Matafale remembered

For the first time in years, the annual Matafale Memorial Concert received a special blessing from heaven. It did not rain as has been the case in the past years.

The crowd-pulling event has perennially been beset by heavy downpours which affected the turnout,  performances and power systems at its traditional venue Mankhokwe Ground in Singano Village, Chileka the home of fallen reggae star Evison Matafale.

His 20 years memorial show on Sunday proved a deviation from what has been the norm. The patrons enjoyed beautiful sunlight and danced on solid ground and not in the mud.

The roads leading to the venue remained busy from early in the day as nobody wanted to miss the free event. The black, gold and green rastafarian colours were the most prominent in the dressing of the people and some even painted the colours on their faces.

It is always an event with so many ripple effects. The boom of small-scale businesses clearly excited the businesspeople who were ready to sell merchandise of all kinds.

In the crowd was a mixture of people of all manner of ages. Surprisingly, some looked younger than the 20 years that Matafale has been gone for. But they all saw the importance of being part of the moment.

The performances started off in earnest around 2pm. But it was clear the sound system was not equal to the demands of the day. The crowd was just too much and a good number of patrons had to contend with just watching the proceedings from a distance.

However, the power generator occasionally misbehaved. At some point it forced an eight-minute break of the music ecstasy as it needed to be worked on.

But the performers, who included Young Generations Band, Lambani Dube, Waliko Makhala, Anthony Makondetsa, Moda Fumulani, Yanjanani Chumbu, Khonzie Masimbe and Chizondi and Anjiru Fumulani made sure the show lived up to its billing.

Black Missionaries front man Anjiru was full of praises for the way the event turned out.

“We need to thank God in a special way today. The weather has been perfect for an ideal show that we have always envisaged. The people have enjoyed the experience and the chance to honour Matafale in the most beautiful way,” he said.

The show was also used to honour two other fallen musicians from the Fumulani family, namely Gift and Musamude.