The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu
BUSI Ncube still vividly remembers the day that Don Gumbo chucked her and other members of Ilanga out of his house.
It was one relaxed evening in Mabelreign (Harare), and the multi-talented cast that made up the star-studded group that had illuminated Zimbabwean music in the 80 and 90s had gathered to unwind after a grueling tour of the UK.
In a room engulfed in cigarette smoke, Gumbo suddenly snapped and turned against his erstwhile comrades in song. Money, that proverbial root of all evil, was at the centre of his outburst.
“Don just changed,” Busi Ncube says. She is on her annual vacation in Zimbabwe and is sitting calmly in the bar of a local hotel, occasionally taking sips from a wine glass in front of her.
When she speaks, she does so abruptly, perhaps trying to mirror the way that Don Gumbo suddenly turned hostile on a group that he had been kin and kith to him at home and abroad.
“He just changed one day when we were sitting like we are right now. People were smoking and sitting in the house like we always did. We used to sit around as a band and smoke with the windows open. All of a sudden Don just chased everyone out.
“We were going to sit and talk about how we were going to use the money then he just snapped and said I don’t have the money, the money is in Ireland,” she says, still in disbelief about events of that day.
Unknown to Ncube and other members of the group, the sun was about to set on Ilanga. As talented of a band leader and musician as he was, Gumbo was not much of a man manager. Jamaican drummer Munya Brown had left the group earlier after differences with him, while Andy Brown had also gone on a solo path for the same reasons.
A tour of the UK was to put the final nail in the coffin of what was left of Ilanga.
“When money comes people change. Things changed when we came back from overseas. We went for a tour in the UK. When we came back there were money issues and everything.
“He completely changed all of a sudden. He started saying people can’t come to his house blah blah blah but it was the issue of money at the root of it. It was all about money. Because we had said that we had said we’re going to keep some of the money that we made on tour and use it for this and that. Remember this was after Andy had left. He had left before all the money issues,” Ncube says.
According to Ncube, the money at the centre of the Ilanga leader’s rage was not a large sum to begin with.
“Lucky enough we already had done another tour and this was like an extra tour. We had already bought drums and band equipment from the money that we had already made. This was not even a large sum of money because we were on our own when we went to that tour of the UK.
“We were preparing for our boarding ourselves, paying for our own food and also paying for our own transport. Our promoter for that tour was our transport and he’s the one that used to drive us around. But otherwise everything came from what we made,” Ncube says.
Ncube, who lived with Gumbo and his wife at his Harare home, remembers that after that incident Gumbo seemed to have his mind set on seeking greener pastures south of the Limpopo.
“He just changed and then he went to South Africa and I was surprised. I was taken aback. We went our way and he went his way,” Ncube says.
Gumbo had decided to ditch Ilanga and form Tshisalanga in South Africa, where he also played as a session musician for jazz heavyweights like Jabu Khanyile.
Ncube says she never heard from Gumbo again before things started going bad for him. Suddenly she remembers something and snapping her fingers decides to change that statement. A loyal follower who viewed the Ilanga leader as a brother more than a band mate, she had followed him to South Africa.
“I followed him to South Africa. He said Busi whatever happened –happened- but me and you are brother and sister. He said come this side because I’ve established something and I’m sorry about what happened. He said I’ve changed and so I went to Caro, his wife, and she gave me her blessing because she felt that he had changed.
“He was now doing this gospel thing (Busi says humming the chorus to Gumbo’s Forgive and forget). So I said let me give him the benefit of the doubt. I went to South Africa but I always kept the money for my return ticket in my pocket just in case he changed again,” she says.
In the bright lights of Johannesburg, Ncube quickly learnt that the Don Gumbo she had known in her earlier days with Ilanga was long gone.
“We were doing rehearsals that side but things were different. He was taking some tablets and there were girls that were coming in all the time, coming into the rehearsal room, drinking in the rehearsal room.
“Then aunt Rhoda (Rhoda Mandaza), who I was staying with and who was organizing shows that side, said Busi don’t worry I will talk to Don. I told her that if you see what’s happening in the rehearsal room, you would know it’s not how things had been in the past. I said I’m going back home,” she says.
Ncube would go on to form her own band as she could not use the Ilanga name as she was not a founding group member. The next time she would see Gumbo was when he was under his mother’s care in Pumula (Bulawayo), as he had fallen ill during his stay in South Africa.
“The next thing I heard he was sick. He was my colleague and brother so I had to come and see him in Bulawayo. I came to Bulawayo for two weeks and I was visiting him during that time he was in Pumula with his mother. He was feeling good and could now walk with help and we had to help take him to the toilet. Two days after I went back to Harare he passed on so I was glad I said goodbye to him,” she says.
Two decades after his death, Ncube still maintains that moving to South Africa was the celebrated bassist’s worst mistake.
“I think he shouldn’t have gone to South Africa. I think he should have sat and thought about it. You know money comes and money goes. When he was sick it was now sad because he would cry to me for help. He was stubborn about going there but it didn’t turn out to be good for him,” she said.
