HARARE - In most families, an argument about who inherits the furniture waits until somebody dies. In the house of chimurenga, the argument is about the songs, the patriarch is very much alive, and the lawyers have already written seven pages.
Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo has spent August trying to stop his nephew, Kurai Makore, from performing his music. In a cease-and-desist notice dated 8 August, Mapfumo’s Chimurenga Music Company said Makore had never been given permission to perform, record, stream or commercially exploit any work in the catalogue, Nehanda Radio reported.
“His persistence in performing his uncle’s copyrighted material without a licence is not a family dispute; it is a blatant and willful legal violation that can no longer be tolerated,” the company said.
No heir, no torch
The company also took aim at reports describing Makore as Mapfumo’s heir. The idea gained ground after Makore was invited to open for his uncle at a small number of shows, which some reports portrayed as Mapfumo “passing the torch”.
“This is a complete falsehood,” the company said, adding that Mapfumo “has never designated any heir or successor to his musical legacy”.
It warned promoters and venues to secure copyright licences and said legal proceedings were already under way. None of its allegations has yet been tested in court.
Mukanya speaks
Days later, Mapfumo gave an interview to H-Metro, republished by The Observer, in which he was less lawyerly. He called his nephew “arrogant” and “lazy” and said: “Kurai doesn’t know how to compose songs, talent chairo haana and he seems lazy.”
He also insisted there was nothing personal. “I want the whole of Zimbabwe to know that there is no bad blood between me and Kurai,” he said. “I want to even share a stage with him, assist him in every turn but I just want him to start his own act and stop playing my music.”
His concern, he said, was his children. “All what l did in my life was for my children and what worries me in this digital era is that if you search for my name and music on internet, the results show Kurai.”
The nephew plays his own tunes
Makore said nothing. On the night of Friday 14 August he performed an all-original set at Fill Up HICC in Harare, Bulawayo24 reported, and did not mention the feud from the stage.
The lawyers return
The truce, if there was one, did not last long on paper. On 26 August, Mapfumo’s lawyers, Warara & Associates, sent The Sunday Mail a seven-page complaint demanding a retraction and apology over a series of reports by its journalist Trust Khosa, Nehanda Radio reported.
Among them was an article in the Zimpapers stable on 22 August which said Mapfumo appeared to have “softened his stance”. The lawyers rejected that. “Mr Makore is not authorised to perform, record, or commercially exploit any works from the Thomas Mapfumo catalogue,” their letter said. “The relationship between our client and his nephew is irreparably damaged.”
The lawyers also alleged that Makore had told his uncle privately that he would not stop singing the songs. Makore has not publicly responded to that claim.
The view from the drawing board
One of the cartoons here shows Mapfumo sawing off a tree branch labelled LEGACY, with his nephew sitting on the end of it insisting he is only trying to preserve it. The second, drawn in July, shows an old man at a market stall asking a young vendor to swap all his Mapfumo songs for Winky D. It belongs to a different chapter of the Mukanya story, but it is a reminder that a legacy can be lost to more than one kind of competition.
What happens next
The copyright question may yet be settled by a court. The family part is harder. Mapfumo says there is no bad blood. His lawyers say the relationship is irreparably damaged. Both statements are on the record, and both came from the same side.
