Did you know that the popular style of music from the Shona people of Zimbabwe developed by Thomas Mapfumo in the 1980s. It is based on the sound of the mbira. Chumurenga means “liberation struggle music.”

The mbira is a thumb piano known as kalimba or sanza in other African countries. The mbira was traditionally played by men although currently there are also well known female performers.

Imbube – In the 1960s and 1970s Zimbabwe, then known by the colonial name Rhodesia, saw the birth of a new musical a capella genre called Imbube, comprising of males voices. The genre itself had originated from mines in neighboring South Africa where most Zimbabweans crossed to work.

At the mines, the miners composed and sang their own songs so as to drown their loneliness and entertain themselves. Without any accompanying music instruments, their voices composed rhythmic tunes that vibrated throughout the mines as they worked. In social gatherings Imbube became the main source of entertainment for the tired laborers who worked long hours in dangerous underground mines.

While most of the Imbube songs composed by the miners were happy compositions, some stood up for social justice and acted as a voice for the workers. With Imbube songs came some dancing, the gumboots dance in which the men stamped their feet on the ground in a stamping dance sequence. When the miners broke-off for the festive season each going to spend time with family and friends they sang Imbube songs to delighted audiences.

South Africa borders Zimbabwe in the south in the Matebeleland region which is dominated by Ndebele speaking people. So the influence of Imbube music concentrated in Matebeleland, as men there could easily cross into South Africa.