So, Chillspot invented ZimDancehall —again. Yawn.
By now, the blatant ragebait of a false narrative that resurfaces every couple of years is as much a part of the lore of the genre as the very foundation of the genre itself. I won’t spend anytime debunking the claim here; that work has been by plenty already, including the very architects of the genre, and basically anybody who heard Zimbabwean music before we knew what a Ribhe was.
Perhaps a broader, if not more important discourse that emerges each time conversations like this pop up is that of documentation and reading culture: that Zimbabwean music, and Zimbabwe as a whole, needs to document phenomena far more rigorously than we do at the moment. And where it exists, we need to cite said documentation at EVERY relevant occasion. In a nutshell, we need to write more, and to read more.
There are, indeed, merits to this argument. In 1987, a real one was born. The same year, Zimbabwean jiti group Bhundu boys was signed to Warner Elektra Atlantic (WEA), the American juggernaut label that was home to such global superstars as Prince, Phil Collins, and Madonna. That year, the group opened for the “Queen of Pop” in front of more than 210 000 fans over three nights at the fabled Wembley Stadium. Yet, if you look up any writing done on them (outside of newspaper pieces,) there is only one text that pops up on Amazon: an ethnomusicological study that uses them as one of three case studies, written by a Swedish professor. Is this a joke? Nobody from the teapot-shaped landmass has thought it worthwhile to tell this story in full and to the public? I’ve seen interviews and newspaper articles about Bob Marley’s Independence Day story: a herculean effort of historic significance to Zimbabwe- where is that book or documentary? Here’s a thought exercise for the uncs in the house. Does anybody remember the “Machikichori” urban compilation album put out by Flash Gordon? While never rising to the prominence of its competitors, it was a pretty popular mix with good music, and a decent alternative to Chamhembe and Chigutiro at the time. I remember, specifically, that it opened with Alexio Kawara’s “Musikana Akanaka”, and also had Sebede doing a great spoken word piece at the end; but I am certain there were other big names on there, who I won’t dare mention here for fear of getting it wrong:and that is my point here. How is there ZERO digital footprint for this project? Not on DSPs (which is the artist’s prerogative); but nobody has uploaded a tracklist sleeve to the internet? For all intents and purposes, it is banished to the doldrums of history, despite the fact that many of the acts on it are still active and relatively young (turn of the 40s!)
Meanwhile, Hip-hop is said to have been born on August 31, 1973 at Kool Herc’s Sedgwick avenue party in the Bronx, New York. House Music is safely attributed to the DJ Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse in Chicago in the late 1970s. Reggae traces its story to 1968’s “Do the Reggay” by Toots and the Maytals. Writings on pivotal cultural moments like the 1995 Source Awards populate multiple Google Search pages (not just footage thereof; reflections and narratives!) To be clear, these are not without their own debates—of course they do; cultural and sonic moments don’t emerge in a vacuum.What you never have, however, is LL Cool J claiming to have pioneered hip-hop, even if he is argued to have been the first superstar of the genre. The documentation provides a realistic anchor around which to begin the conversation.
The importance of writing goes beyond just the telling of cool moments in music history. Dare I say, it is fundamental to our communities (and frankly, civilization.) In his canonical text Imagined Communities, historian Benedict Anderson cites the rise of print-capitalism as the catalyst for modern nationalism, arguing that having localized languages in print fostered a sense of belonging among those that each language spoke to, as well as giving languages and their speakers an impression of antiquity; a critical element in nationalism. For Africa, the printed word in itself was resistance. The absence of a strong literary tradition within many pre-colonial communities was often cited as proof of African inferiority by the colonialists.Thus, the very notion of Africans developing a literary culture in both their native and colonial languages was more than just artistry: it was innately subversive. Ali Mazrui makes this case when he writes “If the general absence of the written word was a part of Africa’s sense of humiliation during the colonial period, the outburst of written creativity among Africans since those early days became part of Africa’s vindication of itself.” (Sorry for the nerdy turn here; but your editor knew what he was doing when he hired me; blame him.)
What I haven’t quite figured out is whether more intentional writing by those who do results in an improved reading culture, or if a good reading culture incentivizes writers to write more. Or if it’s another stimulus altogether. In any case (long intro be damned,) this article serves to celebrate ten important books that have been published on Zimbabwean music.
This is neither an exhaustive list (one would hope not!), nor is it a top ten. If your favorite book is missing, don’t trip; just let us know in the comments: that is how libraries are built. If it takes off and we learn about others (or as more are published,) we may do a part-two here.
