Music, Culture, and Personal Reconstruction: Lessons From Mukudzeyi “Jah Prayzah” Mukombe's Selected Songs

Abstract

This chapter used a few of Mukudzeyi ‘Jah Prayzah' Mukombe's selected songs to analyse the relationship between music, culture, and personal reconstruction. These songs include ‘Ngwarira Kuparara', the title track from his 2011 album, and ‘Kwayedza', from his 2020 album Hokoyo, respectively. Jah Prayzah's artistic contributions were located and analysed using Asante's analytic Afrocentricity. In pushing Zimbabweans to be proud of their culture, Jah Prayzah exemplifies pride in one's identity, as this chapter has demonstrated. He exploits the creative potential of art to advance cultural norms and values that signify Africanness through the nuanced Shona language. Jah Prayzah reminds Zimbabweans that to rebuild their identity and regain their sense of self, they must return to their cultural norms and values. The chapter concluded that Jah Prayzah is a cultural revivalist who is dedicated to Zimbabwe's cultural memory. The musician uses his songs to fight the inaccurate representations of Zimbabwean culture and decolonize Zimbabweans' minds. The chapter makes recommendations for other musicians to use their music to defend fundamental African cultural values and solve societal evils.