Guitarist, singer and songwriter Jonah Moyo founded and still leads the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band, the prototype for a succession of highly successful Zimbabwe rumba bands. Moyo was working as a clerk at the Mashaba Asbestos Mine, near Masvingo and the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. In the closing months of Zimbabwe's independence struggle, Moyo lobbied the authorities at the mine to let him put together a band to entertain at month-end celebrations. The resulting group, launched in 1979, was called the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band. The name means "follow the crocodile," and according to Zimbabwean music chronicler Fred Zindi, friends of Moyo's originally suggested it as a joke. Just as clever fish follow a crocodile to snack on the scraps he leaves behind, Moyo pulled together his band by picking off members from more established groups at the time, such as the reggae band African Herb, and Wells Fargo.

Word spread quickly about this band's lively, bucking guitar-based rumba. The early songs were essentially popular Congo hits translated from Lingala into Shona. But as time went on, the repertoire came to reflect more and more Zimbabwean cultural elements. Moyo built the band's base audience among mine workers, appealing to the many Malawians among them by singing in Chewa (a Malawian language), and using local rhythms in some of the songs. Moyo's nimble guitar work was a pull, as was the punchy drumming of Patrick Zhoao. Zhoao's parents were from Mozambique, and he introduced elements to the band's sound that would appeal to people from Zimbabwe's war-torn eastern neighbor.

All of this spelled rapid success for Devera Ngwena, who were quickly snapped up by Teal Recording Company. Zindi says that between 1981 and 89, the band recorded 13 albums and 57 singles, making them perhaps the most prolific Zimbabwean band of the era. Devera Ngwena had the top selling record of 1983, and the band toured in Botswana and Mozambique.

In 1986, Moyo endured a major defection as Devera Ngwena members left to create the Zhimozhi Band. Moyo turned to his brother, Joshua Dube, among others, to fill in, and Devera Ngwena came through the crisis in fine form. In 1987, with a brand new brass section added, they toured in England, Scottland and Holland, putting on 45 shows and accompanying major Afropop names of the era: Bhundu Boys, Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Hugh Masekela, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

With all this success, the Moyo and his bandmates should have been rich. Some of their titles sold as many as 120,000 copies in South Africa, unheardof success for a Zimbabwean act. But unfair royalty rates typical of 1970s contracts kept most of the proceeds from the musicians. During the 1990s, other Zimbabwe rumba acts--notably Leonard Dembo, Simon Chimbetu, and Leonard Zvakata--came to dominate the scene. At the same time, there was a general decline in audience for rumba music. Though Moyo and Devera Ngwena still perform and still sound great, their audience has waned considerably since the 1980s glory days.