Remembering Donald ‘Dodger’ Marindire - An Eternal Revolutionary

 By Takudzwa Kadzura

Punching these words on the keyboard was just as loud as the shattering noise raging at the grief of Donald Marindire’s untimely passing. Even though we cannot add a cubit to our own lives, it remains untimely to bury a comrade when the fruits of revolutionary labor begin to ripe.

Altogether, these words could gravely summarize an episode of sorrow in the public eye which this writing sternly seeks to revise. The comradeship of Dodger as he was affectionately known is the culture we grossly overlook. We as a collective hip hop fraternity.

Dodger’s demise on the 26^th of August 2021 coincides with his cultic hero’s month of passing – Dambudzo Marechera.

Despite the generational gaps, the two writers’ literary escapades – iconoclastic for that matter – are of a spiritual realm and more to it, timelessly relevant. Permanently etched in the consciousness of progressive comrades.

Donald’s consistent references to Dambudzo evidently portray his dedicated conviction to the word; the literature which bears the madness of struggle – hope and hopelessness.

The two flourished in eccentric writing from the ultimate totality of consciousness which oft was and is still hiding in wit. And prophecies that only reveal their nature and form to their readers.

Zim Hip Hop lost a towering luminary, a selfless purveyor of the culture. The generality of Zimbabwean arts and culture lost a soldier – one who was obviously inclined to the saying, “the pen is mightier…” He rooted for the game.

Dodger is the beacon of critical reviews into the prospects of artists. His precision in analysis reeked prophecy because he had an eye for talent which to our witness developed into nationwide stardom.

Writing was largely a self-styled dream which he vehemently channeled towards his passionate and indelible contribution to hip hop in Zimbabwe. In this genre, words are undeniably mightier than sword. He found a home in a world that Marechera lampooned to constantly alienate (us).

He had earlier written, “Words evoke more than that which is there to be evoked”. Words found Dodger a safe haven convenient to evoke thought in the hullabaloo of Zimbabwean music industry and eventually becoming an unrivalled and unparalleled authority of rational critique.  Par excellence.

“I think writers are usually recruited into a revolutionary movement before that revolution gains whatever it’s seeking. Once it has achieved that, writers are simply discarded, either as a nuisance or as totally irrelevant”. It was Dambudzo Marechera who said this.