Singing Shona

In this chapter, Mapfumo moves to the capital city—then Salisbury, now Harare—to join the family of his mother, step-father, and step-siblings. In the context of simmering nationalist rebellion, teenaged Mapfumo becomes a singer, at first covering rock ’n’ roll hits with a series of local bands. The chapter juxtaposes the worsening situation in the 1960s and early ’70s as the nationalist struggle turns increasingly violent. Mapfumo sings his first songs in Shona. When he moves to the Mhangura mine to sing and drum with the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, he and guitarist Joshua Dube begin to experiment with adapting mbira music for rock band instrumentation.