Murenga
My blogs
Blogs I follow
- ...But I'm Irish
- Certain ideas of Europe
- International Socialist Organisation (ISO) Zimbabwe
- outsidein
| Location | Gweru, Midlands, Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| Introduction | The term chimurenga comes from the name of a legendary Shona ancestor, Murenga Sororenzou. Believed to be a huge man with a head (soro), the size of an elephant’s (renzou), Murenga was well known for his fi ghting spirit and prowess, and legend has it that he composed war-songs to encourage his soldiers to continue the fight against their enemies in pre-colonial Zimbabwe. In the 1970s, African freedom fi ghters in military bases in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia, as well as a number of local Zimbabwean artists struggling for Zimbabwean independence, derived inspiration from Murenga’s fi ghting spirit and creative genius and they composed war songs in a genre they called chimurenga. Exerpt from: Maurice T. VAMBE, VERSIONS AND SUB-VERSIONS: TRENDS IN CHIMURENGA MUSICAL DISCOURSES OF POST INDEPENDENCE ZIMBABWE, African Study Monographs, 25(4): 167-193, December 2004. |