Rockers of Africa. This is how journalist Hélène Lee entitled her 1988 book on the first singers of African music in the globalized world, at a time when the term “world music” had just been coined to promote this new business. And this, even though Salif Keïta and Alpha Blondy, to name just two of the artists featured in the book, were not, strictly speaking, rock musicians. But at the same time, rock had already invaded the continent in a big way, from the Malian Boubacar Traoré, converted to Eddie Cochran’s music in the 1960s, to the wave of punk that conquered southern Africa, to the hippie rock’n’roll of Morocco in the 1970s, led by Nass El Ghiwan, to the fuzzy guitars of the Nigerian Funkees, not forgetting pop psychedelia mixed with the sticky bitumen of tropical Africa, like the Thermometers or the Mebusas. Then there was Ethiopia’s Alemayehu Eshete, an improbable mix of Elvis and James Brown, who integrated the most daring pop arrangements, in tune with a breathtaking scene that preceded the fall of the Negus, and the sweet hallucinatory psychedelia of Egyptian guitarist Omar Korshid, a great fan of the Moog.
One of the most striking examples is zamrock, the Zambian soundtrack of the 1970s, which the aptly named Californian label Now Again and the German label Shadoks, experts in psychedelic rarities from around the world, brought back to the fore more than ten years ago, reissuing albums by legendary bands Witch and Amanaz, which attest to the influence of glam rock and Sly Stone’s colourful funk on the East African coast. “Zamrock is the other forgotten, abandoned treasure of the Copperbelt. In the second half of the 1970s, as Zambia sank into isolation, zamrock was the rhythm of the miners’ weekends, when they came to forget their daily lives with Castle beers. But the music being played could have been produced in Sheffield or Birmingham,” noted journalist Jean-Christophe Servant on Le Monde Diplomatique’s blog in December 2008. “For a few years, before AIDS ravaged most of this generation, dozens of bands from these mining towns began tropicalizing British metal and garage rock to produce incredible records brimming with fuzz guitar solos sometimes executed with their teeth.”
The border with Zambia, the future Zimbabwe, still called Rhodesia under a strict apartheid regime, was also a scene of similar effervescence. “Jimi Hendrix is dead, but Manu is alive”, ventured The Rhodesia Herald following a performance by the band Dr Footswitch, fronted by guitarist Manu Kambani. A native of Mbare, Kambani was one of the stars of the Zimbabwean rock scene in the 1970s, even seducing white audiences with electrifying performances in a number of combos, often evocatively named The Sound Effects, The Springfields and The Great Sounds. From his pop beginnings with Whitstones, to his concerts with icons such as Thomas Mapfumo, his career took him beyond borders, while leaving a lasting mark on the local scene, as his funeral in March 1995 would attest.
In its wake, other groups fused rock, Congolese rumba, South African mbaqanga, soul and traditional local rhythms, giving birth to an underground musical movement that would shape the future of the Zimbabwean sound, so much so that Gallo Record, one of South Africa’s flagship labels, chose to get involved by signing several groups: The Great Sounds, MD Rhythm Success, Afrique 73, The Hitch-Hikers, The Impossibles and O.K Success. Meanwhile, Johannesburg-based Teal Record Company decided to set up a local subsidiary and appointed drummer Crispen Matema as its artistic director. At the wheel of his Peugeot 504, Matema went in search of undiscovered talent, organizing live music competitions. In little more than a year, in the studio set up in Salisbury, he had recorded a whole host of exceptional groups such as The Baked Beans, Blacks Unlimited, The Acid Band, Echoes Ltd, Gypsy Caravan and many others, all of whom are featured on the compilation curated by Analog Africa.
Among these, the New Tutenkhamen occupy a place of choice with three tracks on the compilation. “This group is well known to a whole generation of Zimbabweans, those who were in their twenties in the 1970s. In fact, they are referenced in the book Zimbabwe Township Music by Joyce-Jenje Makwenda“, sums up Charles Houdart, who founded the Nyami Nyami Records label, specializing in Southern African music. Four years ago, this Frenchman, who lived in Harare for many years, resurrected the New Tutenkhamen’s “I Wish You Were Mine” from oblivion. “It’s a typical record from this scene in a country then in the throes of a guerrilla war for independence. Bands like Wells Fargo and Green Arrows often had lyrics with double-meanings about the ongoing struggle,” he insisted at the time, referring to this band of young Zimbabweans flirting with post-psychedelia and oblique pop: “There are musicians who went on to have great careers, like Jethro Sasha, but the band is based on the singer Elisha Josam, who was a rather dark, tortured character, a bit of a bad boy, and who is remembered with a bit of fascination and mystery in Zimbabwe. In fact, we don’t know much more about this band, no photos, no info, no survivors… “
In 1976, while the war of liberation was raging, the Teal label saw the promise of a future that swung differently with Thomas Mapfumo, the future “lion of Zimbabwe”, who was still at the dawn of a great career. He opens this Roots Rocking Zimbabwe selection, with The Acid Band, through Chiko Chinotinetsa, an original typical of the mixes concocted in those epic days, when he was already seeking to modernize traditional songs. The result is Chimurenga (in English “fight for freedom”, a word that would later be used in a South African magazine of reference for all music-loving researchers), a revolutionary style deeply rooted in Shona culture, where the struggle for liberation is often the theme. A troublesome fact for the man who would later become Robert Mugabe’s bête noire. In fact, the autocrat went so far as to force Mapfumo into exile, the same man who was imprisoned by the PATU (Police Anti-Terrorist Unit) in the heart of the seventies, because Thomas Mapfumo’s success was synonymous with strong crowd mobilization power. For having risked so much, many artists were seen as national heroes, just as the country was finally freeing itself from its shackles.
In the meantime, while Teal Record Company had been occupying the field with sub-labels (Afro Soul, Afro Pop and Shungu), Gallo Records has commissioned legendary sax jive producer West Nkosi to act as local talent scout. That’s how he discovered The Green Arrows, led by the charismatic Zexie Manatsa, a songwriter who also spent time in prison. By Christmas 1974, their single “Chipo Chiroorwa” had sold over 25,000 copies, making them the first Rhodesian group to win a gold disc. And less than a year later, a new recording session gave birth to “Towering Inferno”, a terrific track that combines a reggae-like rhythm with fuzz-saturated strings in tribute to Paul Newman, while the instrumental “No Delay”, a kind of reggae funk jam by the same Green Arrows, is dedicated to Steve McQueen.
Rock, soul, funk reggae – there’s no limit to the township soundtracks that make up this selection, twenty-five tracks that testify to the extraordinary creativity of the working-class neighborhoods in the five years leading up to April 18, 1980, the date of the country’s independence. For proof, listen to “Viva Zimbabwe” by the Dagger Rock Band: rhythms bordering on heavy rock, funky fuzzy guitars and high-pitched vocals send out a message of independence and pan-African lyrics. As unlikely as it is unstoppable.
Roots Rocking Zimbabwe (The Modern Sound Of Harare Townships 1975-1980) out via Analog Africa now.
