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Riddim twin: ‘I am Robbie Shakespeare, the other half of Sly Dunbar,’ the bassist told GM from Evenstad Music on YouTube. Photo: David Corio/Redferns
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Robbie Shakespeare: A manipulator of space and sound

A master of a sparse, propulsive style, Robbie Shakespeare’s bass spoke volumes

UNITED KINGDOM – JUNE 18:  GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL  Photo of Robbie SHAKESPEARE and SLY & ROBBIE, Robbie Shakespeare backstage at the festival  (Photo by David Corio/Redferns)
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Robbie Shakespeare: A silence louder than a bomb

A master of feel, Robbie Shakespeare’s bass spoke through the silence

Black radical tradition: Koketso Potsane runs a mobile bookstore called Black Ark. Photo: Andy Mkosi

The Portfolio: The Black Ark keeps moving

Popping up everywhere that radical pan-African content is on offer, the Black Ark comes equipped with a library of material, ranging from books to vinyls and posters

Sunny Ade’s Festac ’77 constitutes one of the many albums celebrating the festival

Reproducing Festac ’77: A secret among a family of millions

An interview with Chimurenga founder Ntone Edjabe about his latest project

Although Wadada Leo Smith’s music was, in the words of American critic Adam Shatz, “less encumbered by traditional song forms”, it evoked a “pastoral modernism: spacious, serene, and in no hurry to reach its destination”. (Tom Beetz)
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Bridging the black Atlantic in jazz

The collaboration between Thomas Mapfumo and Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, broke new ground and should have grown cult status

Power: Mbuya Nehanda, the medium for the oracle Nyamhika Nehanda who was the symbol for the revolt against British South Africa Company’s colonisation of Zimbabwe, stands tall before being hanged

Seeking the real Chimurenga

The author unravels a history of Zimbabwe that’s been twisted for centuries and continues today

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

On our Lists this week: Freshwater, Chimurenga, Darkie Fiction and Diana Vreeland

In between working on Friday copy, this is what the team reads, listens to and watches

While Thomas Mapfumo’s music also evokes a pastoral modernism, there is a paradoxical aesthetic at once bound by and yet rebellious to traditional song forms (Oupa Nkosi)

Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo’s insightful new biography

A new book probes the life and times of Thomas Mapfumo, Zimbabwe’s hailed chimurenga music pioneer.

Seeking difference: Chimurenga founder Ntone Edjabe chose Cape Town for its distance from Lagos

Chimurenga finds its true south

The magazine and its news offshoot were ­nurtured in a climate of ­alienation in Cape Town.

Chronic: A late-colonial enkwayary

Chronic ranges across the post-colonial world, exposing multiple contradictions and a bewildering range of trajectories across this landscape.

Out of the blues

A concert on Friday evening pays tribute to one of South Africa’s most innovative jazz groups ever.

Street focus becomes Chronic

Street focus becomes Chronic

Literary magazine <i>Chimurenga</i>’s first newspaper will retell the xenophobia story from the inside.

Hauntingly
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Hauntingly, quintessentially chimurenga

For four decades Thomas Mapfumo has been at the heart of the ­evolution of a music style that put Zimbabwean sounds on the map.

Brief union sealed by fate

Brief union sealed by fate

Chance brings two of Zimbabwe’s leading musicians, Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo, together to share their thoughts and feelings

Storming the enclave

<i>Chimurenga</i> is bringing musos from all over Africa to Cape Town for a month-long series of activities with music at its centre.

Let’s change the subject

The founders of Chimurenga have recategorised Cape Town Central Library, writes Matthew Krouse.

Displacing time and place

Gwen Ansell reviews The Palgrave History of Science Fiction by Adam Roberts andChimurenga 12 &13: Dr Satan’s Echo Chamber.