Busi Ncube has revealed the real reason, Ilanga fell apart all those years ago – money. She said band leader, Don Gumbo suddenly threw the...
Busi Ncube has revealed the real reason, Ilanga fell apart
all those years ago – money. She said band leader, Don Gumbo suddenly threw the
rest of the band out of his Mabelreign house.
“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 told Sunday News.
“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.
“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. 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. She followed Gumbo to South Africa but that did not
work out and she returned home.
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.
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