Chimurenga

Chimurenga is the Shona protest music of Zimbabwe, created by *Thomas Mapfumo* in the 1970s by transposing the melodies and interlocking patterns of the mbira thumb piano onto electric guitars. Named for the chimurenga liberation wars against white minority rule, its songs carried coded messages of resistance past colonial censors, sung in Shona over hypnotic, cycling guitar lines and traditional percussion. Mapfumo's band the *Blacks Unlimited* defined the sound on albums recorded under harassment and bans during the independence struggle, and after 1980 chimurenga turned its criticism on the new government, remaining Zimbabwe's central popular music.