(Because I haven’t had the chance to read all the books here; I have placed a * on all the ones I’ve read, and + for all the ones that are directly about riddims and/or raps. Also, these aren’t perfect texts; so my reflections below range from standing ovations to “this is a starting point, but could be better.)
But here we go.
- The Zimdancehall Revolution: Critical Perspectives -Tanaka Chidora, Doreen Rumbidzai Tivenga, Ezra Chitando (Eds.) (2023) *+
“The Zimdancehall Revolution brings together critical essays on various aspects of Zimdancehall culture by scholars from diverse disciplines…The essays range from the mapping of the genre’s historical development to theoretical interventions in understanding the genre and its relationship with various aspects of the Zimbabwean society like politics, gender, religion, language, dance, cultural values and other genres.”
While I’ve had the idea to do this piece for a while, it was this particular book that necessitated me putting it out now. Coincidentally, chief editor Chidora also issued a missive lamenting the lack of reading culture in response to the resurgent Chillspot furore. Simply put, the 13-chapter volume, featuring a combination of academics, journalists, and practitioners, not only lays out the trajectory of the genre in a way that is pretty rigorous, it also engages the contributions and controversies that ZimDancehall brings to the larger tapestry in a robust way. Yours truly contributed to this one; with a chapter titled “Zimdancehall vs. The State: An Interrogation of the Genre as a Response to Socio-Political Crises in Zimbabwe.”
Highly recommend this one!
The downside?It costs dang near $140 on Amazon. We know, we know- it’s the Publishing Industrial Complex unfortunately. We neither priced it, nor do we (as the contributors) get a cent of that.(That said, hit up any of the authors on that list, I know many of us- myself and Chidora included- who will gladly send over our chapters to you for free.)
- Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe - Thomas Turino (2000)*
“The development of this music from its roots in the early Rhodesian era to the present and the ways this and other styles articulated with Zimbabwean nationalism is the focus of Thomas Turino's new study. Turino examines the emergence of cosmopolitan culture among the black middle class and how this gave rise to a variety of urban-popular styles modeled on influences ranging from the Mills Brothers to Elvis. He also shows how cosmopolitanism gave rise to the nationalist movement itself, explaining the combination of "foreign" and indigenous elements that so often define nationalist art and cultural projects. “
I have thoroughly enjoyed this one, particularly the section that shows the syncretism of urban Zimbabwean music in the 1950s and 1960s, as the American Civil Rights Movement collided with the anticolonial struggle. The book does a stellar job of breaking down one of my favorite Zim music stories: that of August Musarurwa’s “Skokiaan” and his resulting bromance with American Jazz Icon Louis Armstrong.
Admittedly, I found the ending, once we got into the post-colonial era to be a bit rushed; but I don’t think you get this book for that part of the narrative. If you wanna hear how earliest recorded music in Zimbabwe kicked off, grew, and evolved: this is the one.
- The Beginning By Tony Chihota (2023) *+
“Tony ‘Chief ‘Chihota has never doubted what he was put on this earth to do…1992 and against all odds, Hip Hop has finally become a global force to be reckoned with. Apartheid in South Africa has just ended and a fragile time of healing has begun. Across the border in Zimbabwe, a new sound has emerged led by three teenagers known as A Peace Of Ebony…. From the heights of fame and glamour to the murky depths of Johannesburg’s Red-light District, The Beginning is an inspiring story of a man’s battle to overcome darkness and embrace the light! A gripping true account of life in the sleazy world of sex, money and drugs as Tony navigates the fine line between glitz and gore. Wickedly funny, insightful and shocking to the core, The Beginning is a literal rollercoaster consummately told by a master entertainer.”
I love this book. No, I do. I’ll go as far and say it’s the best artist memoir I have ever read.Tony Chihota, a real pioneer of hip-hop in Zimbabwe and founding member of the group Peace of Ebony, is all the way in his bag with this one. I laughed and cried. So much so that one of the best reviews I have ever written was for this very book last year. I described it thus: “The book is an excellent, insightful, and surprisingly vulnerable read.”
An absolute essential read for anyone looking to learn the story of Zimbabwean hip-hop, 80s Zimbabwe, and the story of a man.
- Tuku Backstage by Shepherd Mutamba & David Mungoshi (2015.)
