It might be seven years since one of Sungura’s finest artist on the Zimbabwean soil, Tongai Moyo popularly known in the musical circles as ‘Dhewa’ breathed his last, but the memories of his soothing music are still alive.
May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Arguably, Dhewa died with sungura as he left Alick Macheso with no worth challenge in the genre that used to be fully packed with humour teachings giving one every reason to be associated with it.
Moyo was born on the 12th of March in 1968 in Kwekwe. He passed away on 15 October 2011.
He was married to Miniehle Mukweli and had six children namely Natasha, Nicole, Obert (Tongai Jnr), Tanaka and Nyasha and Peter Moyo.
The talented musician started his career in 1988 in his home-town Kwekwe.
To improve his craft, the ‘Muchinamuhombe’ singer, played in numerous bands and eventually joined Shirichena Jazz Band as a session musician, and helped the band to release two albums and a single.
The most popular was “Ndoita Zvangu Ndega” which was released in 1991 Moyo was virtually unknown by then.
He went on to create his own band the Utakataka Express after which he released his first solo album, ‘Vimbo’ in 1996.
The album earned Moyo a name in the music industry, which was dominated by the likes of Nicholas Zakaria and Alick Macheso who sang the same genre.
Since then, he never looked back and went on to release 14 albums to his credit.
The album “Naye” saw Dhewa hogging the limelight with his chart topper “Nemumvura Mese” which earned him two Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA).
At the time of his death, Moyo had just released his 14th album ‘Toita basa’.
