Mapfumo looks to March polls to end self-imposed exile

CHIMURENGA music guru, Thomas Mapfumo, who is currently exiled in Oregon, United States of America, has expressed hope that the coming March 29 poll in Zimbabwe will result in him ending his self-imposed exile and come back home.

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Thomas 'Mukanya' Mapfumo and Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi are set to perform a double act in London
 
In an interview yesterday, before a show he will perform together with Oliver Mtukudzi, Mapfumo said he felt so bad living outside the country and that he wished to be back home as soon as possible.
 
"I have been away from home for such a long time. I was thinking maybe if there's any chance of these elections coming out clean, maybe if there's a moderate leader, there's a chance we'll be able to go back home," he said.
 
Mapfumo, 62, is probably the best-known of the estimated 4 million Zimbabwean exiles who have left the country over the past decade.
 
His fallout with President Robert Mugabe's government began in 1989 the Chirumenga music guru turned against the government alleging corruption and mismanagement of the economy.

In 1989 he released an album entitled Corruption and for years afterwards claimed harassment by the state.

In the late 1990s he moved to Oregon. Since 2003, he has not been back to Zimbabwe - not even for the funeral of his mother who died on Christmas Day, 2007.
 
"I have been hearing a lot of rumours, you know, about some people trying to harm me," he says.
 
Mapfumo still sings in Shona mostly and tries to stoke opposition to President Mugabe's rule but the tone is less angry, more reflective.
 
In his 2005 album entitled Rise Up, he urges "Let's go, father" while trying to reason with Mugabe, saying: "I'm one of your own so don't hate me for what I say."
 
Several of his more recent songs are banned in Zimbabwe, where state-controlled radio prefers his old revolutionary tunes, but his name is still spoken with reverence across the country.
 
He is set to rock other exiled Zimbabweans in London over the Easter holiday, in a show together with another Zimbabwean musical icon, Oliver Mtukudzi.