Samm Farai Monro popularly known as Comrade Fatso never stops innovating. Having celebrated his 40th birthday a few years ago he is no longer a youth but he jokingly claims to this reporter that he is now “a youth veteran”.
After graduating from the youth bracket, Fatso said he had a strong passion to incubate the next generation of artistes, content creators and activists through his multiple creative platforms such as Shoko Festival, Magamba TV and Moto Republik.
Through his work in political satire, the “youth veteran” co-created the show Zambezi News alongside Tongai Makawa (aka Outspoken) back in 2011 — which was the first ever political satire presented in Zimbabwe. They are playing a part in growing the movement of political satire in Zimbabwe with their Magamba TV channel and there are many widely viewed videos like Why Mnangagwa Released Job Sikala, Potraz False News Exposed and This is What’s Wrong with Mthuli’s Budget.
Comrade Fatso actually started as a spoken word artiste and musician before venturing into comedy and satire.
Music-wise with his outfit Chabvondoka, Comrade Fatso released the band’s debut album House of Hunger which was banned in Zimbabwe due to its ‘political content’. The band performed throughout Europe, US, Caribbean and Africa and in 2010 performed at one of Europe’s biggest festivals, the Exit Festival. Comrade Fatso's poetry was published in Barbados, Germany and Holland, respectively.
In a wide-ranging conversation with NewsDay Life & Style, Comrade Fatso — whose venue Moto Republik received the award for Best Brand Supporting Hip Hop at the Zim Hip Hop Awards 2024 — predicted a bright future for the genre. He said it was a pleasure and fulfilling to work with the likes of Noble Styles, Dingo Duke, Dough Major, Banshee, among others who also won awards at the Zim Hip Hop Awards 2024.
“Gone are the days when Zim hip-hop used to play second fiddle to Zimdancehall and other music genres. It now commands a huge following locally and internationally. I foresee a bright future,” he said.
“Zimbabweans are super creative, there is so much potential on our music scene, our poetry, our comedy and our film. Our creative economy is not performing the way it should because our overall economy is stagnant.”
- Comrade Fatso predicts bright era for Zim hip-hop
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He said there was inadequate independent funding and revenue streams for artistes and that was “why we have manipulation from the likes of Sir Wicknell who is buying off artistes with cars on behalf of the ruling party”
“That’s a problem because we need our artistes to be creative, independent and voices of the people. They can’t do that if they are captured by the State,” Comrade Fatso said.
Who is Comrade Fatso?
“I am a political satirist and an activist and also the creative director of Magamba Network. I am not a youth anymore, I am now a youth veteran (he says as he laughs). I feel honoured that I have been part of so many arts and creative initiatives over the years. Just reflecting on my own arts journey, I started with spoken word and music, touring internationally, then standup comedy and later launched into political satire. It has been an amazing journey. The journey continues and now that I am a youth veteran, the most important thing is to create platforms for young creatives, political satirists and content creators who are committed to building a better Zimbabwe and a more just continent. Magamba Network is very focused on incubating the next generation of socially conscious artistes.”
What exciting issues emerged from the artistes that you worked with last year?
It has been so amazing to see the growth of so many artistes. We have worked with the likes of King Kandoro who started as an intern at Magamba TV and ended up running our entire Magamba TV project and producing all our political satire. He then moved on to launch his own start-up and comedy career. Kandoro is a young man who has got so much passion and talent and now he is one of the biggest Zimbabwean comedians and is touring the world. Just last year, he filled the Celebration Centre in Harare to capacity for a comedy show as part of his Properganda Tour. I am also impressed to see the growth of standup comedian Learnmore Jonasi who has performed on different platforms that we have organised as Magamba Network. I was so inspired to see him doing so well on America’s Got Talent and we then managed to have him headline Shoko Festival 2024 after that. It really shows you that standup comedy in Zimbabwe is on the rise.
What is the ideal arts industry you would want to see in Zimbabwe?
I want to see a thriving, diverse and free Zimbabwean creative economy. I want our artistes and creatives being able to sing and speak of the hopes, dreams and aspirations of our people. I want them to be able to speak out about the big issues of our time like the climate crisis, inequality and fighting corruption. To do that they need to be independent — which means we need a functioning economy and independent arts funding. For example the national arts councils in South Africa and the UK give grants to their artists to produce arts for art’s sake. We need the same thing here. Our artists are afraid to speak out because mainstream Zimbabwean me---dia is mainly controlled by the State, aligned to the ruling party and the rich and powerful. On top of that we have big tech monopolies online so when our creatives stream their music or upload their popular videos, they end up being given peanuts by corporates like Spotify and YouTube which take the lion’s share of revenue. So in Zimbabwe we need to create more independent spaces for the arts and to support the growth of the creative ecosystem that values many different voices and many diverse genres.
