BY TINASHE GUMBO MY twins Tadiwanashe and Tapiwanashe have continued to pin me down seeking some “convincing explanation” as to why the late sungura maestro Leonard “Musorowenyoka” Dembo was not accorded a liberation hero status “if he was, indeed, better” than Zimdancehall singer Soul Jah Love, born Soul Muzavazi Musaka, who was accorded the status. I always tell them that the concept of heroism in our Zimbabwean context has remained subjective and, at most, controversial. Yesterday marked 25 years after the demise of Dembo, the sungura hero who has influenced many lives even in his death. His albums such as Chitekete, Ruvarashe, Nhamo Moto, Kuziva Mbuya Huudzwa and Sharai rocked the airwaves. The history of Dembo has, however, remained sketchy and, in most cases, distorted. I have always been concerned that our future generations will not be able to fully understand the history of this music legend. I, however, salute music critic Fred Zindi and a few others who have committed their time to dig and preserve the history of our late musicians. One wonders why the Dembo early days have continued to be exposed to various interpretations. I try in this piece to sample a few issues in Dembo’s history which have not seen writers or even fans converging. I relied heavily on my personal experience with Dembo music (an experience spanning from 1987 to 2021), numerous newspaper articles by Zindi mainly in The Standard (NewsDay Weekender’s sister paper), Dembo’s son Tendai’s letter in The Standard among Birthday debate Going through much of the available literature on the internet, I was astonished to observe that even Dembo’s birthday is an area of discussion. While February 6, 1959 has always been regarded as his birth day, another date is cited in the literature. One of Dembo’s sons, Tendai, is cited as having written in April 2020, giving December 29, 1959 as the birth day for his late father. Interestingly, Tendai actually warns that anyone who may claim to know his father’s early history will be lying to the world. According to Tendai, the first “authentic” documentation of the history of his father was when he released the song Manga Majaira Matsotsi in 1979. This assertion by Tendai is not supported by any known literature to the current writer. However, there seems to exist some agreement that Dembo’s father died and left him while he was five years old and his sister eight, and his brother three. These young ones were left to fend for themselves probably subsequently influencing Dembo’s later messages in his music particularly in Nhamo Takura Nayo, Nhamo Moto and Kukura Kwedu, among other songs he composed. Chivi-Chirumanzu: Masvingo-Midlands controversy Many sources I have consulted have indicated that Dembo was born in Chivi, Masvingo province. Yet, alternative sources argue that he was born in Chirumanzu (Chaka area) in the Midlands province. This leaves one confused as to the truth regarding Dembo’s birth place. I tried to figure out how Chivi could have been confused for Chirumanzu considering that these places