“TUKU BACKSTAGE is the first and tell-all biography of the international music superstar, Oliver Mtukudzi aka Tuku. The book’ first published in 2015, knits together all the intricate details of Tuku's creative processes of his extraordinary music that captured fans across the world and got them hooked like opium, since the 1970s. Most importantly TUKU BACKSTAGE humanizes the music deity and exposes his dark side, deflected from public scrutiny by the sheer razzmatazz of showbiz, until only four years before he died in 2019, when the explosive book arrived.”
First book on the list that I haven’t read; so I’m not entirely certain, and I personally find descriptions of the book “explosive” (as part of its direct intro) to be a bit over the top. Furthermore, the ‘praise’ includes The Standard saying “the book attracted attention not only because of its subject but its focus: the unflattering aspects of Oliver Mtukudzi’s life…” and similar comments. (It’s also a self-published effort, complete with a tukubackstage@yahoo.com email address; so, you know…do with that as you will.)
Because Tuku is the GOAT; and the book was written by a couple of Zimbos; I may give it a shot. It seems to revel in the scandalous like a tabloid though; and that’s not personally my taste in literature. Somebody I spoke who’s in the know seemed to suggest that it was “It’s sensational written by a person, an ex-worker, who was upset at Tuku.”So, you know, read it with your nuance hat on.
(For an alternative reading of Tuku’s legacy, consider Robert Mukondiwa’s 2022 book Oliver Mtukudzi And Me: A Life In Song And Media.)
Women Musicians of Zimbabwe 1930s - 2013: A Celebration of Women's Struggle for Voice and Artistic Expression - Joyce Jenje Makwenda
“...Through music, women were able to put themselves at the centre-stage of their communities. They were an integral part of the structures of the society and they found it easier to use music as a communication tool. Women Musicians of Zimbabwe explores the role played by women in the development of music genres in Zimbabwe and to explore why there are very few women musicians in Zimbabwe compared to men.”
First off, as I’m writing this, FB is telling me it is Joyce Jenje Makwenda’s birthday today (March 24); happy birthday queen!I haven’t read this one, admittedly. But I have engaged with enough of her work to know she’s thorough: an argument could be made that she’s the torchbearer of Zimbabwean music literature. And indeed, the Zimbabwean music industry (like others, but more prominently so) has been heavily tilted in the favor of men that, with the exception of gospel music (perhaps) and mbira (Mbuya Stella, Chiwoniso, Hope Masike are mainstays there), you could ask 20 people for the Mount Rushmores of different genres and get perhaps one or two women mentioned by anyone. So this is important reading.
- Zimbabwe Township Music - Joyce Jenje Makwenda (2005.)
“Zimbabwe Township Music is a celebration of age-old popular music, which was evolved by the early urban settlers as far back as the 1930's. Urban culture in those days was a product of mixed traditional, contemporary and Western influences, which all moulded into the unique township music. It is therefore the musical off-spring and melodic fusion of several tribal and cultural urban settlers in the early Black townships...Township Music often became a symbol of identity and dissent in the Black townships, which did not go so well with the authorities of the day.”
Breaking my one-book-per-author rule here; because the queen deserves that. This books deserves that. Covering the same timespan as Turino, Jenje-Makwenda’s homegrown sensibilities are on full-show here as well; and there is something to be said for hearing the same story from a couple vantage points- as the Gospels would concur.
- African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe (African Expressive Cultures - Mhoze Chikowero(2015) *
"In this new history of music in Zimbabwe, Mhoze Chikowero deftly uses African sources to interrogate the copious colonial archive, reading it as a confessional voice along and against the grain to write a complex history of music, colonialism, and African self-liberation. Chikowero's book begins in the 1890s with missionary crusades against African performative cultures and African students being inducted into mission bands, which contextualize the music of segregated urban and mining company dance halls in the 1930s, and he builds genealogies of the Chimurenga music later popularized by guerrilla artists…Chikowero shows how Africans deployed their music and indigenous knowledge systems to fight for their freedom from British colonial domination and to assert their cultural sovereignty.”
This is a fantastic read. Absolutely.I’ve broken bread with Mhoze; so I may be biased. But if the Chimurenga is an important part of our national lore; and music is the soundtrack; then their marriage in this book is a marvel to withhold.
8) Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe- Banning Eyre (2015)*
“Like Fela Kuti and Bob Marley, singer, composer, and bandleader Thomas Mapfumo and his music came to represent his native country's anticolonial struggle and cultural identity. Mapfumo was born in 1945 in what was then the British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The trajectory of his career—from early performances of rock 'n' roll tunes to later creating a new genre based on traditional Zimbabwean music, including the sacred mbira, and African and Western pop—is a metaphor for Zimbabwe's evolution from colony to independent nation. Lion Songs is an authoritative biography of Mapfumo that narrates the life and career of this creative, complex, and iconic figure.”
