Gwevedzi makes a return to Theatre in the Park loaded with hope
PATIENCE MUSA
Harare is about to pulse with rhythm and spirit once again, as Gwevedzi Redefined prepares to step back onto the Theatre in the Park stage this weekend. This isn’t just another concert. It’s a return to the roots, a rekindling of a flame first lit years ago in the same venue, and now burning brighter with the power of their latest offering — Hope.
The band has been sweeping across the country like a warm breeze laced with ancestral whispers, their Afro-acoustic sound both familiar and fresh, tender and defiant. Hope, their nine-track album launched just last month, has been embraced not just as music but as a movement — a call to remember, to reflect, and to dream. It has breathed life into gatherings big and small, shifting hearts with every chord, every chant, every beat.
Yet, for Gwevedzi, Hope is more than a title. It’s an anthem, a declaration, a gentle but insistent drumbeat reminding us that Hold On Pain Ends. It is textured with the rhythms of shangara, mhande, dinhe, mbakumba, and amabhiza, weaving together tradition and innovation into something raw, urgent, and wholly their own. It is music that prays, protests, and provokes all at once — a cultural compass pointing us back to ourselves.
Daves Guzha, the visionary behind Rooftop Promotions’ Creative Native label, describes the journey as “recalibrating a broken compass — culturally, morally, and spiritually.” And truly, listening to Hope feels like being guided home, through valleys of struggle and summits of resilience, to a horizon where the sun always rises again.
From the fiery rebuke of ego and greed in Kamwenje, to the rallying cry of survival in Rise, to the tender glow of Zuva and the vulnerable, empowering confession of Hi, the album brims with stories we all know but rarely sing aloud. Each track thrums with the energy of the stage it was born on — Theatre in the Park — and the steady hand of sound engineer Mbakie Muleya.
On stage, Gwevedzi Redefined is a marvel of chemistry and charisma. Wilfred “Dancing Strongs” Nikisi lets the bass groove with swagger. LeeAnne “Matalamanda” Rukato commands with a voice that soars and a percussion touch that crackles like fire. Tinashe Musangutsa pours soul into every guitar string, while Joshua Msengezi, at just 19, beats the drum like thunder made flesh. Together, they are a heartbeat. Together, they are Gwevedzi — suitors of the spirit, wooing Zimbabwe’s heart back to its song.
And perhaps that is why this homecoming matters. In a world cluttered with noise and weighed down by uncertainty, their music reminds us of something essential — that rhythm is resilience, that melody is memory, and that hope, however fragile, can still hold us together.
So when they take the stage this weekend, it won’t just be another night of music. It will be a homecoming, a prayer, a celebration, and a promise that even in the darkest times, the rhythm never dies. Gwevedzi Redefined is back where it all began — live, raw, and real — and the city is ready to dance.
