, but ignored his promises after he
was elected.

References

Dahl, R. A. , Froomkin, . David and Shapiro, . Ian. "democracy." Encyclopedia Britannica,

November 4, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/topic/democracy.

https://gambakwe.com/2020/08/27/watch-open-letter-to-mnangagwa-taffy-the-man/#
accessed 08/11/2022

https://zimbamusic.co.zw/seh-calaz-letter-to-the-president/# accessed 07/11/2022

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Kauffman, C. M. (2021, January 21). democratization. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/dem ocratization

Künzler, D., & Reuster-Jahn, U. (2012). “Mr. President”: Musical Open Letters as Political
Commentary in Africa. Africa Today, 59(1), 89–113.
https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.59.1.89

Morrison, A., & Love, A. (1996). A discourse of disillusionment: Letters to the Editor in two
Zimbabwean magazines 10 years after independence. Discourse & Society, 7(1), 39–75.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/42888023