Whilst Family of God church was known for providing influential bass players like Shangwa Sithole, the Salvation Army is known for providing Zimbabwe with brass players, Adventists are known for introducing the American Accapella style in Zimbabwe, but ZAOGA was known for having good guitarists and introducing hard-core Sungura & Mbira guitars styles in church.

There was a time when playing a Sungura guitar, Mbira guitar, or Rhumba guitar line, or any African style in the church was considered almost synonymous with smoking weed on the pulpit, it was highly taboo. For such songs written in a proper unmistakable Zimbabwean groove like ‘Tarira uone Ruoko Rwa Mwari’, & Jiti songs like “Tose Dzvamu’ church guitarists would have to play in a western-influenced style, you could fuse it with Jazz, Blues, Funk or even rock, but playing any African hard-core Zimbabwean styles or any African style was considered ‘Zvemunyika’ (Worldly) so it was not allowed.

This is attributed to the fact that the first missionaries to preach in Africa had a tendency of demonizing anything African that they did not understand as demonic. This affected the attitude of Zimbabweans against such traditional instruments like Mbira; right now in 2021 Mbira is still not played in church.

But concerning guitar styles, it all changed mid the 1990s. I am happy that I also contributed to that too. I converted to Christianity through the efforts of Evangelist Admire Kasi & joined ZAOGA on Tuesday the 28th of June 1994. That same period of time other guitarists like Pax Matenga, Raphael Maurisu, & later on Tendai Manatsa also converted to Christianity & joined ZAOGA. All of us came to church from secular bands, so we were fluent in the hardcore Sungura & Mbira styles, but we were scared to play the styles in church.

This changed one night at an annual ZAOGA conference at AMFCC Bible College in 1994 when Apostle Ezekiel Guti gave us permission. He started by asking (Paraphrasing)”Why is it that in church we don’t hear the type of guitar styles that are played by the likes of John Chibadura”, he had been invited to a government function & witnessed John Chibadura bring the house down. So on that deeper life conference, we started playing all Sungura, Jit & MBIRA grooved music with proper Zimbabwean guitar styles as opposed to the western guitar styles that were previously employed all along, and did the people dance?…iwe!

Of course, it caused uproar in some churches. Every new thing is always opposed by the church. Did you know that when the organ was first introduced in the church around 900 CE, some hard-core Christian conservatives argued that the pipe organ had a demon in every pipe? Even the famous reformist Martin Luther (1483-1546) who was an accomplished instrumentalist and composer in his own right as well known for his negative views towards the organ. Even electricity was once deemed to be from hell since it kills. Those who follow my writings know of a Glad Tidings church outreach service in Mufakose held on Saturday 16 May 1998 when church elders told the soundmen to switch off my guitar when I played a Mbira guitar style. After the crusade, the band was called for a meeting & warned never to allow musicians who play ‘worldly’ styles to play on their lineup, but thank God for a short while later all Pentecostal churches started allowing those Zimbabwean guitar styles, including that particular church. But it was pastor Bandimba from Family of God who was the first to record a hard-core Rhumba song,& oh my God, did the man get chastised, the song was given all kinds of labels.

Clive `Mono` Mukundu

Zimbabwean Guitarist & Music Producer.