The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Correspondent
WHEN Ethiopian Airways’ Flight 302 crashed into a heap of ash and twisted metal in the Woreda district of Gimbichu in Kenya, few could have guessed how that monumental tragedy would give birth to the phenomenon now known as Vimbai Zimuto.
Flight 302 was a tragedy of epic proportions, showcasing the limits of human innovation and the cost when things go wrong in a space that gravity says that human beings have no business being in.
The big metal bird made strange noises and was emitting white smoke when it nosedived and killed all the people on board, eye witnesses said. 157 lives were lost, an ocean of tears was shed and from the Cape to Cairo and beyond.
It was a dagger driven straight into the heart of all humanity and the world rightfully plunged into mourning. In Zimbabwe too the tragic accident was greeted with tears. From grandest of statesman to the ordinary man on the street, Zimbabweans joined hands with Ethiopians.
It was during this hour of collective sorrow and international mourning that a little known musician seized the moment and propelled herself to national fame.
Few Zimbabweans can claim to have known Vimbai Zimuto before her pictures “commiserating” with Ethiopians after that fateful plane crash.
Few can claim to have come across her music, which in most cases seems to be an interesting marriage of the mbira and modern musical styles. She is not the first to try and bring together the old and the new and some would argue that, despite her musical promise, others have done it bad.
However, few have managed to grab the attention of a whole country overnight. This was what Zimuto did when she sent flowers to those that died on Flight 302 by posing naked.
The picture itself was striking, perhaps not only because of what they showed but what they didn’t. Within hours of the picture being uploaded it had caught fire on social media, and while some salivated others poured scorn on this woman who dared expose herself in that manner to the whole world.
The name Vimbai Zimuto was on many lips and it was typed furiously on many keyboards. Her music might not have been known up until then but suddenly she was a household name. Would that have happened if she had not “broken the internet” with that picture and others that followed?
“Yes, it’s possible. That’s why I’m not naked all the time. That’s why when I tell a story I have to bring it through because I want it to be a pure story and I want it to come straight from my heart and I want to pour it out there,” she told Misred of ZIFM recently.
In the eyes of some people, hers was just a simple attention seeking stunt that did not in any way honour the memory of those that lost their lives on that flight. While some saw nudity, Zimuto saw art.
“The picture is an emotion, it’s not me naked or whatever else people say. It’s an emotion that I’m expressing . . . I have been stripped of everything of and I’ve lost everything that’s important to me and I’m basically lost,” she said.
Instead of showing regret, she has instead chosen to ride the crest of the nudity wave, following that initial post with more provocative pictures. Instead of retreating into a shell after all the outrage, Zimuto has seemed to flourish.
“For people who felt it was terrible and all that, I can’t apologise for the art that I put out there. Because to me it makes a lot of sense and a lot of people came to my inbox saying Vimbai look, we totally get you. That’s when someone sent me a picture from 1916, similar to that. The only difference was that she was white and didn’t wasn’t that much voluptuous. That was the only difference but it was also a picture of mourning. This person was portraying art, mourning the people who had died in the 1st World War,” she said.
In a society that is still obsessed with role models, some have questioned what message Zimuto is sending to younger followers that might look up to her. Zimuto however, is unperturbed at the scrutiny that her behaviour invites.
“I don’t think of a 10-year-old through nudity. Or telling any story of how she has experienced abuse through nudity because a 10-year-old does not have that much emotion to be able to express through nudity,” she said.
Some perhaps will be worried about the message that Zimuto might be sending to other musicians that feel like their talents are ignored. If good and promising music keeps on falling on deaf ears, how many will take off their clothes as they search for cheap and easy clicks on their songs?
After all, Zimuto, despite her denials, is following a template that has been successful even beyond the country’s borders.
Kim Kardashian has acquired a reputation for “breaking the internet” with tantalising nude pictures that usually get her what she wants — attention. When there seems to be a lull in her popularity, the woman whose initial claim to fame was a sex romp on camera always seems to have the right picture in her gallery.
The strategy has so far worked to perfection. However, while she enjoys the limelight, music lovers will of course wonder if Zimuto’s mbira is loud enough to last beyond the proverbial 15 minutes of fame.
