introduction

Of course one would wonder why it has taken so many years to reveal my story. But what I can say is that every dog has its day. I am Rise Kagona, the founder and leader of the The Bhundu Boys from Zimbabwe, and I believe that there is no one other than myself who knows the full history of the Bhundu Boys from the start to where it is now, because I was there at the start, and I am still here now.

The Bhundu Boys were known as ambassadors of African Music and we were one of the first African groups to tour all over the world. It seems unfair to us that for all our effort we are now remembered only for dying of AIDS. We felt it was wrong that anyone other than David's close family should talk of how he died, especially to the media. But nevertheless, Gordon Muir, our manager, began publicising this. This led to misleading articles being printed, as a result, all of us were painted by the same brush.

A lot of these stories were fabricated by people who were never with us at home or on tour. These people are parasites who feed on dead bodies. They wrote fake stories about the Bhundu Boys when they hardly knew us. Some only saw us on stage but never spoke a word; but today you can still read their misleading articles on the Internet, or in newspapers. The only good thing they applauded us for is how we supported Madonna's concert at Wembley.

I find it appalling that these people took advantage of my dead colleagues and make a living out of lies. They were not there for us in good and bad times, as DJs John Peel, Andy Kershaw and Charlie Gillet were. They have caused confusion about what really happened to the Bhundu Boys.

So this is my story - the true story of what happened to the Bhundu Boys.