Harare Review of Books

163 pages.

First published in 2023.

Essays/anthology.

When Three Sevens Clash is a collection of reminiscences—mainly about the rise of Zimbabwean legend, Thomas Mapfumo, but also about those wondrous decades before Zim’s independence, with a couple of personal essays thrown in. The great Mapfumo is still with us, and this anthology gives him his flowers in a wonderful celebration of his life and work.

In the Foreword, editor Percy Zvomuya honours Mapfumo’s younger brother and bandmate, Lancelot, who passed away in 2022. Farai Mudzingwa gives us the history of the almost mythical Seven Miles Hotel, where Mapfumo was a fixture for some time. Brian Chikwava ponders the reasons for Mukanya’s exile to the US. But it is Musaemura Zimunya’s instructive Thomas “Tafirenyika” Mapfumo and The Zimbabwean Music Revolution that deeply explores Mapfumo’s musical journey, and locates it in the liberation history and formation of the nation of Zimbabwe.

Rutendo Chabikwa’s moving Only Daughter explores a sliver of gender in Zimbabwe through a portrait of her amazing, somewhat gender-fluid uncle. US historian Brooks Marmon brings us the story of Daniel Madzimbamuto and Herbert Munangatire’s Cultural Syndicate’s 1958 All-African Music Festival. It was (perhaps rather unfortunately) the first and last event of its kind, and Marmon explains why it both succeeded and failed. Attiyah Khan’s essay on The Beaters in Rhodesia grabbed my attention for a young Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse. Adatshona by Marko Phiri is deeply moving on the pre-Independence dislocation of Malawian migrants to Zimbabwe.

There are photo essays, by KB Mpofu on artisanal miners, and Rafs Mayet on Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! concert, held at the National Sports Stadium in October of 1988. Tawanda Mudzonga’s personal essay on identity skewers Zimbabweans’ unfortunate obsession with how people sound, a classist and elitist consequence of colonialism. Musakanene is Geraldine Mukumbi’s tribute to her Sekuru, lost to Covid and not just a number in the country’s statistics. And, last but certainly not least, is a regrettably short graphical entry by another Zimbabwean legend, Tony Namate, on his time at Zimbabwe Publishing House, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mungoshi, Hove, Marechera, Nkosi, Gordimer and Farah.

In all, When Three Sevens Clash is a lovely and eclectic collection of memories, evocative of some of the heady days of the formation of Zimbabwe, with personal memories from younger Zimbabweans also thrown into the mix. One of my complaints about Zimbabwean history is how little of it is written down for the elucidation of future generations; Percy Zvomuya’s intervention is most welcome, and he has collected many gifted minds and voices together in this volume.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Percy Zvomuya for the review copy.