9 interesting facts about Cde Chinx you'd be surprised to find out

Two days ago, one of Zimbabwe’s most iconic musicians, Cde Chinx Chingaira passed away. As the Zimbabwe mourns the musician and liberation war fighter, here are some interesting facts about him that you probably didn’t know:

1. While many people think his full name is “Dickson Chingaira Makoni”, the name Dickson is actually not his name. in 2017, Chinx clarified that his first name is just Dick.
2. Cde Chinx’s great great grand father was beheaded by the white settlers in the First Chimurenga in the 1880s
3. The song Hondo Yakura Muzimbabwe which became popular in 2002 at the height of the land invasions for resettlement, was actually composed by Cde Chinx in 1979 as the war for independence intensified leading to Zimbabwe’s independence the following year.
4. Cee Chinx was motivated to join the war of independence in Mozambique by liberation music he was hearing because he was a lover of music.
5. He started singing at a very tender age. He loved his mother’s Anglican church music and would sing the songs at home with his sisters much to the annoyance of his mother who said he wasn’t singing the songs right. His primary school headmaster however encouraged him to sing and to join the school choir.
6. On completion of secondary school, Chingaira got a place to study medicine overseas but he failed to acquire travel documents and the whole plan failed to materialise. Then in 1974 he worked at an engineering plant in Msasa.
7. Soon after Zimbabwe’s independence Cde Chinx worked at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
8.  His most outstanding hit, “Roger Confirm”, stayed on the then Radio 3’s Hitpick charts for 25 weeks in 1989 and early 1990.
9. He starred in a fairly popular Zimbabwean movie about the Second Chimurenga called “Flame”.
10.  He joined up with what became one of Zimbabwe’s most iconic bands,  Ilanga, who all along had been a duo of Andy Brown and Don Gumbo. With them as backing vocalists, he did the songs Ngorimba and Zvikomborero. He would also perform live with them as a backing vocalist on songs like True Love.
11. Early in 2017, he released an album featuring Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Civic Education despite his ill-health.
12. He met his first wife, Patricia Chingaira, in Mozambique at the war. They wedded after the war.
13. At Zimbabwe’s Independence, he was still quite young at just 25 years of age.