Papa Vero and The Nyamhunga Boys

The Nyamhunga Boys traditional music group was founded by Guyson “Papa Vero” Mlambo, a military trainee who was born as Chenjerai Chiomo Mlambo on the 27th of December 1992 on what is colloquially called Chiwaya farm, in Chipinge district, near Southdown and Ratelshook tea estates, just along the Zimbabwe Mozambique border.

In 2007 Guyson headed to Springs, Tsakane in Extension 17 in search of elixir, but he escaped death narrowly and left the town within a year on account of the xenophobic outbursts, which in Springs were particularly severe; to the effect of having them to sleep at night in the wilderness, in hiding and preventing them from going to work by day. That’s when he went to Limpopo province and settled in the village of Ga-Masemola, 90 kilometre east of Pietersburg along the Jane Furse highway, just across the Lepelle River (Oliphants) near Lebowakgomo to work as an ironsmith.

In 2016 Guyson revived the idea of telling the world his stories through music and as a result Papa Vero & The Nyamhunga Boys group was born. Unfortunately the group was shunned by producers as they could not understand their language or the style of music they wanted to record. In 2017 the local community radio presenter Sammy Dollar attempted to record the group but communication was difficult and he referred the group to Jimmy Moshidi of Kokoto Produxionz. After listening to their demo tracks, Moshidi advised the group to do the genre which they can do best without compromising message, thus traditional music. He took sometime mentoring the group and as a result the smash hit Barika Ihondo was recorded through the guidance of Moshidi and producer Evans “Bornfire” Marwah.

The group Nyamhunga Boys was formed solemnly to share life experiences through music since the founder could hardly read or write after dropping out of school at Rattleshook secondary due to poor family background, ill-advice, lack of inspiration in academic life, juvenile expedience, and certainly the temptation to make a living in Jo’burg, the city of gold.

Shortly after dropping out of school, Guyson, now the self-employed ironsmith, joined military as a trainee but unfortunately the environment at the camp was not conducive and therefore he fled from his country Zimbabwe to seek asylum in South Africa aged 20. This is when he started to sing songs about hardships he went through in life. Most of his homeboys found the idea of rhyming about life in diaspora stimulating and as a result they joined him to embrace the rebellious cause. They tried several times to record a rap music album without success.