Analog Africa – ‘Roots Rocking Zimbabwe’ album review: Delving deep into the world of Zimbabwean rock

Name: Various Artists - Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound of Harare Townships 1975-1980
Rating: 4

Ben Forrest

Thu 1 May 2025 16:42, UK

Various Artists - 'Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound of Harare' Townships 1975-1980'

A vast and ever-diversifying continent, Africa has produced an unimaginable wealth of groundbreaking, inventive, and far too often overlooked music that has since spread throughout the world. Playing host to thousands of distinct sounds and subgenres, the niche and grassroots nature of many of these African music scenes often means that it is easy for them to be lost to obscurity, particularly for listeners hailing from outside the continent. However, this fact also means that the record stores of Africa are ripe for crate-digging discoveries, which is essentially the manifesto of the long-running Analog Africa series of releases.

On their latest release, Roots Rocking Zimbabwe, Samy Ben Redjeb’s compilation project shines a light on the forgotten and overlooked anthems of Zimbabwe’s rock movement from the mid-to-late 1970s. Featuring compelling tracks by Oliver Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo, and The Green Arrows, among various others, the compilation sees the traditional folk sounds of the South African nation blended with the vibrancy of Harare and the increasing prevalence of Western rock, funk, and soul from that period.

Some of the 25 tracks included on the double-LP compilation clearly draw from the influences of American rock, soul, and R&B, with the likes of Otis Redding evoked on songs like New Tutenkhamen’s ‘Joburg Bound, while the Hammond organ riffs of Gypsy Caravan’s ‘Chisituiti’ evoke the sharp coolness of 1960s mod soul-jazz, existing somewhere between Blue Note, Stax, and the northern soul scene.

Meanwhile, other efforts included in the release embrace the Caribbean rhythms of rocksteady and reggae, in something of a full-circle moment. What shines through every single inclusion on this album, however, is the proud cultural history of Zimbabwe.

At the time that these songs were originally recorded, between 1975 and 1980, the nation was undergoing an unparalleled level of social and political change. From 1923 until 1965, the region known in the modern day as Zimbabwe fell under the jurisdiction of Southern Rhodesia and was at the mercy of British colonial rule. Then, in 1965, the white-minority government of the colonial state declared independence as Rhodesia.

Rhodesia, or the Republic of Rhodesia, lasted from 1965 until 1979, and was plagued by instability, unrest, and civil war. Despite declaring unilateral independence from Britain, many Black citizens found that life in Rhodesia was not all that different from life under colonial rule, although the period did spark a growing interest in the cultural history and importance of Zimbabwe. As such, many of the tracks on Roots Rocking Zimbabwe pay homage to the traditional folk styles and heritage of Zimbabwe, in defiance of this new state of Rhodesia.

That being said, the majority of the songs included on the compilation are not overtly political in their content. Instead, they offer a sense of unity and musical euphoria in defiance of the civil war and political unrest which existed as the backdrop to this period in Zimbabwe’s history. Further, these groundbreaking recordings offered a strong, modern cultural identity for art and music as the nation entered an era of true independence from colonialism in 1980, when the state of Zimbabwe was formally established and recognised.

The 25 tracks included on this release speak to the diverse cultural output of Zimbabwe during that turbulent, transitional period in the nation’s history, and they have all been beautifully chronicled and compiled by Analog Africa.

Ultimately, you cannot summarise the entire rock scene of a nation in one album, no matter how expansive it is, but this double album is about as close as you can come to immersing yourself in the infectious sounds of 1970s-era Harare without spending the rest of your years digging through boxes of records in the record stores of Southern Africa. As such, it is a must-listen, both for fans of Zimrock and Afro-funk, but also for anybody who wishes to gain a deeper cultural understanding of Zimbabwe’s artistic identity.