Books

If Blessing Shumba is not the man of the moment, then he is the man of eternity. The gospel thoroughbred's latest album "Holy Psalms Vol 1: NdiJesu" will not only spread devotional shockwaves but also immortalise him as one of the best psalmists ever to emerge from the country."Holy Psalms," Shumba's fourth offering after "NdiMwari" (2008), "Ishe Wazvose" (2011) and "Shongwe" (2012), carries a wholesome spiritual diet and can easily pass for an audio Bible.The album carries eleven tracks including hit songs "Kutenda Chii?", "Nyaradzai Vanhu," "Usachemachema," "Kuchengeta Murawo.""Chimwe Nechimwe" was one of the big hits on 2014 charts.This time Shumba enlisted Olin Anderson of Kunashe Studios and Charles Aibeki of Divine Records as producers. Clancy Mbirimi, a former member of the old scho...

Add captionWilliam Shakespeare is not new to posthumous conspiracy.Latter-day men of letters such as G.B Shaw and Leo Tolstoy have questioned the universal acclamation with which Shakespeare is read.For them, the world is too generous in its estimation of the man whose work Swinburne calls “the crowning glory of genius, the final miracle and transcendent gift of poetry.”Tolstoy, whose scruples are rich ground for controversy, claims to have found in Shakespeare no delight but repulsion and boredom.The same work Tolstoy acknowledges to be universally subscribed as “the summit of perfection,” he dismisses as “trivial and positively bad.”Other sacrileges against Shakespeare’s estate include charges levelled to question the authorship of his masterpieces and to impugn his personality.More cont...

Add captionA secular assault is threatening the family institution on every front. Rotten fibre is closing in on family values through the arts and other keynote social engines.Billy Graham tells of an endgame in this morality war whereby the “world’s sewage system” is out to contaminate Christian thought.When one considers the neck-break speed at which mainstream Christian denominations are rubber-stamping situational ethics and biblically incompatible practices such as co-habitation, abortion and same-sex unions, it is clear that the church is losing its mojo.“Much entertainment is slanted to those who feed on violence, sex and lawlessness. It seems that some diabolic mastermind is running the affairs of this world and that his chief objective is to brainwash Christians and to get them t...

Add captionBook: C. S. Lewis - A LifeAuthor: Alister McGrathPublisher: Tyndale House Publishers (2013)ISBN: 978-1-4143-3935-1It was an age of disbelief.  Religion was in the bull’s eye of secularist missiles.A war of record proportions was dismantling the old order. Values which had held good for centuries were not spared.God was on trial. The intellectual jury was invoking its clauses to renounce the claims of faith on the 20th century.At that time, an unlikely advocate rose above the sound of charging armies of the Second World War and the dissenting arguments of the Modernist Movement to “justify the works of God to men.”He was Clive Staple Lewis.C.S Lewis crossed the floor from atheism to become the foremost Christian intellectual of his time.Lewis had been steeped in atheism. His firs...

Add captionBrian Sibalo is one of Zimbabwean gospel music's timeless legends.Sibalo's story is a tragic case of the chemistry between beauty and brevity.Although he remains one of the finest psalmists ever to emerge from the country, his music has sadly lapsed into oblivion, 17 years after his death at 32 in 1997. Thankfully, Sibalo's family recently hinted on enlisting gospel artists to unearth his trove with cover versions of his forgotten jams.While older telly viewers are familiar with the video “Tinokutendai Ishe” from Ezomgido, Sibalo was the genius behind such hit albums as “Revival Time,” “Busa Nkosi,” “Thula Moya,” and “Ndiri Mufambi.”The gospel prodigy, who also presented a Radio 3 (now Power FM) programme “Beats with a Message,” set out in 1983 at a time when the music industry ...

Jit thoroughbred Biggie Tembo is one of the most internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean artists. A few local musicians have achieved Tembo’s cosmopolitan resume since his tragic death at 37 in 1995.While most artists perform overseas before paltry audiences exclusively composed of the Zimbabwe Diaspora, Bhundu Boys, the band Tembo fronted, before 80 000 revellers at the Wembley Stadium in 1987.At the high tide of the jit sensation, the Bhundu Boys toured Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong where they were wildly popular.The band was not only popular outside the country as the case is with some artists who narrow down their trade for an elite segment. Their manager Gordon Muir says he once entered a bank in Harare with Tembo and the entire staff burst out singing the band’s long ti...

STILL ADDICTED: Takesure ZamarHard core psalmist Takesure Zamah Ncube and his ensemble Worship Addicts have  fresh wine in their devotional tavern.The fast-rising gospel outfit's colourful live DVD, "Worship Altar," is a potent mix of addiction and benediction."Worship Altar," which is the group's first visual effort features hot new jams "Changamire Muponesi" and "Pane Gore" in addition to certified hits like "Prayer for Zimbabwe" and "Agere Pachigaro.""Ndinosimuda Ishe," "Umoya Wami Uyadinga" and "Ndizarurirei Mwari" complete the video album.The album is consistent with the group's previous projects and mantains their signature worshipper-at-heart ethic.It's a marvel how the Worship Addicts are showing no signs of creative fatigue, having recorded seven albums in less than four years.Thi...

A radio debate flares up a crossfire of narratives regarding the place of religion in public life.Militant atheist Richard Dawkins is hurling his usual invective at everything divine.The secularist figurehead declares on the BBC Radio 4 programme that Christians are basically unintelligent.They are so not up to it, he claims, that the average Christian cannot even name the four gospels. Giles Fraser, the vicar on the other side of the table, ironically volunteers a compliment.One to the effect that Dawkins is himself an erudite intellectual.But the vicar follows up with a question, as if to invite the Darwinian evolutionist to stand up to the compliment.“Richard, if I said to you what is the full title of ‘The Origin of Species’, I’m sure you could tell me that,” says Fraser.“Yes, I could,...

Mathias MhereMathias Mhere’s fourth album arrived last month amid a flare of controversy.Whether speculation over Mhere’s personal problems has attracted, diverted or distorted emphasis with respect to the album, it is difficult to tell.It is equally difficult to explain the popular appetite for the sensational at the expense of the substantial. But what can be readily established, listening to the album, is that Mhere is musically still on top of his game.If the title of the album, “Glory to Glory,” is anything to go by, Mhere is maturing with each new offering and staking his claim as one of the local gospel circuit’s finest performers.The redemption theme runs the thread of the album, perhaps more poignantly than in Mhere’s previous albums.One of the stellar hits on the album, “Nerimwe ...