Easily the most renowned book on this list. While that may be partly structural, given Eyre’s profile as an American (New Yorker), Peabody-award winning radio producer and ethnomusicologist, the biography is also just brilliant. It makes you lament that not every one of our icons’ legacies have received close to half this treatment. We have work to do.
- Curating Bulawayo's Music Space: Conversations over Coffee- Trevor Mawaka (2024.)
“Mawaka’s book serves not only as a documentation of Bulawayo’s musical heritage but also as a call to action for artists and musicians to collaborate and uplift one Another.” - The Chronicle (Oct. 9, 2024.)
As ever, a timely reminder that it’s bigger than Harare/Shona-speaking Zimbabwe. Not only has the second city offered up many iconic musicians, it allows the nation to tap into the broader regional Nguni music traditions that aren’t intuitively incorporated in the sounds of other ethnic groups. Mawaka himself, an art teacher by profession, has done and continues to do amazing work with the kids and music in Bulawayo.
(Full disclosure; I haven’t actually read this one; and that’s with reason. After using my expression of interest in the book as part of the marketing, then hounding me to honor my expressed interest for $20, bro then…ghosted me after a few “I’ll get it to you” convos. Haven’t heard from him in the past 15 months. Sure, $20 is $20- but it’s the principle. A shame too; as I had fully planned to purchase half a dozen or so copies for libraries away from Blues in my tiny attempt to bridge that ethnic divide. Who knows; maybe he’ll get it to me one day.)
- Urban Grooves: Performing Resistance in Zimbabwe's Urban Music by Wonderful Bere (2008) *+
“There are two broad categories of hip hop music in Zimbabwe defined by closeness to American hip hop and level of distribution in Zimbabwe. The author defines these broad categories as urban grooves and underground hip hop. Urban grooves is what I call Zimbabwean hip hop; it is a localized version of hip hop that Zimbabweans have developed from American hip hop and Jamaican dancehall, mediated by the people’s local peculiarities such has language and cultural sensibilities… The underground hip hop is, in fact, American hip hop in Zimbabwe, rendered predominantly in the English language oftentimes with fake American accents, although there is a rising use of local languages which, however, are expressed with American sensibilities…. For the majority of Zimbabwean hip hop artists... politics is something they pretend to shun and only express, knowingly or unknowingly, using ambivalent lyrics and dissonant sound, thereby making urban grooves a deceptive genre.”
This is the book version of a 2007 dissertation, defended at New York University. As far as I can tell, it is the only complete dissertation done on Urban Grooves, and it is off the strength of that it makes this list. And maybe because it was published before the heyday of the subculture ended, its descriptions of Urban Grooves here are terrible. Urban Grooves does not and have never equated to Zimbabwean Hip-hop, even as the latter has been an integral part of the former. And to describe, categorically urban grooves as a “deceptive genre?” Please. The Americo-centric disdain for the genre pulses.I engage quite a bit with this work in my research,and Urban Grooves is among the top five loves of my life, so with all due respect to Dr. Bere, this reads like... If the term "Urban Grooves' was coined in 2002, and the writing part of a PhD takes a conservative 2-3 years, this means, as a named cultural moment, Urban Grooves was only two years old- or five years old with a more generous definition...this reads like a work ridden with all the gaps expected of a work written in pre-social media New York about a culture that was in its virtual infance across the world.
Take that as you will.
(Quick honorable mentions: Prof. Fred Zindi's 1985 Roots Rocking in Zimbabwe is a seminal work with a legendary accompanying compilation album but is very elusive; Robert Mukondiwa's Tuku and Me was mentioned above (I just didn't wanna have two Tuku books listed separately on a list of ten, for fear of hagiography), folks like Pastor G have written autobiographies- but on a "hit me up for a copy" basis; Hope Masike publishes her poetry that often lives on wax over mbira instrumentation. And I would be remiss if I didn't shout my personal initiative, the ZimDancehall Diary/Planner (2026), which is worth checking out for the low low $10 #notpaidenoughoverhereyet ;) )
Again, this is a starter kit. Let's continue to build on it. What are some of your favorites? What did I miss? (Also, it is worth mentioning here that books aren't the only source of documentation; just what I focused on here. But no shade to the newspaper articles, bloggers, and, of late, video/oral interviews with relevant entities, such as the work being done by SoProfound, are treasure troves as well. Respect.)
