BANNING EYRE
LION SONGS: THOMAS MAPFUMO & THE MUSIC THAT MADE ZIMBABWE (Duke University Press)

The story of Zimbabwe is a fascinating (though sometimes depressingly familiar) one. The "Valley of Dry Bones" that was Rhodesia, lorded over by Ian Smith, a white demagogue, gave way during the battle for independence to become the now-crippled country of Zimbabwe, with its equally despotic and loathsome dictator Robert Mugabe clinging to the helm with his dead hands. For outsiders to understand this predicament requires some deep reading, but a great way to see the transition of an African country from colonialism to its place still teetering on the brink of independence, is through the eyes of one of its beloved native sons, Thomas Mapfumo, a popular musician. Banning Eyre has written an eminently readable biography of the artist, aided by Mapfumo himself who has given extensive interviews for the work. We also acquire an understanding of the music that was known as "Chimurenga" during the freedom struggle. While Mapfumo never became the next Bob Marley (as I predicted he would in the late 1980s), his message had a big impact at home, although he was forced to live in exile. He dabbled with reggae and English lyrics but, once in exile, fell into replicating his earlier tunes endlessly and lost the market. Eyre dips in and out of history and personal anecdote to keep his narrative lively. He interviewed scores of people who still remember the struggles of the seventies, when Mapfumo's music was used by the rebels as a weapon, and charts the disillusion when Mugabe locked down the resources in order to loot the treasury and favor his cronies. As Obama says, these African leaders have wealth, so why don't they retire gracefully? Nigeria just had its first democratic transition of power, but there are too many other leaders who become entrenched and resist the calls for change. For the musician the struggle was different, but also familiar: looking for direction led to going off in many false starts, like wearing white bell-bottoms and singing Commodores covers. But Mapfumo clicked: he discovered the rhythms of the ritual music played on the mbira, which he had heard as a boy in his grandfather's compound in the bush, transposed to the electric guitar, created the right kind of vehicle for trance as well as a bed for his lyrics, which grew increasingly bold and forthright in criticism of the status quo. But Mapfumo backed the wrong horse: he was an ally of Bishop Muzorewa and when Mugabe seized power, his agents brought Zexie and his Green Arrows to the fore and tried to discredit the Blacks Unlimited. Dangerous times to be singing of equal rights and justice. Muzorewa predicted that ZANU would suppress democracy the minute they got control and that is what they did. Consequently Mapfumo spent the latter part of his career in exile. Without lapsing into academic pedantry or preaching, Eyre provides a balanced and informative chunk of music history that will endure as we fill in our knowledge of the great continent's musical emergence.