Navigating Loss through Music: Samatenga and Kuno
Our history is a living thing, the ones who left before us are carried in our hearts, memories and stories…
Simon Chimbetu a late Zimbabwean guitarist, vocalist and composer, had a poignant track about death, Samatenga. The timeless classic was originally released on 22 May 1990, as part of the album Nguva Yakaoma by Simon Chimbetu and the Marxist Brothers.
The song poses questions those who lost loved ones can relate with:
Samatenga
Towubvunza mubvunzo uya kumatenga
(We ask this to the heavens)
Isu towubvunza chete towubvunza
(We are going to ask that we going to ask)
Kuti sei Mwari muchitipa nguva yakaoma
(To ask why God give us hard times?)
Ko hama dzedu dzinotiisiya dziripiko?
(Where do our dearly departed loved ones go to?)
Imi munovaisepi nyika ipi iri kure?
(Which faraway land do you take them?)
Ukokwavanogara vasingagone kutaure nesu
(A land where they can not speak to us?)
Uku kwavasinosvika vasingagone kunyora tsamba
(A land where they cannot write letters to us?)
Kuti hama dzangu ndakafamba zvakanaka
(To tell us “Oh my loved ones, I travelled well”)
Nyika yandiri ndigere hangu zvakanaka
(“I am happy in this land where I am”)
Asi rokwe rangu remavara chetengai
( “But keep my patterned dress”)
Nokuti ndiri mushishi kukumbira kuvatongi
( “Cause I am busy pleading with the judges”)
Kuti vandipegwara ndidzokere kwandakabva
(“So that they let me to come back from where I came from”)
Nearly 4 decades later Jah Prayzah a musician who is acclaimed as a modern griot, weaving ancestral echoes into a modern storytelling delivered a song which serves like a balm for those dealing with loss, Kuno which translates to Here.
Kuno
Asi ndakafamba zvakanaka
I travelled well
Ndakasviko tambira menduru
I accepted a medal
Zvikanzi ichocho chigaro
And was shown the post
Ndicho chemajita
That’s for the big guys
Kuno kune ndarama
Here there’s gold
Masango nemaguta
Forests and cities
Mambo varikuno vanokuziva nezita
The Lord here knows you by name
Vanombonditenderawo kuti ndimbodzika
He Allows me to come back
Hondo dzinokuvinga ndimhanye kunovhika
To fight the battles that come your way
Pamwe ungabatawo mupendero wejira
Maybe one day you will touch the hem of his garment
WinterABC26 Genre Africa
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