State assisted burial for 'hero' Brown

Muzukuru - Andy Brown

THE musician Andy Brown, who died aged 50 on Friday, will be given a state-assisted funeral, it was announced on Saturday. Media and Information Minister Webster Shamu revealed that Brown had been declared a “provincial hero” for promoting “cultural nationalism”.

The honour is bestowed by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, usually on independence war veterans or their spouses and senior civil servants, but rarely – if ever – on musicians. The status comes with a state-assisted funeral – a timely bail-out for Brown’s family who had earlier sent out a public SOS appealing for funds to cover the funeral expenses.

Brown becomes the second musician to be accorded a hero status after the late Simon Chimbetu who was given a provincial hero status and buried at the Chinhoyi heros shrine. Brown’s family said the Mapurisa star succumbed to severe pneumonia after he fell ill on a tour of Switzerland last week.

Fellow musicians and DJs have been paying tribute to the former Ilanga band member who was at one time married to mbira star, Chiwoniso Maraire. Brown and Maraire had two daughters together. He has eight other children.

Former Matonto star Calvin Gudu said Brown’s pioneering work with Illanga had inspired them to venture into music.Gudu told New Zimbabwe.com from England: “If you think about Bulawayo music, the revival after we had all the jazz to the time when we had bands like Wells Fargo and Horn of Africa, and then everything died down, Ilanga came on the scene.

“They were really a Bulawayo group born in Harare, and they took the torch from the likes of Solomon Skuza, while taking the local sound in a brave, new direction. “Ilanga gave us the courage to come up with the Matonto vibe. In fact on one of our most popular songs, 'Umendo', we sampled Comrade Chinx’s ‘Zvikomborero’, and Brown was on guitar.

“I think the best tribute you can pay him is that he was willing to be like no-one else, he chose to be different. His whole psyche was all about reaching the other side of music. “When most people were trying to be mainstream, Andy was different. 

I think his mixed race gave him a lot of funk, his nationalism a bit of Chimurenga and his Bulawayo connections brought in the whole Makokoba groove.

"He could fit anywhere, and that’s why he was so well liked.”

Former Radio 2 DJ Eric Knight said Brown had left an “irreplaceable void”. “I knew Andy, not just a musician but a friend and brother. He grew up a total rural guy and was proud of his upbringing,” said Knight, now living in Manchester, England, where he runs the online radio station, Visions Radio.

He added: “Brown grew up at Mataga Growth Point in Mberengwa and I remember how he loved telling tales of kufudza n'ombe in a typical Karanga dialect. “With Andy, you also knew where you stood because he was a tell-it-as-it-is guy. 

His song 'Mapurisa' was an open challenge on Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to displine his officers. That was Andy for you.” Knight said Brown would also be remembered as a brilliant guitarist without peer. “He once told me: ‘Eric, gitare hariridzwe, rinotaurwa naro’ (You don’t play a guitar, you talk to it). He was a master of his craft.”