Approaching half a century in his innings Ray Phiri seems content about his decision to return to his home town in Mpumalanga in 1997, 30 years after leaving the then Eastern Transvaal to come to Johannesburg. His three-decade jaunt was sparked by an inspired moment of comedy and impulse, and was ended by a rather cathartic process.
In 1967, at the age of 15, Phiri had enjoyed exposure to entertaining people by travelling as a dancer with his guitarist father around Mayfern, just outside Nelspruit. His big break came when, during a big concert in Nelspruit, he spontaneously jumped on stage and danced to the delight of the crowd and made himself R30. With only his standard six certificate and, without so much as a formal goodbye, he left for Johannesburg.
In 1997 it was time to go home. ”I went back to Mpumalanga because I had to put my ghosts to sleep,” Phiri says. ”I had to deal with my anger and ambivalence.”
He speaks of the state he found himself in because of his failure to deal with his relationship with his father, who died in 1973, and a need to improve his relationship with his children. ”Going back home allowed me time to trace my roots and start making sense of my confusion.”
He has found that in Mpumalanga ”you can do things at a relaxed pace”. It offered him an opportunity to give back to his Lowveld community, where he serves on the boards of the Mpumalanga Aids Council and the Mpumalanga Arts and Culture Trust.
Phiri has just released a new album, Chikapa’s Eleven, to mark the 11 years that have elapsed since he left Stimela. ”I wrote it because it is a labour of love more than anything else,” he says.
The album coincides with the re-release of Stimela’s Trouble in the Land of Plenty, which holds fond memories of its own.
”The Eighties were about being a voice of the community,” the downside of which was that ”you had no time to look after yourself.”
Stimela remains one of the defining features of the Eighties’ adult contemporary and township pop scene.
At the recent press launch of Standard Bank Joy Of Jazz festival, Phiri got a chance to relive the group’s most successful phase when he performed some of their hits and was joined on stage by Sipho ”Hotstix” Mabuse and Fitzroy Ngcukana. ”It is very exciting to have your peers join you on stage. We have to move away from being performers to being entertainers.”
Phiri’s success with Stimela first ran concurrently with, and then had to make way for, his collaboration with Paul Simon. The partnership spanned an 11-year period starting in 1984. It yielded many memorable projects, including the Graceland tour and Born at the Right Time. Phiri’s most outstanding contribution to the collaboration was composing the music for Simon’s You Can Call Me Al.
In 1996 he featured on Place of Hope, a collaboration with African-American artists before heading east.
Since his return to Mpumalanga he has found time to work with a Mozambican group called Kapa Deche and was featured as a guest artist on their latest album.
”I like them because they remind me so much of Stimela. They have hunger and dedication,” he says.
Kapa Deche is not the first Southern African group he has worked with. In the 1970s, with the late West Nkosi, he used to frequent Zimbabwe to help a local group record their work at the then Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation. That group was called the Black Spirits, with a lead singer named Oliver Mtukudzi.