Today we’ll hear a great tune from the 2006 re-issue of music by the 1970s Zimbabwean group, the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band. Thomas Mapfumo, who you must’ve heard before, was a notable member along with guitarist Joshua Hlomayi Dube.

The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band helped permanently change the sound of popular music in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia. Their style, a mix of Western pop-rock with Zimbabwean traditional music, would develop into Mapfumo’s Chimurenga, the sound of the Zimbabwean struggle against apartheid. Though the mbira didn’t make it into the music until later, the staccato guitar and vocals emulated its sound. And they sung in Shona – a language generally opposed by the ruling white government at the time.

Several amusing legends surround the band. First, that they were founded in 1974 to amuse illiterate Malawi copper miners. (Not so true.) Second, that their saxophonist, Robson Boora, was struck by lightning. (Most likely true.)

The song I picked for today’s post, Kare Nanhasi, is about the rising price of commodities on the Zimbabwean market. This theme is as appropriate now as it was then – a corrupt and inefficient Zimbabwean government that let inflation rise to incredible levels. It’s worth noting that Mapfumo opposes the current Mugabe administration as much as he once opposed Smith’s apartheid government. He currently lives in Oregon, USA, in self-imposed exile.

You can grab it over at emusic. The Afrofrunk Music Forum and Candied Pop also have good posts about the album.

Hallelujah Chicken Run Band – Kare Nanhasi