Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewLike Fela Kuti and Bob Marley, singer, composer, and bandleader Thomas Mapfumo and his music came to represent his native country's anticolonial struggle and cultural identity. Mapfumo was born in 1945 in what was then the British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The trajectory of his career-from early performances of rock 'n' roll tunes to later creating a new genre based on traditional Zimbabwean music, including the sacred mbira, and African and Western pop-is a metaphor for Zimbabwe's evolution from colony to independent nation. Lion Songs is an authoritative biography of Mapfumo that narrates the life and career of this creative, complex, and iconic figure. Banning Eyre ties the arc of Mapfumo's career to the history of Zimbabwe. The genre Mapfumo created in the 1970s called chimurenga, or ""struggle"" music, challenged the Rhodesian government-which banned his music and jailed him-and became important to Zimbabwe achieving independence in 1980. In the 1980s and 1990s Mapfumo's international profile grew along with his opposition to Robert Mugabe's dictatorship. Mugabe had been a hero of the revolution, but Mapfumo's criticism of his regime led authorities and loyalists to turn on the singer with threats and intimidation. Beginning in 2000, Mapfumo and key band and family members left Zimbabwe. Many of them, including Mapfumo, now reside in Eugene, Oregon. A labor of love, Lion Songs is the product of a twenty-five-year friendship and professional relationship between Eyre and Mapfumo that demonstrates Mapfumo's musical and political importance to his nation, its freedom struggle, and its culture. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Banning EyrePublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.680kg ISBN: 9780822359081ISBN 10: 0822359081 Pages: 416 Publication Date: 22 May 2015 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsPreamble: Chimurenga Nights 1 I. Rhodesia 1. England Is the Chameleon , and I the Fly 13 2. Singing Shona 28 3. When the Spirit Comes 50 4. Songs for the Book of History 67 5. Bishop and Pawn 89 6. Agony of Victory 110 II. Zimbabwe 7. Snakes in the Forest 125 8. Corruption 144 9. Big Daddy and the Zimbabwe Playboys 161 10. Sporting Lions 179 11. Too Many Ghosts 200 12. Breaking the Cycle 211 III. America 13. Striking at Empires 231 14. Dancing with Devils 248 15. The Land of the Horses 264 16. Lions in Winter 281 Acknowledgments 295 Notes 297 Selected Discography 337 Bibliography 341 Index of Songs and Albums 345 General Index 349ReviewsIn Lion Songs the reader follows Mapfumo's career as a singer/songwriter and uncompromising social critic through the last gasp of colonialism in Rhodesia, the liberation struggle, and the aftermath of independence. A skilled storyteller, Banning Eyre integrates his perspective on these events with his experiences performing as a guitarist in Mapfumo's bands, deftly interweaving his accounts with the perspectives of Zimbabwean, European, and North American observers and interlocutors. Against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's political history and the global flows of the popular music market, Eyre provides an intimate view of the bands' touring musicians and dancers. He explores their artistic practices, their interpersonal relationships, and the relentless challenges they face in Zimbabwe, Europe, and in America where Mapfumo currently lives in political exile. Lion Songs is also the story of the creative genius of Mapfumo himself, and the moral complexities that surround his life. --Paul Berliner, author of The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe Thomas Mapfumo, the musical Lion of Zimbabwe, has been fortunate in finding Banning Eyre, a worthy Boswell to his Johnson. --Peter Godwin, author of The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe Author InformationBanning Eyre is a freelance writer and guitarist and the senior editor and producer of the public radio program Afropop Worldwide. He is the author of In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali, Playing With Fire: Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music, and Guitar Atlas: Africa, and the coauthor of AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music. Eyre is a contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and his writing has been published in Billboard, Guitar Player, Salon.com, the Boston Phoenix, CMJ, Option, Folk Roots, Global Rhythm, and other publications. He has also performed and recorded with Thomas Mapfumo. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
