Rethinking the notion of chimurenga in the context of political change in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Chimurenga music was popularised by Africans during the struggle for independence in Zimbabwe in the 1970s. Its creators were freedom fighters struggling against colonialism. This music was articulated from guerrilla bases in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, and from some local artists inside Zimbabwe. Chimurenga music protested against the exploitation of Africans by colonialism, and also critiqued the oppression of women within African society. Critics of chimurenga music have given the erroneous impression that the musical genre ended in 1980, and that there was only one version of chimurenga music. After independence, chimurenga music has criticised corruption, bad governance by the new leaders and delays in redistributing land to the African masses. Post-independence Zimbabwean singers with varying levels of political consciousness and employing different linguistic strategies have created different ways of naming reality through alternative versions of chimurenga music. These Zimbabwean male musicians demonstrate that attempts to generate a local discourse of freedom in the era of globalisation and corporate organisations that control the production and distribution of chimurenga music produce not one version of chimurenga music, but multiple versions (and sub/versions) of chimurenga music that confirm, collude, overlap and contradict each other in their ways of naming the post-independence Zimbabwean reality.