Thomas Mapfumo 2: The Mugabe Years
b"In recognition of the end of Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule in Zimbabwe, we are rebroadcasting our program on the career of Thomas Mapfumo during the Mugabe years.\\n\\nPart two of the story of Zimbabwe\\u2019s most consequential singer and bandleader picks up at the dawn of the country\\u2019s independence in 1980. The program focuses on key songs from Thomas Mapfumo\\u2019s vast post-independence catalogue, beginning with his celebration of victory, and his warnings about \\u201cdissidents\\u201d out to destabilize a young nation struggling for unity. The 1988 song \\u201cCorruption\\u201d officially opens Mapfumo\\u2019s rift with the regime of Robert Mugabe, turning a government financial scandal into a pop culture sensation. 1999\\u2019s \\u201cMamvemve\\u201d accuses leaders of betraying the promises of the liberation struggle and reducing a rich country to tatters, and 2003\\u2019s \\u201cMarima Nzara\\u201d takes on the government over Zimbabwe\\u2019s most prolonged and vexing challenge\\u2014reclaiming land stolen from Africans by Rhodesian settlers over a century of colonial rule. In all, this is an amazing saga of a popular singer\\u2019s evolution from enthusiastic booster to caustic critic of a young African government. Zimbabwean historian Mhoze Chikowero contextualizes all these songs with vivid descriptions of the issues and events that Mapfumo\\u2019s work both responded to and shaped. At the time this program was recorded, Afropop producer Banning Eyre had been researching a biography of Mapfumo for more than 15 years, and the broadcast draws upon his, and Afropop\\u2019s, wealth of archival interviews and rare musical recordings, resulting in a persuasive portrait of a brilliant musical innovator and an under-recognized titan of African post-colonial cultural politics.\\n\\nFollow Afropop Worldwide on Facebook at www.facebook.com/afropop, on Instagram @afropopworldwide and on Twitter @afropopww.\\n\\nSubscribe to the Afropop Worldwide newsletter at www.afropop.org/newsletter/\\n\\nProduced by Banning Eyre. \\n\\nAPWW #657\\n\\nDistributed 12/14/2017"