RADAR: CULTURE

Writer, filmmaker and the frontman of Zimbabwean mbira-punk band Chikwata.263

The first album I bought was Bad by Michael Jackson, but the first single I got was “When Will I Be Famous?” by Bros (but that doesn’t count because it was just a single, right?).

At the moment I’m listening to “Kenge” from the album Don’t Start Me Talking by Pascal Makonese (above, first slide). This is a catchy mbira-jazz crossover track with a hook from an old Shona greeting that was popular when I was a kid: “Uri Kenge, here?” which roughly translates as, “Are you OK?”

The track that I play when I want to wallow is “Toputika Neshungu” by Mbira DzeNharira. It’s an epic mbira instrumental with no proper lyrics, some haunting whistling and a title that translates as “We need to talk or we might explode with grief”.

The song that makes me get up and dance is “Can’t Hold Me Back” by Steam Down. A Zimbabwean friend in the UK called me one day to make me listen to it because he had just heard it on BBC’s 6 Music and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since.

Just before I go on stage I scramble about in my guitar case for an old set list because I’ve forgotten to write a new one, yet again.

My top podcast tip is BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince. I’m an artist but I’m also a bit of a science geek on the side.

I’ve been most influenced by film director George Lucas because I can remember seeing Return Of The Jedi at the Mabelreign drive-in as a kid and I was totally inspired. Later I really got into Quentin Tarantino and Roberto Rodriguez because I felt like they managed to break into the film industry against the odds.

The film I watch obsessively is The Blues Brothers. I saw it by chance when I had just started singing blues in my teens and then I based my entire onstage persona on the two main characters.

The last TV series I binge-watched was GLOW on Netflix. I was sick in bed for a few days and I started watching it because I fancied a girl who looks a bit like one of the actors in it, but I was thinking it would be trash — and then I just couldn’t stop.

The books by my bedside are Portrait Of Emlanjeni, a novel by Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya about a village in Matabeleland South, and Time Travel, A History by James Gleick, a non-fiction book about how the concept of time travel has become part of popular culture.

If I was stuck on a desert island I’d take Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations Of Screenwriting. And hopefully I’d finally finish it.

The piece of art that has really stayed with me is “Hope And Optimism” by John Muafangejo (above, first slide), a Namibian linocut artist. The message has really resonated with me especially during difficulties in my own life. I have a print of it in my house.

My favourite gallery is First Floor Gallery in Harare. I love the artists it works with and it also holds some other very cool events. I used to love Njelele Art Station on Kaguvi Street because I was fascinated by the space, but it’s been quiet for a while now.

If I could hang it on my wall, I’d have Salvador Dalí’s “The Persistence of Memory”. I’m really fascinated by the idea of time travel and that piece just speaks to me.

I’d really like to meet someone with a spare US$10m who wants to invest in African cinema because I have an idea for an epic story that’s currently way out of my budget.

My current obsession is making jams from indigenous Zimbabwean fruits. I made a bunch as novelty Christmas gifts for friends and family last year and was surprised by how easy it was and now I’m wondering why they’re not yet being produced.

I’m looking forward to the point where I’ve made a few commercially successful films and earned the right to do a nonsense passion project that’s totally self-indulgent and way too weird to be popular.

Read Tomas’ article on Harare’s Book Café in the View section of this issue.