Lion Songs
Thomas Mapfumo

We say: The essential soundtrack of the Zimbabwean struggle.

Thomas Mapfumo — The Lion of Zimbabwe — has been making music since the early 1970s. Always fearlessly outspoken, he was a thorn in the side of the British colonial regime before latterly becoming a vocal critic of the corrupt presidency of Robert Mugabe that still presides today. This lengthy compilation serves as an audio companion to a book — Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe (Duke University Press) — by the musician Banning Eyre, who has assembled this collection of songs interspersed with snatches of commentary by Mapfumo himself.

Mapfumo's musical style is the modern equivalent of traditional mbira music of Zimbabwe's Shona people. Repetitive, fast, and almost trance-like, with riffing guitars, this music has not shifted far from its African roots despite its use of electric instruments. Some of the earlier tracks here like "Ngoma Yarira (The Drums Are Sounding)" and "Pfumvu Pa Ruzevha (Hardship in the Reserves)" are fine examples of the war-era music that Mapfumo put out to inspire the guerrilla fighters in the Zimbabwean bush. Later work, like "Shumba (The Lion)," pauses to celebrate Zimbabwe's independence in1980 before going on to condemn Mugabe's flawed regime with the unambiguous "Corruption" of 1987, which is sung in English.

Politics aside, this is stirring stuff, and even without understanding a word of the politically orientated lyrics, the revolutionary message of the songs comes across loud and clear. Just listen to the passion and urgency of "Nyoka Musango (Snake in the Forest)" to get the idea.