African Music Live - A Few Recommendations

A 2013 performance by Thomas Mapfumo and highlights from a Dutch African music festival.

If you make it to the Netherlands some summer, it might be worth checking out Afrika Festival Hertme, an annual two-day event that takes place in the Dutch village of Hertme. If you're like me and you don't see yourself headed to that part of the world any time soon, you can watch highlights on YouTube, going all the way back to 2014. It's the next best thing to being there, as the old saying goes. The festival got started in 1989 and took a break for two years recently, due to Covid-19. They've been back in action since 2022. All videos are high-quality. No shaky phone cam videos here.

One of the great elder statesmen of Zimbabwean music, Mapfumo is credited with coming up with a style of music known as Chimurenga. It merged traditional music of Zimbabwe with Western sounds and reflected the struggles of Zimbabwe, first as the British colony known as Rhodesia and later under the rule of dictator, Robert Mugabe. Mapfumo and his band play a typically relaxed 45-minute set at the 2013 incarnation of the Field Day music festival, in London. More excellent production values here, this time courtesy of Festivo TV.