Braveman Chizvino Mwanza, commonly known as Baba Harare, indeed took a brave leap of faith to be his own man when all odds were staked against him. Perhaps taking a cue from his middle name Chizvino, he realised it was time.
Like his last name, Mwanza, which means the great in a Zambian dialect, the jiti singer has for the past five years strived to be one of Zimbabwe’s greatest musicians.
Born in rural Bikita, the man dared to conquer Harare, hence the moniker Baba Harare.
Now that he has conquered the capital city, he can arguably declare himself the “Zimbabwean Giant”.
Rewind a few years ago, multi-award-winning Jah Prayzah discovered Baba Harare when he was working with Sigma Boys, a virtually unknown musical outfit in the backwaters of Bikita.
The Bikita-born jiti music star made his name as a backing vocalist and lead guitarist for Jah Prayzah’s Third Generation band before he weaned himself from his mentor’s shadow to be a musician in his own right.
After an eight-year stint under the stewardship of Jah Prayzah, Baba Harare like his real name, took a brave man’s decision to go solo around 2017 to become the frontman for The City Vibration band.