By Silence Gwande.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Alan Ketani Mushana is one of the proficient gospel artists whose music teaches, uplifts and inspires listeners. His songs are emotionally effusive and electrifying. His latest album Kunyaradza Vanochema is tear-jerking, breathtaking and mind-blowing as he awesomely touches on real life experiences, comforting the bereaved, addressing social challenges while calling people to ‘Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God’.
“Music is an important aspect of every society and can tell stories, release emotions, and it instils values in our children as well as playing a critical role in teaching important lessons on morality”, said the Ndichaiwana Mhinduro hitmaker adding that his message gives hope to those who struggle so that they face every obstacle with strength and optimism.
To date, Mushana, a devout Seventh-day Adventist has officially released two albums, Zvirevo and the latest Kunyararadza Vanochema. His gladdening poetic musical style has since fallen in love with many people and his music has become the most sought after in various cities especially in Harare.
His new album which has by far surpassed the previous one has 11 tracks namely Tsamba yaMai Wedze, MuJerusarema Itsva, Chemai Netariro, Gibson Mwanangu, Mudiwa Wangu, Chinyarara Hanzvadzi, Kuchema Kwevakatapwa, Vaporofita, Munyika Isingaperi, Wadii Kungozvisiya and Siyabonga Jesu.
The song Chemai Netariro is arguably the best track on the album and it resonates well with the album title. According to the 32 year-old preacher, he wrote the song following the tragic loss of his beloved relatives and believes the song will undoubtedly comfort other people who are in the same predicament.
“When death reaches and touches the lives of your friends or family members, it is natural and normal to feel overwhelmed and helpless. Everyone wants to say and do the right thing but in the midst of personally grieving, it is difficult to determine how to react. Part of this confusion and fear comes from lacking personal experiences with death and grief”, he said.
In this song the singer is empathetic. He perceives feelings and experiences of those who lost their beloved ones and reflects those perceptions back to them. He clearly outlines that no matter who we are, our time on earth is limited and someday death will overtake us.
“Death is a reality, and no one evades it no matter how strong you are, how many years you have lived, your colour and creed and so on”, said Mushana who has a wonderful poetic gift and marvellous diction.
The death of a loved one is one of life’s most difficult experiences, the bereaved struggle with many intense and painful emotions, including depression, guilt and profound sadness. They feel isolated and alone in their grief but listening to Mushana’s song Chemai Netariro, one will get comforted, accept the reality and cope with the pain and gradually begin to heal.
His song Chinyarara hanzvadzi discourages disobedience and castigates young girls from snatching other people’s husbands as it will backfire and lead to death due to sexually transmitted diseases. It also encourages young girls to wait for their time and not to be fooled into believing that money is love as they end up getting married and get infected with HIV for the love of money.
“I wrote this song after I lost my sister due to disobedience. She was not listening to what our parents were teaching her. I also took the opportunity to counsel other girls and challenge them to obey their parents and take good advice from them”, said the youthful poet.
The song Kuchema kwevakatapwa talks of child abuse that is rampant in the country where children are being abused because they are orphans and they have nowhere to report the cases. Many children fail to go to school when their parents die and their relatives sometimes sell all the property leaving them with nowhere to stay. Some are being raped by their guardians and others are denied food and forced to overwork despite young ages.
His song Vaporofita talks of the mushrooming of prophets who claim to be God-sent. However distinguishing true prophets from false ones is not easy. As prophets continue to mushroom, some claim to obtain power from God to heal, walk on water, tell people’s identification numbers and personal names. Some do uncanny things, causing people to eat snakes, grass and leaves and end up raping congregants. In this song Mushana simply uses the scriptures so that people will be able to distinguish true from false prophets.
One of the heart-stirring songs on his album is Tsamba kuna mai Wedze. This song talks about a very patient wife who endures the struggle of living without her husband, taking care of children in this economic meltdown while remaining faithful until the day his husband comes back.
According to Ketani, long distance relationships almost always end in tears. Married people who leave their families to work in Diaspora end up having their marriages wrecked. They end up divorcing as their partners end up resorting to extra-marital affairs in order to quench their sexual thirst. People are easily tempted as long as their partners are away and the risk of getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases is very high. Many men resort to ‘small houses’, a cynical term for girlfriends or women they cohabit with, without the knowledge of their wives back home.
Gibson Mwanangu encourages tertiary students to concentrate on their education and desist from fornication as they will end up getting HIV before finishing their studies and disappoint their parents who invested much in them.
“There is a lot happening in tertiary institutions, students are fornicating and some are dying leaving their parents heartbroken and poor. Parents are selling everything they have to raise fees for their children hoping that they will be taken care of when their children finish and excel in their studies”, said the former Chinhoyi University of Technology student.
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