African musician who flourished in Scotland dies

Died: September 14, 2024

Rise Kagona, who has died aged 61, was a trailblazing guitarist, whose tenure leading The Bhundu Boys throughout the 1980s and beyond saw his shimmering guitar lines make waves beyond the band’s Zimbabwe homeland on main stages across the globe. This was done through his use of what became known as the Jiti or Jit Jive style. This was a traditional Zimbabwean musical form, which Kagona fused with more contemporary Western elements to make for a restless, effervescent sound that filled dancefloors wherever Kagona and the group played.

After becoming regular chart toppers in Zimbabwe, Kagona and the Bhundu Boys were picked up by Scottish singer “Champion” Doug Veitch, who co-founded the DiscAfrique record label to showcase contemporary African music beyond its homeland. Veitch brought the band to Scotland, and soon they were being hailed by the likes of Eric Clapton and Elvis Costello, or else lighting up the airwaves on Andy Kershaw’s influential BBC radio programme and John Peel’s late night show. Kershaw described Kagona’s style as the guitar playing that changed his life. Peel was so moved by experiencing the Bhundu Boys live that he burst into tears.

Arriving on the scene as the west was opening its ears to the musical joys of the African diaspora, Kagona and the Bhundu Boys signed to a major record label, and opened for Madonna for three nights at Wembley, playing to more than 200,000 people. Mark Knopfler cycled to the London house the Bhundu Boys stayed in to jam with Kagona. Kagona went on to record a version of Ring of Fire with Johnny Cash. The recording was intended for an advertisement but was never used or released due to the song’s lyrical content.

The eventual demise of the Bhundu Boys and resultant deaths of the majority of the group saw Kagona settle in Edinburgh, where he played live with assorted fellow travellers, protecting the often misunderstood Bhundu Boys legacy to the end.

Rise Ellarton Kagona was born in Ntcheu, Nyasaland, one of six children to Nelifa and Isaac Kagona. Isaac was a tribal chief in Nyasaland, with Kagona an heir to the throne. He was originally called Royas, but his name was changed to Rise as a toddler as he slept a lot, unable to ‘rise up’.

With Nyasaland becoming Malawi following independence in 1964, Kagona’s family moved first to South Africa, then to Zimbabwe, which was then under white minority Rhodesian rule. Small in stature, Kagona’s identity card claimed he was born in 1959 to ensure he was allowed in school.

Growing up in a poverty stricken Harare, he was given his first guitar, a three-string ‘banjo’, though Kagona’s Seven-Day Adventist parents frowned on him channelling his energies into music.

Kagona and his friends were unable to hear songs written in Shona on the radio, which only played western music. Still teenagers, they started frequenting the beer halls where bands played. It was here Kagona got his musical education. Hanging out with the groups, he and his friends played sessions of their own inspired by the political underground songs of Thomas Mapfumo and others.

With his friend Washington Kavhai, Kagona ran local youth clubs, raising money for local community activities and booking bands. On New Year’s Eve 1977, Kagona and Kavhai scheduled a show by their own band, which they called the Wild Dragons. Following Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the band’s name was changed to the Bhundu Boys, in honour of the youthful freedom fighters who had fought for independence. If such a tribute sounded earnest, the liberated euphoria that burst forth from the music was a different kind of cultural revolution.

At the band’s centre was vocalist Biggie Tembo, whose charismatic presence made him an ideal frontman. Kagona preferred to stay in the background, and despite being the youngest member of the band, remained the leader throughout.

Kagona and the fledgling Bhundu Boys were spotted by Steve Roskilly, who ran the Zimbabwe based Shed Studios. Roskilly released numerous Bhundu Boys records between 1983 and 1986 on the studio’s own Ragare label, with the band scoring four number ones.

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Some of this material was licensed to Veitch, who released a Bhundu Boys compilation as Shabini (1986) on his DiscAfrique label. A second DiscAfrique album, Tsvimbodzemoto (1987), followed.

Veitch brought Kagona and the Bhundu Boys to Scotland, where they lived in Hawick, and were managed by artist Gordon Muir. Muir signed them to WEA Records, who released the True Jit (1987) album. If Robin Millar’s slick production smoothed things out somewhat, live the Bhundu Boys remained a joy. After a second WEA album, Pamberi (1989), they were dropped, while Tembo departed.

Returning to DiscAfrique, the band released Live at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (1990), recorded at the Glasgow venue. Two independently released albums followed. With four band members dying over the next few years, and with only Kagona and drummer Kenny Chitsvatsva remaining, Kagona eventually called time on the Bhundu Boys in 2000.

Kagona lived in Kirkliston, then Edinburgh, and continued playing with percussionist Andy Cooke and others as Rise Kagona and the Jit Jive Band. In the early noughties, he reunited with Veitch, with the pair and others performing as Culture Clash. Rise & Doug Tanzwa Nekutambura (We’ve Suffered Enough) was released in 2007. The pair continued to play together, with Kagona opening for Veitch at a 2019 Edinburgh show.

(Image: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut)

One of Kagona’s last gigs was at Saughton Park, Edinburgh, at the end of August this year. He performed with Cooke, who subsequently organised a GoFundMe campaign to take Kagona home to Harare. The appeal reached its target within days.

It is more than 40 years since Kagona’s composition, Hupenyu Hwangu, first appeared, with Kagona on lead vocals. The song translates as My Life, and saw the then twentysomething maestro muse on his legacy both during and after his time on this earth. “I live for pleasure,” Kagona sang. “I brought pleasure into this world. If I am not there, there is no pleasure. Sing and dance at my funeral.”

Kagona is survived by his daughter Sandra and son Clever from his first marriage to Nancy Mahonye, and his son Christian, from his second marriage to Barbara Dzokai. He is also survived by his sisters Linray and Margaret, and his brother, Rodrick. Two other sisters, Jean and Mavis, predeceased him.

NEIL COOPER

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