The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
IN the early years of the last decade when music critics wrote “what happened to Africa’s Bob Marley”, they were probably unaware of the soul searching, mind opening ruminations of Zimbabwe’s own reggae icon Man Soul Jah.
With three underexposed albums to his belt, Man Soul Jah, born Joseph Tawanda Nhara released his fourth and breakthrough album Time that features smash hit single Mr Government Man at the turn of the millenium.
With this release, reggae afficianados and music critics alike were invited to explore Man Soul Jah’s music.
That release and the explosion of popularity that followed culminated in a critically acclaimed fifth album I’m Still Standing and an Eastern European Tour. Little was however, done locally to fully explore the artiste whose voice, vision and spirit many international crirtics have likened to that of the late Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley.
Man Soul Jah took somewhat of a long sabbatical from music, leaving many assuming, understandibly so, that the Gweru-born artiste had reached his musical waterloo.
But the man is still standing, very much in the game and with a lot more to offer. He returns to the music scene with his sixth offing, an album co-produced by acclaimed producer Oskid and Shine Jah Light studios.
The 16-track album, which will be released as a double CD and as a download on digital platforms sees Man Soul Jah’s revolutionary vision, message and lyricism come to full bloom.
On the title track, Shine Jah Light, Man Soul Jah explores the Rastafarian ideals of equal rights and justice as the light needed by humanity to achieve global peace and love.
Another track to look out for on the album is Virtuous Woman, in which Man Soul Jah celebrates women of virtue, a theme mostly missing in today’s party and wealth oriented mainstream music.
The third number off the album is Nazarene Vow which explores sincerity to the Rastafarian faith and the obligations that bind those in the know.
Love This Reggae and Heathens are other potential gems off the album. Love This Reggae is “a trod through all Rasta men’s love for Jah music” and Heathens which is likely to be a sure crossover hit with both reggae and gospel lovers calls all people of faith to kneel down and pray in times of stress and strife.
Other songs on the album likely to get heavy rotation and warm hearts of all Zimbabweans are In Deh and and Ndezva Mbuya Nehanda which are in Man Soul Jah’s words “a serenade to my beloved homeland and the celebration of a freedom loving ancestor”.
In listening to the album one begins to understand the Marley comparisons. The treatment of the themes and issues have a longing pull on the heartstrings which some have described as pitiful sincerity. This trademark “conscious Rastaman” style hearkens to Marley’s early works and compels attention.
With this album Zimbabwean reggae has come of age and this album threatens to possibly cure the need for home grown, world class roots reggae.
With serious support and talented and committed artistes as Man Soul Jah, Zimbabwe is poised to earn that international festival revenue which reggae artists can bring to this country.
“The original Soul Jah the Original Man”, with the outstanding project Shine Jah Light, proves that he is indeed a serious exportable brand in an industry that will surely embrace, the sincere Rastaman. In the able hands of a genuine African ambassador, Elder Man Soul Jah, Zimbabwean reggae has arrived.
“This is a game changer because it shows that African reggae has come of age and that as reggae music artistes, we are as exportable as any other reggae artistes from Europe. This album stretches all the concievable realities of regae music. A full expose of who Man Soul Jah is,” he said.
